Guild Wars 2

Till yesturday i was convinced we’ll be getting HoT at late spring to middle summer, but seeing how revenenant is still in the works (3 trait lines missing, no balancing applied yet) it’s clear to me that they’re far earlier in the works then I expected.

Given there’s at least finishing up the revenant, beta testing of the whole xpac, game balancing and some seeerious debugging, I’m no longer so optymistic about release date. So just gonna sit down, chill out and focus on here and today.

Jon said that they had a lot more finished than they were showing, the 3 trait lines are just what they decided to show at the demo. Also, “finish” could mean tweaking a bunch of numbers on abilities to see what’s op and what isn’t. I would imagine that they get the technical framework out of the way first (hammers moving in and out, “attached” walls, etc), then develop and tweak them. The hard part is already out of the way for them. I don’t expect beta testing to take particularly long either, with it being an expansion rather than the base game.

Well if he said that then that’s a ray of sunshine for me. I sure would hate to wait till next year for it.

They also said that “[their] closed beta is coming super super fast” (51:50 in the vid). I’m sure the expansion is just some tweaks away from release, and the beta will begin soon after EGX Rezzed.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/627401366

What they were showing is a preview to the demo build they are going to show at PAX. Likely there is more done than is shown here, but hey you gotta keep some secrets right?

Expansion will definitely release this year. I know they always say when they’re ready but they do have internal time frames for themselves too. I cannot imagine it coming out next year especially since they’ve said closed beta is coming up real soon after PAX East.

Also as someone else stated, it isn’t a base game they’re releasing but an expansion.

That someone was me;) But seeing revenant still in development made me doubt. But seems i overreacted, good to hear some logical arguments here:)

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Given there’s at least finishing up the revenant, beta testing of the whole xpac, game balancing and some seeerious debugging, I’m no longer so optymistic about release date. So just gonna sit down, chill out and focus on here and today.

The first time we had a playable demo of GW2 in a convention was in Gamescom, in 2010.

The game was released on 2012.

It’s pretty much a joke to say that the expansion will be released very soon because it will be playable on PAX.

The beta test, though, is more likely a sign that the expansion will be released in less time.

The community has always been bad at predicting when GW2 releases will happen (you should have seen the polls trying, and failling miserably, at predicting when the main game would be released). But honestly, I think ArenaNet is desperate to make money, and so they will release the expansion sooner rather than later.

Test.8734:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Given there’s at least finishing up the revenant, beta testing of the whole xpac, game balancing and some seeerious debugging, I’m no longer so optymistic about release date. So just gonna sit down, chill out and focus on here and today.

The first time we had a playable demo of GW2 in a convention was in Gamescom, in 2010.

The game was released on 2012.

It’s pretty much a joke to say that the expansion will be released very soon because it will be playable on PAX.

The beta test, though, is more likely a sign that the expansion will be released in less time.

The community has always been bad at predicting when GW2 releases will happen (you should have seen the polls trying, and failling miserably, at predicting when the main game would be released). But honestly, I think ArenaNet is desperate to make money, and so they will release the expansion sooner rather than later.

Remember GW2 in 2010 was just a scrap of what we have now, they have far less points to test. That’s the big difference between GW2 demo and HoT demo.

I try to be a bit logical:
If the expansion is released in August

• Bad marketing: promoting something 8 months before its release while saying that there won’t be any new substantial update… That’s shooting oneself in the foot for a game that advertise frequent updates.

If the expansion is released in April

• Bugs, bugs everywhere: there will certainly be exploits and so forth. However, wasn’t GW2 on release full of bugs and exploits? Two years of demo and beta testing failed to bring those up, so it’s safe to assume that, even if HoT is released in 2 years, it would have as many bugs as if it were released this April.

Not only for us, but also for ANet: the sooner the better. No matter when the expansion is released, they’ll have to come up with fixes. I assume that the release date won’t change anything to the gameplay or the quality of the expansion, but it will change everything for the community.

Well, personally, I’d like to play it a bit early, even if I have to participate in the bug-hunt.
I mean, why do people even complain about bugs at this point? Last game which didn’t have any bugs on launch was probably pong.

Oh, sorry. Even pong had bugs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6xAqWUf2cw
That was hilarious…

Then again, I’m just going to assume it’s released next year, so I’m either not going to be disappointed, or I’m going to be pleasantly surprised.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Till yesturday i was convinced we’ll be getting HoT at late spring to middle summer, but seeing how revenenant is still in the works (3 trait lines missing, no balancing applied yet) it’s clear to me that they’re far earlier in the works then I expected.

Given there’s at least finishing up the revenant, beta testing of the whole xpac, game balancing and some seeerious debugging, I’m no longer so optymistic about release date. So just gonna sit down, chill out and focus on here and today.

We dont know if those trait lines were left out to keep info hidden.

Knighthonor.4061:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Till yesturday i was convinced we’ll be getting HoT at late spring to middle summer, but seeing how revenenant is still in the works (3 trait lines missing, no balancing applied yet) it’s clear to me that they’re far earlier in the works then I expected.

Given there’s at least finishing up the revenant, beta testing of the whole xpac, game balancing and some seeerious debugging, I’m no longer so optymistic about release date. So just gonna sit down, chill out and focus on here and today.

We dont know if those trait lines were left out to keep info hidden.

Actually we do know. They said on the POI that more is already completed but this is just all they wanted to show and all that will be playable during the demo at PAX and Rezzed.

Oh the expansion will definitely be released this year. And a ton of fixes and patches will follow. Just wait until you see all the flames on the board. It’ll be epic.

Terrahero.9358:

What they were showing is a preview to the demo build they are going to show at PAX. Likely there is more done than is shown here, but hey you gotta keep some secrets right?

^This. Just because the build they showed looks like that, it doesn’t mean they aren’t farther along than the build they showed. They don’t show or talk about anything that isn’t set in stone. The demo build has probably been ready for quite some time. I still hold to my opinion that we will get it in August to coincide with the 3 year anniversary of GW2. I am hoping for April, but that seems too soon. We had open beta for GW2 from April to August. This could be about the same amount of time.

If they maintain giving out one piece of info a week then we have at least 12 weeks to wait.
9 weeks of specializations
WVW borderland
Guild Halls
Masteries (what they gave us so far was barely anything)
Trait revamp

Then you have various levels of beta tests which will hopefully take at least 1-2 months…yeah I’m not expecting anything before August.

I’m guessing we’ll probably get a WvW tournament in there somewhere and another festival like this one and a lot of nothing.

On another note; when they were talking about the stability changes they mention it “coming sooner than you might think”. I don’t how anyone else reads into that, but I read a potential feature pack.

It would be rather stupid of them not to release an MMO expansion before school summer break begins (June-ish in US). Not only for the player base/time availability, but that’s when gamers/parents drop cash to keep busy over the break

Also when Steam’s insane summer sale in July, it’s not uncommon for PC gamers to blow all their cash on Steam games that will last them for the rest of the year

Having said that, I agree it’s not coming soon, but a June release seems plausible considering they have outlined and previewed many of the major features.

considering that they keep stressing out that things are coming up REALLY REALLY SOON, i’m inclined to believe it’s coming REALLY REALLY SOON.

Another reason I think it won’t be soon is the state of the Revenant and lack of a beta. By their own words, Revenant is far from finished and they haven’t even decided how the utility skill options will work. It clearly hasn’t gone through any balance testing either.

I think there are some things like the partial trait revamp and changes to boons/condis might get a small feature patch, but anything large will wait until HoT.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. In the meantime, I’m still checking the main website, clicking Refresh…… Refresh…… Refresh….. Refresh….. for the hope of another little bit of news on the expansion!

Torsailr.8456:

If they maintain giving out one piece of info a week then we have at least 12 weeks to wait.
9 weeks of specializations
WVW borderland
Guild Halls
Masteries (what they gave us so far was barely anything)
Trait revamp

Then you have various levels of beta tests which will hopefully take at least 1-2 months…yeah I’m not expecting anything before August.

I’m guessing we’ll probably get a WvW tournament in there somewhere and another festival like this one and a lot of nothing.

I’d imagine the specialisation deep dives will come out in one chunk since they’ll likely want it to come out before their PAX East playable demo.

As for the beta, I can’t imagine them having the beta lasting more than a week or two, possibly even just two lots of weekends with changes being made in between. All going well after the first lot of changes, they’ll release sooner. If more bugs are found, another weekend of beta, more changes and then release when it’s fixed.

penelopehannibal.8947:

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. In the meantime, I’m still checking the main website, clicking Refresh…… Refresh…… Refresh….. Refresh….. for the hope of another little bit of news on the expansion!

spare your F5 and only check for news on tuesdays (for possible patches), wednesdays (for expansion news), and thursdays (for a post explaining what will be shown on the PoI/ready up friday)

psizone.8437:

I’d imagine the specialisation deep dives will come out in one chunk since they’ll likely want it to come out before their PAX East playable demo.

Assuming we will have access to specializations in the playable demo. It may as well be that we will have access only to the Revenant.

Test.8734:

psizone.8437:

I’d imagine the specialisation deep dives will come out in one chunk since they’ll likely want it to come out before their PAX East playable demo.

Assuming we will have access to specializations in the playable demo. It may as well be that we will have access only to the Revenant.

That is entirely possible, but since it’s a major feature I can’t imagine them leaving it out of the playable demo that everyone will be watching.

psizone.8437:

Test.8734:

psizone.8437:

I’d imagine the specialisation deep dives will come out in one chunk since they’ll likely want it to come out before their PAX East playable demo.

Assuming we will have access to specializations in the playable demo. It may as well be that we will have access only to the Revenant.

That is entirely possible, but since it’s a major feature I can’t imagine them leaving it out of the playable demo that everyone will be watching.

Honestly, I think the specializations are not even done yet. Maybe we will have access to one or two (the Druid and the necromancer greatsword-using one), but I doubt we will see all of them.

Test.8734:

psizone.8437:

Test.8734:

psizone.8437:

I’d imagine the specialisation deep dives will come out in one chunk since they’ll likely want it to come out before their PAX East playable demo.

Assuming we will have access to specializations in the playable demo. It may as well be that we will have access only to the Revenant.

That is entirely possible, but since it’s a major feature I can’t imagine them leaving it out of the playable demo that everyone will be watching.

Honestly, I think the specializations are not even done yet. Maybe we will have access to one or two (the Druid and the necromancer greatsword-using one), but I doubt we will see all of them.

i think specializations are much closer to completion than revenant, since a lot of them are bound to be iterations on profession stuff that they either scrapped due to time constraints, or were developing for the core professions and decided instead to give them to specializations once they settled on that concept. there’s a lot of potential design repurposing for specializations, whereas the revenant has to start from scratch.

I don’t know why you would have thought the release would be spring/summer when all the evidence points to fall. The biggest piece of evidence is the earnings report saying they expect massive income in Q3 2015.

Xenon.4537:

I don’t know why you would have thought the release would be spring/summer when all the evidence points to fall. The biggest piece of evidence is the earnings report saying they expect massive income in Q3 2015.

Like in 2013 and 2014 from the same company outside of ncsoft that are nothing else but a speculations huh?

If they wanted to release expansion so late we would be preparing for ls s3 already.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Xenon.4537:

I don’t know why you would have thought the release would be spring/summer when all the evidence points to fall. The biggest piece of evidence is the earnings report saying they expect massive income in Q3 2015.

Like in 2013 and 2014 from the same company outside of ncsoft that are nothing else but a speculations huh?

If they wanted to release expansion so late we would be preparing for ls s3 already.

None of us have any idea how far along the expansion is in development. Don’t you think if they were releasing it in spring they would have announced the exact date by now? Besides, you saw how unfinished the Revenant was. And they haven’t showed us anything more than the 1 tiny section of the new map where the snipers hang out on the hill. It’s pretty obvious we have many long months of waiting ahead of us.

Uh guys? Heart of Thorns represents a physical product that will sit on store shelves. Vendors WILL be notified at minimum 4 months in advance so they can allocate those shelves.

If you think we’ll have this in our hands with anything less that 4 months advance notice of the exact date, you’re just plain wrong.

Nike.2631:

Uh guys? Heart of Thorns represents a physical product that will sit on store shelves. Vendors WILL be notified at minimum 4 months in advance so they can allocate those shelves.

If you think we’ll have this in our hands with anything less that 4 months advance notice of the exact date, you’re just plain wrong.

They announced GW2’s release date 2 months before it came out so….

That said, I don’t expect it to be coming out within the next 2 to 3 months.

Malthurius.6870:

On another note; when they were talking about the stability changes they mention it “coming sooner than you might think”. I don’t how anyone else reads into that, but I read a potential feature pack.

Yep, my thoughts exactly, there will probably be a big spring feature patch like the last 2 years with a lot of balance changes that will set the stones for HoT’s release later in the year, likely August to promote at all the big cons.

First release Guild Wars
April 26, 2005

Well, i had it 3 weeks prior to that, but i bet its coming sooner than ya think.

It’s coming out between July and October.

If you want to know which quarter they expect it to be released in just read NCSoft’s financial projections for this year.

Xenon.4537:

I don’t know why you would have thought the release would be spring/summer when all the evidence points to fall. The biggest piece of evidence is the earnings report saying they expect massive income in Q3 2015.

That report was a huge guess from a third party company, they’ve made similar guesses that turned out wrong before.

Xenon.4537:

None of us have any idea how far along the expansion is in development. Don’t you think if they were releasing it in spring they would have announced the exact date by now? Besides, you saw how unfinished the Revenant was. And they haven’t showed us anything more than the 1 tiny section of the new map where the snipers hang out on the hill. It’s pretty obvious we have many long months of waiting ahead of us.

No, they said they’d announce a release date after the beta testing, which is coming very soon after the PAX East and Ressed cons.

The Revenant is more finished than they showed in the POI gameplay, they even say in it that they’re just showing some of it but have more finished.

They’re just showing one part of the map to stop potential spoilers from appearing. I personally would rather not see much of the new map when they’re showing the new features so when I play on it myself I get to keep the wonder and adventure of seeing it first hand.

Draygo.9473:

If you want to know which quarter they expect it to be released in just read NCSoft’s financial projections for this year.

That’s just an expectation of the parent company, it could release before. The devs stated the release date depends on how the beta goes.

Well if a-net is predicting a very big q3:
It will be here ,either end q2 or start q3, most likely...

I hope their financial consultants are intelligent enough to consider the fact ppl enjoy holidays (between end of june being end q2, and mid to end of august middle q3) and putting it into shelves in september will make making huge profit in q3 difficult so I expect HoT (maybe end of May but) probably the middle of June: just before the actual holiday season...

It would lessen the pressure on the servers if a part of the community is enjoying a nice holiday.... (which would be a misconception probably IMHO)