Guild Wars 2

The email I got from ArenaNet tells me that “The Ultimate edition will not be available as an upgrade and must be purchased as a full game package”.

It doesn’t say that about either Standard or Deluxe. Does that mean some time in the future we will be able to purchase Standard HoT and Deluxe HoT at a reduced price as an upgrade to our basic GW2 account?

No way to be sure about that. Though basing off the offer of upgrading to Digital Deluxe if you have the standard game available via gems, I think having an upgrade to the expansion that way is possible but it might take a year from release to actually see that being offered.

The purpose is to make it clear that gems, the only bonus over deluxe version, will never be offered at half price unless it’s part of the whole bundle. The deluxe version could be a future gem store item like how it is with the deluxe version of the core game but half price gems, never ever, ever will be offered separately.