Guild Wars 2

I just want to make sure I’m not missing it. Is there a way to buy an upgrade from a core account to a HoT account without paying the full price that someone who hasn’t already purchased the previous release would pay?

It would make sense since if you’ve purchased the previous release you’ve already paid for a large portion of content that someone without an existing account hasn’t paid for yet.

Either way I’ll end up upgrading. I just want to make sure I’m not paying extra.

Not at the moment, no.

If you upgrade (preorder) from an existing account before release, you do get an extra character slot, though. This is in addition to the extra character slot at the $75 and $100 levels.

No.
The price would be the same -according to Anet- whether it contained the core game or not.
Veteran players get an extra character slot.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

We want to be clear about our business model for future expansions now that we are approaching our first paid expansion for Guild Wars 2. We believe that to keep the game dynamic and vibrant with a constantly growing community, it should be as easy as possible for new players to get into Guild Wars 2. For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.

Thanks for the info

Behellagh.1468:

In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.

That’s interesting. So they’re basically saying that once a new expansion is released everything before that expansion is free. What you’re paying for is the new content.

That business model probably has something to do with why they’re offering free accounts now.

Play core game for free and if you want to upgrade you will get everything for one “low” price.

And the timing for F2P aligned with the ship date announcement of HoT. So the F2P crowd knows when the expansion comes out for real.

Also the include of the core game for pre-purchase is why would a new player buy an expansion ahead of time without being able to play the current game?