Publishers NCsoft and developers ArenaNet have announced an expansion pack as well as a sequel for their popular game Guild Wars. Guild Wars 2 will draw from the game mechanics of Guild Wars and will not have a subscription fee. The expansion pack will be known as Guild Wars Eye of the North.
About Guild Wars Eye of the North:
- Set largely in the dungeons and caverns of the lands of Tyria that gamers first explored in Guild Wars Prophecies, Guild Wars Eye of the North will have 18 large, multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills across all 10 Guild Wars professions, 10 new Heroes, 40 new armor sets, and even more items, weapons and titles. And for those looking even further down the road at Guild Wars 2, Guild Wars Eye of the North will provide a Hall of Monuments where gamers’ accomplishments are memorialized and ultimately inherited by their Guild Wars 2 characters, unlocking exclusive items and bonuses in Guild Wars 2.
Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet quotes, “We felt it was very important to reward those people who have been playing Guild Wars since the game first launched in 2005. Those players have seen three very large campaigns created in a little under two years and so we think it is time to begin filling in the details of the existing world and to provide more content for current characters. We are excited to focus our time on something that our players have been asking for.”
However, to play Guild Wars Eye of the North, gamers will require at least one of the three previous Guild Wars campaigns- Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall. Guild Wars 2 is expected to go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008 but the expansion pack will release in the third quarter of 2007.