Guild Wars 2 is ending 2023 with a traditional dev blog recapping the year and looking ahead to what will be the game’s fifth expansion – and the one after that too.
“We’ve been able to apply a lot of the lessons we’ve learned to our fifth expansion in very meaningful ways—lessons that impact both the developer and player experiences,” Josh Davis says. “Additionally, not only is the fifth expansion in active development, but we’re also already having conversations about what comes after that! We’re not ready to share any new details today, but what I can say is that we have plenty of thrilling adventures, captivating stories, and exciting updates ahead of us. We can’t wait to embark on this next chapter with you next year!”
Wccftech got Davis to say a bit more (and confirm date windows too): “In terms of the future, we’re actively working on an expansion for 2024 (expansion 5) and planning one for 2025 (expansion 6), which is about as far into the future as we can reasonably foresee.”
A few more tidbits from that interview:
- Davis says the main drivers behind the new annual season cycle is to eliminate content droughts, boost support for the core game, and support a healthier work/life balance for the devs.
- Davis gives a somewhat shapeless answer about the size of the ArenaNet team; he says it’s growing and currently 15% larger than it was when End of Dragons launched. He also says the team is less than half the size of other studios considered direct competitors.
- As you probably already guessed, Steam represents only a small proportion of the playerbase, given when GW2 launched on Steam. Davis says the game’s “new player acquisition numbers are the strongest they’ve been since 2016/2017” thanks to exposure on Steam. “In fact, we saw more ‘first time players’ in 2023 than we did at any point during the COVID-19 pandemic ‘gaming boom’.”
- Elite specs aren’t off the table in the future.
- Currency consolidation is something the team means to keep chipping away at.
- Don’t expect ArenaNet to rescue the old dungeons; they’re not considering anything relating to them. It does have a strike mission challenge mode for Temple of Febe coming, along with a new fractal.
- Alternate servers and hardcore modes aren’t a priority for ArenaNet; Davis calls it “trend chasing” that “usually doesn’t pan out,” which is a bit weird given how long these types of servers have been around (like 25 years or so) and how we’ll they’ve done for games like WoW, but he explains he doesn’t want to alienate the game’s existing fans.
