The fallout from the cancellation of further legendary weapon development has been one for the history books within the Guild Wars 2 community. Players have expressed great amounts of rage and disappointment over what many saw as ArenaNet retracting one of Heart of Thorns’ promised features.
Game Director Mike O’Brien followed up his initial announcement with a few statements over the weekend, defending the game and promising that the decision is for the best. “Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but how about the recent drought of content?” he asked. “That kind of thing happens when we spread ourselves too thin, and when we let the content development pipeline empty out so we can fight fires. What I think we actually owe you is sustainable, predictable, high-quality content. I’m making a decision that’s painful in the short-term so we can position ourselves to deliver that.”
He did take umbrage with players claiming that ArenaNet failed to deliver a full expansion pack. Calling out a handful of accusers, O’Brien said:
“You each posted a variant of an accusation I’ve seen many times over the past few months on the forums, something along the lines of, ‘AN shipped half an expansion with HoT.’ I take issue with that. We shipped a new region full of content, a new mastery system, gliding, guild halls, a new profession, nine new elite specializations for existing professions, and more. Then we shipped precursor journeys for existing legendaries, and said, ‘We’ve been working hard on new legendary weapons, the first handful of which will be introduced in Heart of Thorns, with more to come in subsequent updates.’ While I fully get that you’re disappointed today, this is not about us shipping half an expansion pack.”
O’Brien also assured players that legendary backpacks and armor are still on the table for future delivery.
