Big changes are coming to the Guild Wars 2 expansion release schedule and fans are conflicted about it. Instead of focusing on larger expansions over the span of a few years, the team will now release smaller more contained expansions each quarter. It’s a major shift from how things have worked in the past and has the community concerned about the future of the MMO.
Developer ArenaNet revealed the plans in a blog post on the official Guild Wars 2 website. It’s a lengthy update that talks about the 2023 roadmap, previous releases, and most importantly, the change in how expansions will work. Going forward, expansions will be released throughout the course of one year. Instead of massive DLCs that last several years, Guild Wars 2 will be getting smaller content updates each quarter. Each expansion will come with what ArenaNet say is a ‘slightly reduced price’ and that hasn’t sat well with players. The dramatic deviation from past releases has fans on Reddit concerned they’ll be paying more throughout the year rather than paying once for a bigger expansion. However, no cost has been released so it’s not clear what price these expansions will be on release.
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On the flip side, players are happy to hear that they will be getting more content throughout the year. Previous expansions were released every two to four years and had the same price. These DLCs such as Heart of Thorns were then followed by another release called Living World. The updated schedule sounds like it may be getting rid of Living World content, but it’s yet unclear if that’s true. The post stated that Living World releases were created by nearly every team member with Guild Wars 2, thus preventing work on other expansions and regular game updates.
While players wait for more concrete information, the first expansion for the year will be available on February 28. Once that storyline wraps up, the next will release a few months later and will see new boss encounters and a larger map to explore.
