ArenaNet: No Guild Wars 2 expansions planned for now

Guild Wars 2

With little over six months gone by since Guild Wars 2 launched, community members wonder of ArenaNet's possible plans to open up additional tracts of Tyria and beyond. The arrival of more content and more powerful characters, gear, and monsters is something of an inevitability in the churn-prone MMORPG genre, but the studio appears content focusing on improving Guild Wars 2's current offerings. Speaking to IGN , Director Colin Johanson states his team "doesn't have a timetable" for developing an expansion.

"Expansions are definitely something that we'll potentially look at in the future, but we don't have a timetable on it," Johanson says. "We're open to it, but I think our major focus as a studio is making the living world concept as strong as possibly can for the players that we've got."

That policy definitely shows through the game's meaty patch updates typically bringing extra quest types, mini-games, PVP overhauls, and story arcs. When asked on the possibility of seeing a far-off Guild Wars 3, Johanson reiterated ArenaNet's commitment to its current title.

"We want to be able to have teams developing new, innovative features that change the way you play our game and grow that experience so it feels like you don't leave Guild Wars 2," he explains. "Guild Wars 2 becomes Guild Wars 2.5 or Guild Wars 3 and it continues to grow."

Here's a couple of quick comparisons: Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft's first expansion, appeared after Blizzard spent nearly three years adding and updating raids and PVP features in the vanilla content. Star Wars: The Old Republic's first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel , is now in closed and public testing a few months after the game celebrated its first anniversary.

Omri Petitte

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?

Latest in MMO
Blue Protocol players dancing minutes before the game closes forever
What will we do at the end of the world? If MMOs are any indication: mostly what we already do, plus a lot of dancing
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
One year later, City of Heroes' officially recognized fan server has me praying it's the future of dead MMOs
Several adventurers in World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore server crying over the death of a fallen comrade.
Blizzard plans to revive WoW Classic Hardcore characters 'at our sole discretion', after DDOS attack puts major streamer guild OnlyFangs in the ground
A forester from Old School Runescape, contemplating life next to his pheasant friend on a green field.
You can finally try out Old School RuneScape’s first new skill in nearly two decades right now
Ghoul in sunglasses
After years of playing as stupid, boring humans in Fallout, you can finally channel your inner Walton Goggins and become a ghoul in Fallout 76
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again