The fantasy MMORPG Guild Wars 2 is now free to play.
Minutes ago, Guild Wars 2 announced at Pax Prime that the base game “Guild Wars 2” is now free to play.
Starting today, the base game of #GW2 is available for free to everyone! #PAXPrime http://t.co/EPr6c9hNvq ^RD pic.twitter.com/Z1FagtR3q1
— Guild Wars 2 EN (@GuildWars2_EN) August 29, 2015
“Free Accounts” will have some limitations, but nothing extreme. They are complete accounts, not trial accounts.
They will not be able to use map-wide chat, start with less inventory space and character slots than players who purchased the box, they will only be able to whisper every 30 seconds and while free players can use the trading post, they cannot send items to other players. Only upon reaching level 10 can they leave the starter areas, and at level 30 the LFG tool can be used, while World vs. World can be entered at level 60.
Most of these measures are probably aimed at dealing with gold sellers and their dreaded spam.
Guild Wars 2 does not change payment model, does not want to scare off current players
As stated, this step does NOT see themselves as a Free2Play title, but remains with its current payment model Buy2Play, only releasing the base game for free. ArenaNet wants to keep the payment model simple: They believe in “Buy2Play”, but want to limit the purchase to a box, which is Heart of Thorns. Those who buy the expansion will receive the base game, which has already been announced. Now they are consistently taking the next step and releasing the base game for free. They will not become a Free2Play game that constantly pester players with prompts for microtransactions, they say.
To ease the fears of paying players about the “Free2Play” phenomenon, they assure that existing players will not be disturbed by the new players and even add this costume as a gift.
The whole thing would have been much more spectacular, had a US gaming site not erroneously leaked the news two days ago. The fact that it is coming out immediately is, however, a surprise.
Until now, Guild Wars 2 was a “Buy2Play” game; the base game had to be purchased and no further purchases were necessary. Guild Wars 2 is considered an absolute triple-A MMORPG and perhaps the best new release in the MMORPG market in the last three years.
