News Filter: Guild Wars 2 in 2010-2011

• Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats got a little info about Guild Wars 2 out of NCSoft's quarterly earnings report. Notably, the game is not set to launch until 2010 or 2011. This means, at best, we're a full year away from release.


• As much as I want to be disappointed about this, I'm not terribly surprised. The game was announced in 2007 along with the Eye of the North expansion. My guess would be that they were in development only a year or two at that time since they were planning on a very early beta test (like with GW) in 2008. By that estimate, 2010 gives them a five year development cycle which feels about right for an MMO.


• Of course, NCSoft has scheduled their North American and European launches for their next big thing, Aion, in 2009. The new hotness certainly looks very nice, though it will probably run like a pig in mud on my system. It might do very well, but NCSoft isn't going to accept any distractions. Even is GW2 was ready, they can't let it get in the way of Aion.


• Personally, I'm trying to keep my expectations low and not worry about it. Exeter's post over at Expletive Deleted about expectations ruining our experiences is quite timely. Three years ago, I would have killed for more information. Now the difference between 2010 and 2011 is just time.


• No matter when it launches, though, I'm rolling a Ranger.