Guild Wars Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary
Friday 27th April/...On April 28, 2005, the Guild Wars franchise was born with the release of the original campaign, Guild Wars Prophecies. In the two years since that date, the game's developer, ArenaNet, and publisher, NCsoft, have launched two additional stand-alone games, Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Nightfall. In total the Guild Wars series has sold more than 3.5 million copies, making it one of the most successful online role-playing games ever.
Much of the success of Guild Wars can be attributed to the fact it is offered without a subscription fee, but still provides robust content, a compelling story, breathtaking art, exciting game mechanics, and a history of significant game improvements and updates. All those things helped create and foster an extremely devoted and loyal player base.
Guild Wars players, who will be celebrating the franchise's two-year anniversary this weekend, have a lot to look forward to. To celebrate the second anniversary of Guild Wars this weekend, players will be treated to a variety of in-game activities including fireworks, games, and special prizes. Not to mention brand new birthday mini-pets for each character when he or she reaches the two-year milestone.
The Guild Wars Birthday Party will take place April 27 to April 29 and will be open to characters from all three campaigns.
"In just two years, we've made three games and have reached millions of players around the world," said Mike O'Brien, one of the founders of ArenaNet. "We have a lot to celebrate on our second anniversary and we will endeavor to continue to deliver great, free content to our fans into the foreseeable future."
Guild Wars Players have had a lot to be excited about in recent weeks, aside from the Birthday celebrations. More and more people are joining the Guild Wars family, so much so that in early April, the possible amount of characters in-game was quadrupled. Last week, exciting new options for veteran players were introduced in the form of; Guild Wars Hard Mode, which provides players with greater challenges that offer rich and unique rewards.
Looking towards the future, ArenaNet and Ncsoft are gearing up to release their first expansion pack for Guild Wars -Guild Wars: Eye of the North-in the third quarter of this year, and it has announced the start of development for Guild Wars 2, which is scheduled for the second half of 2008.
For more information on all of the Guild Wars anniversary events, go to: www.guildwars.com.
About NCsoft Europe
NCsoft Europe (NC-E) is headquartered in Brighton, England and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online games. NCsoft has already successfully established itself in North America, Japan, Taiwan, China and Thailand. NC-E began operations on 1st September 2004 and serves as a central hub for all NCsoft sales, marketing and distribution operations in Europe, via its European distribution network. NC-E launched Lineage® II in November 2004, City of Heroes® on 4th February 2005, Guild Wars on 28th April 2005, City of Villains® on 31st October 2005, Auto Assault® on 13th April 2006, Guild Wars Factions on 28th April 2006 and Guild Wars Nightfall on 27th October 2006. More information about NCsoft Europe can be found at http://eu.plaync.com.
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