At ArenaNet, the developers of Guild Wars 2, 8 developers, including longtime head Mike O’Brien, are leaving. According to sources from Kotaku, they were recently working on something that could have been a Guild Wars 3.
This is the official news: We reported about this last night: The president of ArenaNet, Mike O’Brien, leaves the company after 19 years, which he co-founded. He will be opening a new studio with friends.
It is already known that some former employees of ArenaNet will accompany him.
Guild Wars 2 will now be taken over by Mike Zadorojny. This is a handover of the baton that has been planned for a long time.
Mike O’Brien and ArenaNet part ways amicably with many good words for each other.
Supposedly, the team was working on a new “Guild Wars” project
This is what a source says now: As reported by the US site Kotaku, they heard about a week ago that 8 developers were planning to leave ArenaNet.
The small team would have internally been the “early development team” for a new Guild Wars project, perhaps even for Guild Wars 3. This was reportedly leaked to Kotaku by a source.
Another source said that there is still no green light for Guild Wars 3 – but O’Brien’s project and his team could have developed in that direction.
Kotaku continues by saying that as far as they understand, the team had indeed been working on a new “Guild Wars” project. However, they would not take this work with them to their new studio.
ArenaNet – a studio under pressure
What is the situation at ArenaNet? The situation has been tense in recent years. ArenaNet is not independent but belongs to the Korean software giant NCSoft. This is the company that pulled the plug on Carbine and WildStar. While NCSoft is now considered patient, their patience is not limitless.
In February 2019, there were a lot of layoffs at ArenaNet. Over 100 people had to go because NCSoft tightened its purse strings. The reasons were said to be:
- Decline in revenue
- Increase in costs in the West
- Delays in new projects
This led the studio to lose many employees. Kotaku even speaks of 140 having to leave and now about 200 still working at ArenaNet.
Guild Wars 2 is aging as a PC MMORPG. The results of the expansion “Heart of Thorns” were viewed critically in Korea.
As can be seen from the latest quarterly reports of NCSoft from the 2nd quarter of 2019, the revenues from Guild Wars 2 are relatively stable, but at a relatively low level.
ArenaNet officially has no new games in development – at least none that they could officially present.
In Korea, they indulge in the mobile hype since Lineage M proved to be a golden goose in 2017.
Among NCSoft’s next games are numerous mobile titles that were previously PC MMORPGs: such as Blade and Soul 2, Aion 2 or Lineage 2M.
It seems economically clear that ArenaNet needs new projects like Guild Wars 3 or a major revival for Guild Wars 2.
They could also make a mobile game, but they are struggling in the West.
