Guild Wars 2 Is Announced for 2011

NCsoft may have managed to break a few charts with Aion: Tower of Eternity, but it may just be that that's not the only thing it has broken. Guild Wars 2 was first announced in 2007, and the massively multiplayer online role-playing games-specialized company announced a beta-testing of the title for 2008. The beta was supposed to be followed by an official release in 2009, but, with the year almost over, it seems like this will be just another broken promise. Still, what was once broken can be mended and NCsoft has in no way abandoned the game.

Following an earnings report released last week, which the company is quite smug about, NCsoft has decided that it would be a good time to once again slip Guild Wars 2 into the conversation. Regardless of the accusations that it might receive after delaying the game, the company felt confident enough in its high-spirit armor made up of the 836-percent profit rise it had during the July-September period that it assumed it could handle anything.

As such, Jaeho Lee, NCsoft West CEO, announced that Guild Wars 2 might enter testing sometime in 2010, with the full release to be expected in 2011. On the other hand, NCsoft also announced the game would enter beta-testing in 2008, so don't hold your breath.

"I believe there will be a certain public event in the year 2010, so at this point it could be at least a closed beta test for [Guild Wars 2 and Korea-oriented martial-arms MMOG Blade & Soul]," Lee said. "The commercialization will be expected at this point probably sometime in the year 2011."

The first Guild Wars and its approach of no monthly fee has sold over six million copies and convinced its developers to release three new campaigns for the MMORPG, the Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall and also an expansion pack, the Eye of the North. The game was first launched in 2006 on the PC and received great praise from everyone.