FollowGuild Wars 2 has now experienced a full year of player action. The ArenaNet president, Mike O’Brien, has said that he did not realize how fast the past 12 months have gone by given the flurry of activity associated with the game. He challenged people to join in the game and pit themselves against hundreds of other players in the PvP scene. The game has a lot to offer even simply by logging in.
ArenaNet has revealed the figures that are associated with the game for the past 12 months. Guild Wars 2 has sold a total of 3.5 million copies and the number of players has reached 460,000. This number is actually the number of players who have been recorded as having logged in at the same time, and is being touted as being more than the population of Iceland.
ArenaNet has also broken down the players by the roles that they play in the game. The Mesmers are the lowest at 10% and the warriors are the highest at 16%. According to the lead designer, Isaiah Cartwright, it is very difficult to tell the number of players of a game simply from the number of games that have been sold. However, in the case of Guild Wars 2 the number of boxes sold is translating to an increase in the number of players in the game. The game has seen an increase in the overall number of players, as well as an increase in the number of players who log on at the same time (concurrent players).
The lead designer also said that it was normal for the game to experience a drop in numbers after a launch. This was in response to a question by Polygon on why the number fell after the launch of the game. He said that every designer should brace for such a drop, but he did not give any numbers to support his theory.
Cartwright said that the game update plan was as a result of observing the metrics of the game and seeing what players were interested in whenever they logged on. The designer said that Guild wars 1 still had a large number of players and that there was no risk of the numbers dropping, despite the fact that the game is in maintenance mode.
ArenaNet has revealed a new Heroic Edition game for players of Guild Wars 2. This was announced after a free trial weekend for the game, which featured the Clockwork Chaos invasion. The new Heroic Edition has been created to entice players to make this a popular game. The new game is retailing at a price of $49.99, and contains a pack of digital items aptly dubbed the Heroic Pack.
The figures from ArenaNet are very interesting and show the sustained growth in the number of players to a level that had not been anticipated. The growth of player numbers is a vote of confidence on the suitability of the game – a fact that the designers of Guild Wars 2 should build upon.
