Guild Wars 2

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

thiago.5608:

How much we will have to wait for a release date? Its taking too long, right ?

What are the alternatives?

• They release HoT early, without playtesting.
• They release HoT even earlier, without doing any QA.
• They release HoT early, by removing features.

In that context, no, it’s not taking “too long” — it’s taking just the right amount of time.

And when they release they’d better have an extremely good vertical progression through the very few maps within HoT x-pac (this is the impression they passed)

Guizao.4167:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

thiago.5608:

How much we will have to wait for a release date? Its taking too long, right ?

What are the alternatives?

• They release HoT early, without playtesting.
• They release HoT even earlier, without doing any QA.
• They release HoT early, by removing features.

In that context, no, it’s not taking “too long” — it’s taking just the right amount of time.

And when they release they’d better have an extremely good vertical progression through the very few maps within HoT x-pac (this is the impression they passed)

They have not announced how many maps will be released. How can you say there will be “very few maps?”

Just keep farming and prepare for any and everything that might happen on release day. Its going to be huge and crazy so you’ll want to be ready!

I’m pretty sure the work goes neither faster — nor slower — when the natives get restless.

The options are do it well a bit later or rush it. Rushing it has buried far more launches that doing it well a bit later has.

I’d much rather they take their time in getting it right with as few issues as possible. The basic structure and primary features appear to be set in stone, so it’s safe to say they won’t be adding anything more into the game from this point on that’s new or revolutionary. All the extra time between now and release date is figuring out where to go with the specializations and tweaking the map rewards and guild activities as well as whatever they’ve got in store for “challenging group content” and making sure they hit all the checkmarks. Doing everything that’s needed to get it right the first time.

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit. Its interesting to me to realise we have no idea how much content we actually have to explore and no release date at the same time.

Regardless of that, here’s what I think about the OP;

Id rather pay 50 dollars for a product worth 50 dollars at a later date than paying 50 dollars now for something that just isnt worth it.

There’s going to be bugs and other problems regardless of how long it takes or how many beta tests they have.

Expect it to come out at the very end of this year or Q1 next year, and that’s with positive realistic thinking. And think it wont have all that much content or many maps, its just season 3 done differently like 1 and 2 after all. Like they said its more about the mechanical part of playing the game aka events, character progression and the new elite playstyle

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit.

Which raises the question “pushed back from what?” People just assume they are/were aiming for the anniversary, and yet it’s been obvious for a while now that’s not gonna happen simply because there’s a certain amount of lead time between announcement and delivery.

And if the date is slipping compared to their internal expectations, you can bet they are dang glad to have not given a public date yet.

Phy.2913:

There’s going to be bugs and other problems regardless of how long it takes or how many beta tests they have.

Its charming the way you use “bugs” to include the whole range from 2 typoes (bugs being plural after all) to nerdrage inferno levels of cascading crashes.

Yes, there will OF COURSE be “bugs”. There may or may not be a parade of bugs that make you want to put a fist through your monitor, and beta tests can an do have an impact on which end of the spectrum a release will fall… It doesn’t have to be perfect to be better.

The release date won’t be revealed until after the first BWE, unless they don’t actually plan on doing a legitimate beta. The first BWE should be next week for Gamescom, assuming they’ll be offering demos there. The release date would then likely be revealed on the anniversary or at PAX that same week. imo, they’re going to reveal the date early as part of the 3rd year birthday present, then “officially” at PAX.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Id rather pay 50 dollars for a product worth 50 dollars at a later date than paying 50 dollars now for something that just isnt worth it.

ArenaNet isn’t exactly traditional and I highly doubt their expansion will be. It’s not going to be an expansion, it’s going to be an expansion in the format of the living world. Depending on how you want to look at it, they simply added a price tag to the living world concept, but added more meaningful content at the cost of delays.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if HoT only launches with a single main map. The rest of the content that you would expect out of an expansion will end up being gated like the living world. The final product will be the entire west side of the map that is currently hidden; from Divinity’s Reach to Rata Sum.

The living world was always meant to be their own take on an expansion. The problem however was that free content doesn’t sell. People don’t care about some patch a game gets, but chances are they’ll hear about the release of a new game. The solution? Package it as an expansion. You’re not paying $50 for HoT, you’re paying $50 for the next ~2 years of content.

They’ll still probably charge for the living story however, but with a catch. Instead of unlocking it for free based on logging in, it’ll be based on what expansion you started with. Although their new model is to include all prior expansions for free, the living story will not be included, which is how they’ll likely recover that cost.

I don’t do preorders. But this is def on my to buy once out and fully operational list.

I honestly stopped caring. I know that’s a bit critical, but you can only hear “SOON” I’m surprised Anet hasn’t trademarked the kitten thing yet. There are betas for other games coming out starting next month out until about the end if the year. I’m going to play those instead of QQ in the forums.

I understand to an extent the whole “I’d rather have it released later but good then have it released early but terrible” but frankly Arena-net haven’t exactly done alot to help the situation, I’d rather they be honest with us instead of sitting back with PR smiles and saying “soon”, I’m not too kittened off about the release date, since well as you said in theory the longer it takes the better it will be. HOWEVER what I do take massive issue with is the severe lack of beta’s for anything to do with the expansion, first NO I don’t count those glorified server tests in which they randomly selected a players and gave them 2 hours, so that means the only real “beta” we’ve gotten was the revenant weekend, which I enjoyed alot, but frankly that type of thing should be going on every other weekend if they are truly “using beta’s to determine when the expansion will drop” as they love to trumpet and maybe you have tons of patience but here is a newsflash the gaming industry isn’t stopping and waiting for HoT, new games are being pumped out constantly and grabbing peoples attention, it is a simple indisputable FACT that the farther they push back the release date the more sales they will lose, we’ve already seen tons of people on the forums looking to cancel their pre-orders because they are sick of waiting

bottom line, if you can wait that’s just fine, but try to understand that some people aren’t going to wait and they also have a right to feel a little kittened off at arena net right now especially with Arenanet’s dismissive attitude and everyone’s favorite “Soon” being dropped every kittening moment by the dev’s

Anet doesn’t communicate with their player base. I may just be spending too much time in necro forums though..

Xillllix.3485:

They are probably making hardcore dungeons and more stronghold maps as we speak.

Hate to break it to you i doubt we are getting any dungeons considering they fired their dungeon designer a while back. Honestly this game is probably gonna be all open world events with world bosses, the bane of all things i swear.

I already preordered since the first announcement (I know, I’m lame :P). I’m still waiting at the edge of my seat for the thief specialization announcement! I’m predicting the release date will be somewhere in early spring.

Nike.2631:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit.

And if the date is slipping compared to their internal expectations, you can bet they are dang glad to have not given a public date yet.

Exactly why they didnt announce the release date at the same time of initial announcement… They have learnt alot about community backlash in the past 2-3 years and seem to use feedback more than people think. Silence doesnt mean they arnt listening and it seems to be a minority who have prepurchased. The majority (going off in game gossip and forum QQing) seem to be waiting for solid info on the expanse of content…. Again, its interesting that they are tight lipped on stuff like amount of maps, endgame content etc at the same time as keeping the release date under wraps…. I genuinely think we’ll see a release date after the announcement of hardcore content and an idea of landmass has pleased the majority.

Healix.5819:

The release date won’t be revealed until after the first BWE, unless they don’t actually plan on doing a legitimate beta. The first BWE should be next week for Gamescom, assuming they’ll be offering demos there. The release date would then likely be revealed on the anniversary or at PAX that same week. imo, they’re going to reveal the date early as part of the 3rd year birthday present, then “officially” at PAX.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Id rather pay 50 dollars for a product worth 50 dollars at a later date than paying 50 dollars now for something that just isnt worth it.

ArenaNet isn’t exactly traditional and I highly doubt their expansion will be. It’s not going to be an expansion, it’s going to be an expansion in the format of the living world. Depending on how you want to look at it, they simply added a price tag to the living world concept, but added more meaningful content at the cost of delays.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if HoT only launches with a single main map. The rest of the content that you would expect out of an expansion will end up being gated like the living world. The final product will be the entire west side of the map that is currently hidden; from Divinity’s Reach to Rata Sum.

The living world was always meant to be their own take on an expansion. The problem however was that free content doesn’t sell. People don’t care about some patch a game gets, but chances are they’ll hear about the release of a new game. The solution? Package it as an expansion. You’re not paying $50 for HoT, you’re paying $50 for the next ~2 years of content.

They’ll still probably charge for the living story however, but with a catch. Instead of unlocking it for free based on logging in, it’ll be based on what expansion you started with. Although their new model is to include all prior expansions for free, the living story will not be included, which is how they’ll likely recover that cost.

Pure speculation, as is my own.

Logically speaking though, if that was the case id have thought a release date was easier to announce, aslong as blog posts etc covered your points. Something along the lines of a extremely loose update schedule (maybe inciting monthly new maps). The fact is though they haven’t even referred to time gating content at all since living world season 2 ended, which makes me think the expansion is turning into a more traditional expansion. Im not thinking itll be released with the same amount of maps as gw2 core, but i can see them planning to release 3-5 maps straight out the expansions box but since the outcry and QQing, there trying to push it to 10-12 which would make the vast majority of pvers happy to spend 50 dollars. The problem is how rushed those end areas will be, and whether theyll make the same mistake as Orr.

they should have not announced hot until they had been working on it for more than a month! that is why we are waiting so long they worked on hot probably a couple weeks and said expansion coming ! get on board hype train for the next 8-12 months

Thornwolf.9721:

Honestly this game is probably gonna be all open world events with world bosses, the bane of all things i swear.

Very unlikely:

• They hired a Raid Designer and an AI designer a while back.
• Colin has specifically said that while it’s not the challenging group content they’ve mentioned, they want to make the open-world more challenging and that they’ll discuss the challenging group content when they’re ready to.
• They’re introducing a Fractal Mastery track.

It’s not concrete evidence, but it does hint at something other than purely OW content.

It’s just strange to me that they start up so much hype and allow a pre-order, yet have no release date. This seems more like a crowd funded venture than a release by a major studio. WoW doesn’t handle expansions this way, SWTOR doesn’t handle them this way, FF doesn’t handle expansions this way. This is the only major title that I know of that asks for money, puts out teasers, and gives not even an estimated date for release.

Seems to be working, though, cause some players have been dropping money on those pre-orders like crazy.

Star Citizen has raised 85,458,218 and they have no release date.

Prototypemind.4026:

It’s just strange to me that they start up so much hype and allow a pre-order, yet have no release date. This seems more like a crowd funded venture than a release by a major studio. WoW doesn’t handle expansions this way, SWTOR doesn’t handle them this way, FF doesn’t handle expansions this way. This is the only major title that I know of that asks for money, puts out teasers, and gives not even an estimated date for release.

Seems to be working, though, cause some players have been dropping money on those pre-orders like crazy.

Exact same model used for the launch of Guild Wars 2. A million people pre-purchased in the first day, I believe. I don’t find it strange that they keep to their previous MO.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think the recent tinfoil theories about the release date being pushed back because of players expressing concerns over the amount of maps etc has some merit.

The only issue is, how fast can they crank out new maps? And then how much are they willing to push back the release date?
Maybe they could add 1 new map, maybe 2. If they don’t include too much verticality and keep the events fairly straight forward (so now long events chains, not too much dialog / lore etc.).

What I find interesting to consider is the new WoW expansion http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19841681/new-world-of-warcraft-expansion-unveiling-at-gamescom-2015-live-stream-august-6-7-29-2015
Not sure if ANet would reveal anything at gamescom and risk it getting drowned out by WoW excitement.

Sororita.3465:

Anet doesn’t communicate with their player base. I may just be spending too much time in necro forums though..

More accurately ANet does not communicate what they’re planing or working on, until they know it will be released. That is to say, we only ever hear about details when they’re mostly done with whatever they’re detailing.

Thornwolf.9721:

Hate to break it to you i doubt we are getting any dungeons considering they fired their dungeon designer a while back. Honestly this game is probably gonna be all open world events with world bosses, the bane of all things i swear.

But they were looking for a raid designer
http://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/arenanet-are-hiring-a-guild-wars-2-game-designer-for-raid-content

emendez.3705:

they should have not announced hot until they had been working on it for more than a month! that is why we are waiting so long they worked on hot probably a couple weeks and said expansion coming ! get on board hype train for the next 8-12 months

We don’t know how long they’d been working on it, some estimates tend to be a year or less (given that they were working on the Chinese release for well over a year and before that LW S1). For the most part estimates comes down to how long and how many people were working on S1 i.e. how much time and capacity they in theory had to work on expansion content.

Monk Tank.5897:

Star Citizen has raised 85,458,218 and they have no release date.

And apparently some controversy.

Copestetic.5174:

There’s a new thread on Reddit going over GW2’s competitive scene. In it, Josh Davis says “Summer”.

Summer. In the Southern Hemisphere.

I am pretty sure release date will take about 24 hours.

The Witcher 3 was pushed 2 times back: And with good reason, the number of bugs at launch were much lower then expected (for a Skyrim size game). All the fans of the game were happy during and after the anouncement with this decision from CD red projekt.

Why can’t people in mmorpg think similar.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

The Witcher 3 was pushed 2 times back: And with good reason, the number of bugs at launch were much lower then expected (for a Skyrim size game). All the fans of the game were happy during and after the anouncement with this decision from CD red projekt.

Why can’t people in mmorpg think similar.

I would imagine the people chomping at the bit most anxiously are the ones who pre-ordered. I don’t care when the expansion comes out. Whenever it does I’ll take a look see and decide if it’s worth the money or not.

Live Twitch broadcast with Devs announce commitment to release this year!

So, definitely we won’t be waiting until 2016.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/gamescom-2015/

“When it’s ready, 2015”

Linfang.1087:

“When it’s ready, 2015”

+1 lololol

That means November or December huh. If they still have not given a release date that means September or October is out

so release date is 12/31/15 11:59pm then?

I wouldn’t rule out an end-of-year release. However, I’d imagine that there’s considerable expectation from NCSoft and ANet management for a release date designed to maximize Christmas present purchases. Based on that, I’d guess on release before Black Friday.

The first beta weekend for core came in late April to early May. Release was in late August, 3.5 to 4 months later. The first HoT BWE is on early August, so late November represents approximately the same time period between 1st BWE and launch.

If they dont even know that it will come for sure this year, I think we should be prepared for a 2016 release.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I wouldn’t rule out an end-of-year release. However, I’d imagine that there’s considerable expectation from NCSoft and ANet management for a release date designed to maximize Christmas present purchases. Based on that, I’d guess on release before Black Friday.

The first beta weekend for core came in late April to early May. Release was in late August, 3.5 to 4 months later. The first HoT BWE is on early August, so late November represents approximately the same time period between 1st BWE and launch.

I wouldn’t put too much on the date of the beta weekend compared to the date with the core game. There are several reasons for this.
1: core game had a lot new mechanics. HoT is build on existing and proven technologies.
2: core game didn’t had an closed beta as wide as HoT had, that one is allready several months ago now. Most new elements they want to test have allready be tested.
3: no need to do stress tests

Looking at the announcement of this BWE, it seems they just want to see if the improvements work and if so, they are ready to put the date out. I still expect a release before halloween.

Malediktus.9250:

If they dont even know that it will come for sure this year, I think we should be prepared for a 2016 release.

The point is that they have definitely stated, today, that HoT will be released this year. /blinks

Thus, putting to rest speculation that it won’t be released until next year.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Malediktus.9250:

If they dont even know that it will come for sure this year, I think we should be prepared for a 2016 release.

The point is that they have definitely stated, today, that HoT will be released this year. /blinks

Thus, putting to rest speculation that it won’t be released until next year.

Did they say that it WILL be this year, or that they INTEND for it to be this year?

There is a very big difference between the two.

So much for my thinking it might get released earlier. Looks like Christmas 2015….that would make the most sense imo at this point in time.

Palador.2170:

Did they say that it WILL be this year, or that they INTEND for it to be this year?

There is a very big difference between the two.

She said: “It’s definitely coming out this year”
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/9797049 at 35:42

I watched it when they announced this. When the guy first started talking I had my fingers crossed, hoping she was going to say they’ll announce the date on Sunday or something, but alas, it is not ready for that yet!

I also felt a tear form in my eye when the lady with the cool hair said she loves the Roleplay community near the end. <3

mercury ranique.2170:

IndigoSundown.5419:

I wouldn’t rule out an end-of-year release. However, I’d imagine that there’s considerable expectation from NCSoft and ANet management for a release date designed to maximize Christmas present purchases. Based on that, I’d guess on release before Black Friday.

The first beta weekend for core came in late April to early May. Release was in late August, 3.5 to 4 months later. The first HoT BWE is on early August, so late November represents approximately the same time period between 1st BWE and launch.

I wouldn’t put too much on the date of the beta weekend compared to the date with the core game. There are several reasons for this.
1: core game had a lot new mechanics. HoT is build on existing and proven technologies.
2: core game didn’t had an closed beta as wide as HoT had, that one is allready several months ago now. Most new elements they want to test have allready be tested.
3: no need to do stress tests

Looking at the announcement of this BWE, it seems they just want to see if the improvements work and if so, they are ready to put the date out. I still expect a release before halloween.

I’m sure a lot of folks would prefer your guess to mine.

Based on what I have actually seen in video of the new elite specials guild halls new spvp map new wvw maps etc.. Most of the stuff actually looks done and just needs polished bug fixes etc. The one thing thats been worrying me is how much of the hot pve stuff is finished cus I havnt seen much of it. I actually feel like we are not to far off.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

Based on what I have actually seen in video of the new elite specials guild halls new spvp map new wvw maps etc.. Most of the stuff actually looks done and just needs polished bug fixes etc. The one thing thats been worrying me is how much of the hot pve stuff is finished cus I havnt seen much of it. I actually feel like we are not to far off.

We aren’t seeing all of the PvE stuff in the beta just 25% of the first map I’m guessing this is to keep some mystery.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

Based on what I have actually seen in video of the new elite specials guild halls new spvp map new wvw maps etc.. Most of the stuff actually looks done and just needs polished bug fixes etc. The one thing thats been worrying me is how much of the hot pve stuff is finished cus I havnt seen much of it. I actually feel like we are not to far off.

Because they said, commitment to release this year, being picky about words as I am, this implies to me that it’s not soon, as in within a couple of months, but closer to the end of the year since they are committing to release it before the year’s end. That is, without the commitment, it could have been next year before release but they are saying here this is the earliest they possibly can do it.

Don’t worry guys. They will then change this to: " We meant Fiscal Year 2015 Release".

skullmount.1758:

so release date is 12/31/15 11:59pm then?

12/31/15
@11:59:58pm

CodeHavoc.7926:

skullmount.1758:

so release date is 12/31/15 11:59pm then?

12/31/15
@11:59:58pm

Ha ha! I remember these exact same speculation posts for the release of Guild Wars 2. Just a different year(s).

I’m still hoping for a Christmas/Holidays date, but I also sincerely hope they don’t rush anything just to make some unknown deadline.

I’d say it is almost certain there is a Christmas release in the works. Adding the base game to the expansion to get new players streamlines the gift buying process for said players, thus maximising profits. If there is a hard deadline to catch this window, I also expect an extremely buggy release.