14 DAY TRIAL // ArenaNet, the developer behind the upcoming Guild Wars 2 online game, has revealed that the first Beta Weekend Event for those who already pre-purchased the title was an overwhelming success, even if its servers could barely handle the hundreds of thousands of players.
Guild Wars 2 promises to reshape the MMORPG landscape by offering an online experience without the necessity of paying a monthly fee.
After mentioning an array of details about the game, ArenaNet finally kicked off the first beta weekend event on April 27, allowing those who pre-ordered Guild Wars 2 to try it out for a limited time.
The event was a huge success, according to ArenaNet’s Mike O’Brien, who confirmed that there were so many players that the beta servers could hardly cope.
“We hosted our first Beta Weekend Event, when hundreds of thousands of players who pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 got their first chance to play the game,” he said. “This was a huge milestone for ArenaNet; with no NDAs and no press embargoes, the beta version of Guild Wars 2 would have to stand on its own before the full force of the Internet.”
“I think it’s safe to say that the response was overwhelming in more ways than one,” O’Brien added. “Firstly, the number of people who pre-purchased the game far exceeded our expectations, and we had to temporarily disable pre-purchases. In the end that wasn’t enough, and even with 48 worlds we didn’t have enough server capacity to meet the huge demand.”
Fortunately, after a while, a “vast majority of players were able to get into the game and experience Guild Wars 2 in all its glory.”
O’Brien quickly mentions that Guild Wars 2 is still in beta and these special weekends are designed to spot any bugs and give as much feedback to the development team as possible before the game is ready to be released.
Look forward to more news about Guild Wars 2 and its next Beta Weekend soon.