Arena.Net's Colin Johanson has revealed (again) that the closed beta for Guild Wars 2 will likely kick off before the end of 2011.

According to an interview at NOWGamer.com, Johanson indicated that the open beta has a fluid start date that will be based on results of the closed beta. In its turn, the open beta's results will determine the final retail release date of the game.

Another interesting nugget from the interview comes when Johanson, talking about PvP, states that the team wants it to be "taken as seriously as any FPS online or RTS competitive game.’ We want to be number one." Johanson also threw out the possibility of some sort of competitive "expo" for PvP players.

Read the entire interview at the link above.

Thanks to Piasek for the tip!

Good news, in as much as they are on track like they hoped for. Figure late Q1 release?

Odds of me being considered possessed by satan: 7,000 to 1

Odds of me getting invited to Guild Wars 2 beta: 234,000 to 1

*spins head 360* D:

alright, but this is old news actually, they mentioned this way back at Gamescom...

I agree, I like this. In a gaming world where games release and end up flopping with bugs and "should have released later" "wasnt ready" it is nice to see them taking a long time to get it right.

Even though I am dying to play it.... it will be better because of the time they have put into it!

The news of closed beta by the end of the year isn't really news at all.  This was mentioned before they announced the Engineer profession back in May.

http://www.newgamenetwork.com/news/2734/guild-wars-2-engineer-profession-revealed/

Ha, when i started, there were no answers, but it took me so long..

Anyways, just read Slivvers post.

While it's "old news" to some, it's new news to others. There are a lot of other interesting factoids in the article, hence its posting. :)

Personally I hope they do a LOOONG closed beta and not worry with an open beta.... I think Open Betas are one of the things that is causing games to get bad mouth and not do as well as they could.

Also it attract game mooch hoppers. That all they want is free play time in a game. Then walk away badmouthing it because it lagged or had bugs.. Well DOHHH! its in beta.

Well, maybe we will get the final profession reveal before 2011 ends then

I wish its next month, so that we get open beta in december, and then release in january :)

I wish old news like this, would get a new angle when hitting the news section here!

Expected closed beta end of this year. Predicted April release of 2012. So far on track :)

Old news are old...

Yes this is old news but I thank MMORPG.com for actually posting this. I can't count the number of times people have asked when the beta for GW2 starts despite it being posted on the official GW2 FAQ. If it helps get the word out about when closed beta starts, it's very helpful.

As for beta leading into release. I see it this way. Sometime between now and November (I don't think GW2 will go into beta testing in December because of the holidays) we will see the last profession, world vs world vs world PvP, guild system info, and how all the professions work together in different situations. ArenaNet has stated that the feedback received from both closed beta and open beta will determine when the actual release of the game is. So if everything is smooth sailing in both betas than spring 2012, if there are some bumps along the way probably summer of 2012. I don't really see the games release date getting pushed all the way till fall or winter of 2012.

I really like the part in the article about structured PVP, how their goal is to turn that into a competitive esport, comparable with the most popular competitive FPS and RTS games.

Holy shit, someone who realizes that an open beta is needed and does not restrict game sales to specific regions.

Way to go, ANET!

"We don’t load up with microtransactions that you have to buy to be more powerful than anyone else, because just like in the first Guild Wars, all of our microtransaction items are cosmetic."

:o - That should clarify some things no ?

Originally posted by Maggon

"We don’t load up with microtransactions that you have to buy to be more powerful than anyone else, because just like in the first Guild Wars, all of our microtransaction items are cosmetic."

 

 

:o - That should clarify some things no ?

 

Its quite clear. The only things you will ever see in the store in GW2 are purely cosmetic items. It's the same thing they did in GW1.

Originally posted by bronecar

Holy shit, someone who realizes that an open beta is needed and does not restrict game sales to specific regions.

Way to go, ANET!

Exactly! The moment I told myself I won't buy SW TOR is when they banned my country from buying their game even digitally.

Now, about microtransactions, I'd say they go a bit beyond cosmetics only, since in GW1 you can buy more inventory slots for real cash, you can buy content (special missions for real $) and you can as well buy an ability for other characters on your account to follow you instead of npcs). If they keep all of these in GW2, I'll still play the game but if they add stuff like items for real cash, it'll be a no go...