Huge news out of ArenaNet this Friday in both the good and bad variety. And because we know you want to get the bad out of the way, here’s the hit: Guild Wars 2 is delaying End of Dragons from 2021 to 2022, with a “first look” livestream still planned for July 27th.
“As expansion development has progressed and the real-world challenges of the past year and a half have changed the way we live and work, it’s become clear that we need a little more time to deliver our creative vision for Cantha,” ArenaNet said. “As a result, we’re delaying the release of Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons from late 2021 to early 2022.”
That said, there’s reason to smile today, as former Guild Wars 2 game director Colin Johanson, who departed the studio back in 2016, has come back to co-lead ArenaNet along with John “JT” Taylor (Taylor being who we reported as being the top game director following the never-acknowledged-by-ArenaNet departure of Mike Zadorojny at the end of 2019). Johanson said that the two co-leads have met to extensively discuss “Guild Wars, its future, and [their] interest in driving a renewed focus on our players.”
Even more, the studio enticed another past developer to return to the fold, as the previous PvP lead, Josh Davis (who also left in 2016), agreed to come back to fill the brand-new role of Head of Live Operations.
This revamped and renewed team outlined many initiatives to come for Guild Wars 2, including the world-restructuring Alliances “this year” and a move to DirectX 11 for its game engine.
