Guild Wars 2, one of the most anticipated online games this year, was officially launched in Europe and the United States, Wednesday (KST).
NCsoft’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed by game studio ArenaNet, is the sequel to the company’s popular Guild Wars. The original has accumulated sales of over 7 million since its release in 2005.
Those who pre-ordered the game had an exclusive, head start, Sunday through Tuesday when 1 million people subscribed to the MMORPG.
Guild Wars 2 currently has 45 servers opened, called “worlds,” and NCsoft expects the number of simultaneous subscribers to continuously increase following the official launch.
As for what gamers should expect, NCsoft boasted of action-orientated game play, dynamic world scale events, customized personal storylines and world class player-versus-player support.
“We have put so much work and patience into making the game, and we hope that it will continue the success of its predecessor.” said NCsoft spokesman Min Seung-ki. He said there was no specified date set for a Korea launch. Domestic services will start after localization of the versions in Europe and the United States is completed.
The latest game by NCsoft topped the charts of Amazon.com in North America, the United Kingdom, Germany and France as the most anticipated PC game of the year. It was also chosen as the potential No.1 bestseller this year in the PC category of review websites MMORPG.COM and GameSpot.
It was highlighted by Forbes in its August 13 issue as a game that will change the history of MMOs.
ArenaNet Studio Mike O’Brien expressed his confidence saying “we always make sure that anything we do is innovative and delivering new experiences. Guild Wars 2 is pretty fundamentally different than other MMOs before.”
O’Brien said that Guild Wars 2 offers a “totally different content model” compared to other routine, quest-based MMOs, being a more “living world with dynamic events.”
Daniel Dociou, art director at ArenaNet, said prior to commercialization: “We are very proud of Guild Wars 2. We feel strongly that we have made a solid product, we are pretty confident that it will be well received by the players. The arts, graphics and everything else is going to be appreciated as the launch comes. It is a reward for 5 years of hard work for the entire team.”
“Guild Wars had some 300,000 pre-orders when it was released, while its sequel marked triple that number,” said Kim Chang-kwean, an analyst at Daewoo Securities. “The success and revenue from the new game will increase proportionately, and it is expected the new game will sell 3.1 million by the end of the year.”
The Korean firm launched another MMORPG, Blade & Soul, in June for domestic audiences, which peaked at 230,000 simultaneous subscribers and is currently No. 2 at Internet cafes here, according to games research agency Gametrics.