GW 2 Might Scrap Expansion Model

When Guild Wars 2 was first released, it was said the game would raise further funds for continued development by releasing large, paid expansion packs.

With all the recent content updates, it seems like they might be changing their ways…

Mike Zadorojny, lead designer at ArenaNet, and Colin Johanson, have stated that expansions might no longer be a serious option. From launch, Guild Wars 2 has received enormous monthly content-updates.

According to Zadorojny this adds to the feel of walking in a ‘living world’. This seems to be the key word-combination over at ArenaNet, as their dynamic event system complements this view perfectly, offering a dynamic world and environment. Johanson:

“That’s what our dynamic event system looked like at launch. It’s something we’re extremely proud of and we feel like at a low level, it helps create a sense of a world that evolves and changes around you.

However, a second element was missing. We heard questions from our players, old and new. What about events that are more time limited and won’t continue to happen forever? What about holiday events we can look forward to each year? What about events that can permanently change the world and create stories to share for years into the future? Isn’t that truly what is required to achieve the concept of a truly living world?

Our answer to all that: Hell yeah!”

As mentioned earlier, ArenaNet have released world-changing content every month, and hope to continue as well. How they managed to do that, no one really knows, but it’s definitely impressive. It comes as no surprise that Zadorojny questions the need for a big expansion, whereas Guild Wars 1 was known for it’s big expansion packs.

Zadorojny on the expansion matter: “If we do this right,” he continued, “we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”

That’s not all, as ArenaNet have also promised to increase the content outflow by 100%! Yes that’s right, the content will now be released every two weeks. Here is the official ArenaNet post.