Guild Wars 2

phys.7689:

you sure it takes 4 months though?
lets see… ffxiv anounced june 23 date for their expansion on 3/08

You just described a 3.5 month gap . Sure there’s some vagaries of when info goes out that could lead to ‘more than 3 months, less than 4’, but the point stands people are WAY over anxious when the info WILL be widely available many pay periods in advance.

Heart of Thorns is not sneaking up on anyone, honest.

phys.7689:

Nike.2631:

xev.9476:

Uh, is it a physical box? Did they say? More than a few computer games have opted for purely digital releases, since boxed purchases have been in decline for a decade.

As much as ArenaNet is looking forward to scoring easy money off of all of GW2’s existing devotes, this is a critical opportunity to put the game in front of people who aren’t playing yet… and the #1 way you do that is to take up physical space on a shelf where gamers are browsing.

Many/most of us here will likely buy it digitally… but we’re not the (new) people the boxes are targeting.

ehhh boxes dont work too well for expansions, unless they are packaged with the orginial. Nothing makes someone put down a box quicker(impulse buy) than learning they need to buy something else to get it to work.

…WoW,GW1, FF, and Starcraft say hello.

If it is something people are interested in, they will buy it.
If the price is too much, most likely they aren’t looking for new games in the first place.

xev.9476:

Nike.2631:

Put July out of your mind. HoT is a physical box. That means it needs shelf space. That means retailers will be notified of the release date with precision at least 4 months in advance. They still don’t know, so we know the date is at least 4 months away.

Uh, is it a physical box? Did they say? More than a few computer games have opted for purely digital releases, since boxed purchases have been in decline for a decade.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ
Q: Will this expansion only be available digitally, or will there be a boxed edition as well?

A: Both. Once Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is available, you’ll be able to buy it digitally or get boxed editions at retail stores.

I really think we’re looking at the third anniversary, late August. 2012, Aug 28 was launch, with early access late on Aug 25. It will feel right for that to be the timing this go ’round as well.

OP, looking through your post history you are generally helpful to other players but uniformly pessimistic about anything to do with ANet. Your grey-colored glasses may be affecting your outlook; you certainly seem not to enjoy much of anything having to do with the game and you don’t seem to think it will ever get better. I hope something in your life is just plain fun for you, because clearly this game isn’t helping you enjoy your time.

Solori.6025:

phys.7689:

Nike.2631:

xev.9476:

Uh, is it a physical box? Did they say? More than a few computer games have opted for purely digital releases, since boxed purchases have been in decline for a decade.

As much as ArenaNet is looking forward to scoring easy money off of all of GW2’s existing devotes, this is a critical opportunity to put the game in front of people who aren’t playing yet… and the #1 way you do that is to take up physical space on a shelf where gamers are browsing.

Many/most of us here will likely buy it digitally… but we’re not the (new) people the boxes are targeting.

ehhh boxes dont work too well for expansions, unless they are packaged with the orginial. Nothing makes someone put down a box quicker(impulse buy) than learning they need to buy something else to get it to work.

…WoW,GW1, FF, and Starcraft say hello.

If it is something people are interested in, they will buy it.
If the price is too much, most likely they aren’t looking for new games in the first place.

Im not saying people dont buy boxed expansions, im saying i dont think they impulse buy them very often UNLESS they give you a game you can play without buying another box.

The way there hyping it up as if it where coming with in several weeks, which is NOT the case. I feel around August which could go well with the games 3 year anniversary.

However there promo campaign is….odd…to say the least.

I’ve been part of some big software companies that haven’t had any development and marketing methodologies whatsoever and from the outside looking in, it appears that ANet is falling in that boat.

JUN YANG.4328:

by checking at anet snail process. if we lucky may get Hot at the end of this year or early 2016

April now already. start testing pvp strong hold.

still no news for new weapon. no news for new map detail. no news for extra weapon for each class. etc

and still have few more beta to run. and few more month wait after everything ready. maybe release on 2016.

If you don’t even know that they have confirmed no new weapons and explained that the spears in the trailer were JUST an artistic decision made by the cinematic team, you haven’t read up on even the slightest bit of HoT news.

So why are you complaining about not having enough info about the game if you haven’t even bothered to read up on some of the first basic information we learned about the game?

There’s been news on ALL the topics you said there’s “still no news on”.

You come in here complaining and full of grump for no good reason. You could’ve been civil and just made a thread asking about all that stuff you thought there was “still no news on”.

Don’t complain about HoT when you hardly care about it enough to do some basic reading up on.

i am not a hardcore player. i wont put every news in mind. however, when ever they
annonce expansion trailers thats what they should start to work on with and that the time count down

everything i have seen in their trailder and base on what they are working at the moment. to me its a snail.

Mo Mo.1947:

JUN YANG.4328:

by checking at anet snail process. if we lucky may get Hot at the end of this year or early 2016

April now already. start testing pvp strong hold.

still no news for new weapon. no news for new map detail. no news for extra weapon for each class. etc

and still have few more beta to run. and few more month wait after everything ready. maybe release on 2016.

If you don’t even know that they have confirmed no new weapons and explained that the spears in the trailer were JUST an artistic decision made by the cinematic team, you haven’t read up on even the slightest bit of HoT news.

So why are you complaining about not having enough info about the game if you haven’t even bothered to read up on some of the first basic information we learned about the game?

There’s been news on ALL the topics you said there’s “still no news on”.

You come in here complaining and full of grump for no good reason. You could’ve been civil and just made a thread asking about all that stuff you thought there was “still no news on”.

Don’t complain about HoT when you hardly care about it enough to do some basic reading up on.

ArenaNet is a company. Companies are owned by investment groups and millionaires and billionaires who demand results from the staff. They have a plan and know what they’re doing with releasing info.

They could’ve easily delayed the announcement and not told us about HoT, but they chose to based on proven marketing strategies and also based on their own estimated timeline.

There’s no way to tell how far along they are. But there are many reasons to not reveal all information right away. One is marketing, and other is because they’ll be hammering out fine details that may change up until the final stages of development. Announcing something only to change it later would upset and/or confuse people.

The release date for Guild Wars 2 was announced only 2 months before it launched. It was quite a surprise to me. Their “when it’s ready” approach has been consistent through the years and there’s really no way to clearly tell how soon it will be.

It’ll probably come sooner than you plan and catch you off guard. That’s what the initial release did to all of us.

We can narrow down the release window using the information provided:

1. They said each specialization will get a full week devoted to it. We have seen 0, so the release is a minimum of 8 weeks away.

2. We know of at least 2 more blog posts related to legendary weapons are coming, so add another week minimum.

3. We know they plan on doing many beta tests which will need to include the specializations. They obviously won’t do these until they officially announce the specializations so they will have to come after the 8 weeks of announcements. Beta tests usually run for an absolute minimum of 4 weeks, so we can add another 4 weeks onto the time.

4. They will need at least a month before release to announce the release date. This can fall during any of the other information so it unfortunately doesn’t help us.

At an absolute minimum we are looking at 13 weeks until release. This is the minimum and it is 99.9% sure that it will be longer than this, but we can guarantee no release before that.

That puts us at a release of July 21st as the earliest possible release date. The august anniversary is far enough past that date that it seems like a good candidate, but if we miss that release we probably won’t get a launch until the Holiday season when sales can be higher.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

We can narrow down the release window using the information provided:

1. They said each specialization will get a full week devoted to it. We have seen 0, so the release is a minimum of 8 weeks away.

2. We know of at least 2 more blog posts related to legendary weapons are coming, so add another week minimum.

3. We know they plan on doing many beta tests which will need to include the specializations. They obviously won’t do these until they officially announce the specializations so they will have to come after the 8 weeks of announcements. Beta tests usually run for an absolute minimum of 4 weeks, so we can add another 4 weeks onto the time.

4. They will need at least a month before release to announce the release date. This can fall during any of the other information so it unfortunately doesn’t help us.

At an absolute minimum we are looking at 13 weeks until release. This is the minimum and it is 99.9% sure that it will be longer than this, but we can guarantee no release before that.

That puts us at a release of July 21st as the earliest possible release date. The august anniversary is far enough past that date that it seems like a good candidate, but if we miss that release we probably won’t get a launch until the Holiday season when sales can be higher.

Pretty good deduction. HoT is guaranteed coming out Q3 of NCSOFT. This a July, August or September. Most likely August (beginning or anniversary date at it’s latest). If you look at projected earnings of NCSOFT’s statement for this year they plan to go from making 21 million in Q2 from GW2, to 91 million in Q3 and then down to 53 million in Q4. That big jump guarenteed it is coming from July through September. Now with the 42% drop into Q4 suggests it will not come in July as most copies will be bought in the first 3 months. Of course some will come with the holidays (Q4) as well. A 42% projection drop suggests it will be mid Q3 sometime which puts it in August, and what better time than the anniversary date? I would say week 3 August is a good thing to bet on.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

No, the point of the OP is to whine. Just that simple, given that the “whens it going to be released” conversation has been had repeatedly already. He could have simple added to one of those threads.

He wanted to whine in his own thread. If it upsets you, don’t read it.

More to the point, you’re whining about his whining, which made me whine about your whining which without a doubt will make someone else whine about mine, and the circle will go on. You sir are contributing to the great whine by adding another link in the chain and enabled my latent internalized whining to express itself. So stop it, before you bring down the forums.

The guy obviously likes gw2, maybe he grew tired of it, but still loves it, and wants to come here and find other folks and commiserate. Despite what some people would have us believe this isn’t a book club, or a philosophical association were we meet and ponder about the meaning of life in the game, but a forum we use to primarily express our emotions. When we’re happy we come in here and ask who else if bloody excited about this or that, and when we’re not we come here seeking fellows to commiserate. Let the man be.

Also, more to the point, if this game comes out on august i’ll be very surprised. If you guys read the interview about the frogs on massively op (very nice and lore rich btw), we’ll get info on how the new frog variants fight, move etc etc. If that’s not info stretching I don’t know what is. December 2015 sounds more reasonable. Go roll an alt, play pillars of eternity, gta V, something or another, it’s spring so maybe go catch some sun. It’s not coming any time soon and i do have this feeling that guild info and spec info will be the last ones we get.

How can you say that after what I just posted? Do you have any idea what happens if they release out of Q3 and completely botch their 91 million projected. They have investors, that must keep happy. The game will be released in August. If they even wait until September, getting close to that 91 million would be impossible. Maybe the 1st week in Sept they could push it, but that is risking to much. The investors in their company are far more important than anything else. The stakeholders are all that matter. They will release it even if they think it isn’t ready, otherwise they will loose a metric ton of money from the stakeholders.

Puppet.8139:

How can you say that after what I just posted? Do you have any idea what happens if they release out of Q3 and completely botch their 91 million projected. They have investors, that must keep happy. The game will be released in August. If they even wait until September, getting close to that 91 million would be impossible. Maybe the 1st week in Sept they could push it, but that is risking to much. The investors in their company are far more important than anything else. The stakeholders are all that matter. They will release it even if they think it isn’t ready, otherwise they will loose a metric ton of money from the stakeholders.

Trust me when I say that I’ll be very very happy to get it on august. I just don’t see it happening. And investors may be important, but a botched launch, even an expansion one, can scar a game for life. It can potentially destroy the game. August is just 4 months away. I don’t thing they’ll have to time to post the info, do the beta tests, revisit the game after the beta feedback and then launch. I just don’t… Unless they skip the revisiting part, and start chopping off more than the full legendary collection out of the expansion. That, I can see happening.

Keep it on topic, guys.

We are on topic…..the topic is when the game will be released and that is EXACTLY what we are talking about…