In the fantasy MMORPG Guild Wars 2, they are already working on the next expansion.
There was not much fanfare during the last live stream of Guild Wars 2, which took place yesterday. The Game Director Colin Jacobson discussed how ArenaNet is approaching the current year and how they are allocating their resources. In the early years, they focused heavily on patches for the game, sometimes bringing new elements of the “Living Story” every two weeks. In 2015, not much happened; instead, they were working on the expansion “Heart of Thorns”.
From minute 9:00, the important part comes.
Did the GW2 boss really just confirm an expansion? Yep, he did
For 2016, they will now try to find a middle ground, to achieve a “design balance”. They want to continue developing the live game while also working on the next expansion. More information on what kind of expansion this will be is likely to come much later.
This is not surprising: In a studio like ArenaNet, part of the team is already working on the future. Nevertheless, Guild Wars 2 is notoriously tight-lipped about the future to avoid disappointing players. Now it is clear: A next expansion for Guild Wars 2 is already in the works after Heart of Thorns.
During the reveal of Heart of Thorns, they repeatedly emphasized that they were laying the foundation to continuously develop the game from here on.
ArenaNet wants to outline the year 2016 next week
This Tuesday, there should already be several blog posts about how they want to further develop Guild Wars 2 in 2016. Jacobson has already announced that they want to bring updates more frequently compared to 2015, considering all parts of the game. Major updates are planned every 3 months, adjusting balance, with smaller updates in between.
