14 DAY TRIAL // The new MMO from ArenaNet, called Guild Wars 2, will not make it to open beta in 2008, representatives from the company have said. With a beta early in 2008, the game might be out by the end of 2009, but the developers are not making any promises.
They say that "Although we publicly alpha- and beta-tested the original Guild Wars while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game's release".
There's no tangible evidence of how development is going on the sequel to the moderately successful Guild Wars as no screenshots or videos have been released. Development is only now going into full gear, after the release of the Eye of the North expansion for the original game.
It seems that the new title will offer many more racial options and classes that you can choose than the original offered. The graphical quality will also be increased, even if the developers plan to make the game playable on PCs with medium system specifications. The core gameplay mechanics will be maintained without many changes because the main audience of the game will be made up of people that are already playing Guild Wars.
The MMO from ArenaNet, published initially by NCsoft, was noticed because of its "no subscription" business model. You only pay for the game, the different episodic content packs released by the developers and for the expansion and you can then play for as long as you like. More than 5 million copies have reached gamers and the server population is still very active. The fact that the level cap is quite low and that you will need to do some planning in advance of the various battles makes the title a popular one, even if not on par with the MMO leader World of Warcraft.