Fresh Guild Wars announced

NCSOFT HAS ANNOUNCED the development and release dates for regular annual expansion of Guild Wars universe, and not too surprisingly, that this expansion will be the last throw of the dice before its successor appears on the market.

The add-on will be known as Eye of the North, and stands to be released in Q3 of 2007. The price of the add-on is not known at the time of annoucement, but it will be less than already present campaigns. In order to play the game, gamers must own at least one of the already released GW campaigns, like Nightfall, Factions or Prophecies.

Eye of the North brings a conclusion what happened in Tyria after Guild Wars: Prophecies ended, and as such - is 100% oriented towards games with characters of maximum level. We know GW gamers want the numbers, so here they are: 18 new multi-level dungeons, 40 new armour sets, 10 new Heroes and massive 150 new skills, out of which 50 belong only to PvE (Player versus Enviroment).

Enter the end of Guild Wars 1 and beginning of Guild Wars 2...

On the other hand, there are Guild Wars 2. This is a full sequel and will be released in 2009-10 timeframe, with a public beta being released sometime next year. This game will be set several hundred years after GW: Prophecies and Eye of the North, but the main drool factor will be zone-wide events (read, open war in DaoC and Alterac Valley style), combined with refined control system, oriented for action and ease of use. Playable races include Humans, Charr, Norns, Asurians and Sylvarians. Level cap is set, but it is not known at the time, while characters will now progress through the game in a more sensitive way.

The graphics engine will be brought up to date with latest graphics developments in 2009-10, so you can expect a game engine which will offer unrivalled graphics features in world of MMOs.

NCSoft's roadmap now should be pretty clear, as far as GW world is concerned: GW1 add-on, GW2 public beta, GW2 final. Next 18 months will be very busy for these guys. µ