Guild Wars 2 has the simplest of business models: buy the game and play it as long as you want with no monthly fees. We’ve been championing this as a great business model for MMOs since launching the first Guild Wars® a decade ago. We continue to believe in buy-to-play. It’s good for gamers and good for developers.
This business model has been fantastic for Guild Wars 2 and our fans. Since launching three years ago—almost to the day, today—we’ve sold more than 5 million copies of the game. And we’ve delivered more than 40 major content releases, with world-changing events, Living World episodes, and feature packs, all free of charge.
Expansions are the one place where the buy-to-play model gets a little tricky. When you’re coming in as a new player to a game that has a bunch of expansions, what exactly should you buy in order to play with your friends? The base game and also every single expansion? We’ve seen examples in the industry where that kind of thing has gotten out of control. It doesn’t seem right, and we want to do better. As we get ready to ship our first expansion for Guild Wars 2, we want to ensure that we keep the business model friendly and simple. So let’s be clear that when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
To accomplish that, we’ve already included the core game as a free bundle for anyone who buys Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. And today we’ll go a step further: we’re making the core game free for everyone. For anyone who’s been curious about Guild Wars 2, now you can just go to guildwars2.com, download the game, and start playing.
If anyone can play Guild Wars 2 for free now, does that mean we’re switching business models to free-to-play? Are we going to be one of those games that aggressively monetizes free players through microtransactions? Absolutely not. Guild Wars 2 remains the same game it always has been. We’re making the core game experience free because we’re confident that anyone who loves Guild Wars 2 will buy Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
Verno wrote on Aug 31, 2015, 08:47:
I had nothing but positive experiences with the community in GW2.
Frijoles wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 16:34:Alamar wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 14:59:
What's the current end game? I didn't know that had ever changed.
Current end game is running Fractals over and over for gear (and components). The gear isn't really an upgrade, though, just different looks to it. Or if you're in to PvP, you can do the WvWvW stuff or arenas. Then there's always the achievements to finish (100% world completion takes a lot of effort). And of course alts.
In its current state, end game isn't too thrilling IMO. GW2 is more about the journey to max level.
Alamar wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 14:59:
What's the current end game? I didn't know that had ever changed.
Warskull wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 14:43:Krovven wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 13:41:
A friend has been trying to get me to play it for years. But I never wanted to buy it as I wasn't a big fan of the first one.
Must resist...especially now that Diablo 3 Season 4 has started.
GW2 was not a great game at launch. The PvP was bad and there was nothing to do at the end game. The devs idea of the end game was to have you run around to all the leveling zones you never did and get scaled down so you could try and 100% the game. Most of the end game dungeons were busted and not worth doing. It was a pretty sad state.
However, it was nothing like Guild Wars 1.
Krovven wrote on Aug 30, 2015, 13:41:
A friend has been trying to get me to play it for years. But I never wanted to buy it as I wasn't a big fan of the first one.
Must resist...especially now that Diablo 3 Season 4 has started.