"Hundreds of Thousands" Have Already Bought Guild Wars 2

[John Funk]

"Hundreds of Thousands" Have Already Bought Guild Wars 2

48 worlds weren't enough for the open beta's "huge demand."

The Escapist's own Justin Clouse Arena.net blog [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9593-Guild-Wars-2-Preview], company president Mike O'Brien said that there had been too much demand for the developer to handle - a happy problem to have:

[blockquote]I think it's safe to say that the response was overwhelming in more ways than one. Firstly, the number of people who pre-purchased the game far exceeded our expectations, and we had to temporarily disable pre-purchases. In the end that wasn't enough, and even with 48 worlds we didn't have enough server capacity to meet the huge demand.[/blockquote]

According to O'Brien, "hundreds of thousands" of players showed up to the open beta event, each of them having already purchased Guild Wars 2 in full. These aren't just pre-orders like that for Diablo III [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117201-Amazon-Declares-Diablo-III-Its-Most-Preordered-PC-Game-Ever], they're full on purchases. That's a nice chunk of change in the bank already for Arena.net, and it shows that there's a sizable base already trusting the developers to deliver on their promises.

What's more, said O'Brien, is that the community feedback seemed to indicate that they had done just that. "Seeing Tyria come alive, with players interacting with dynamic events or engaging in epic World vs. World battles, was an amazing experience," he said. "[Suffice] it say [sic] that we were blown away by the reaction from the community. The positive feedback just strengthens our resolve to deliver the best game possible."

He stressed that it was a genuine beta test for the purpose of finding and solving problems, not just a demo for early purchasers, and said that the team would be working to make improvements for the next beta event.

If you haven't gotten enough of your Guild Wars 2 fix, O'Brien announced that there would be a stress test this coming Monday for seven hours - 11 AM to 6 PM Pacific (2 PM to 9 PM Eastern) - to prepare the servers for the next true beta weekend.

Source: Arena.net [http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-obrien-on-the-guild-wars-2-beta]

Permalink

 

[MrBrightside919]

It doesn't hurt that there is no Sub Fee...and that is a big selling point for me...

If I had money, i'd pick it up...in a heart beat

 

[Scarim Coral]

Finally a comeback I can use against my mate!! He found out the news about Diablo 3 is the most preorder game on Amazon and told me why that didn't happen to GW2 (he's a hardcore Diablo fan) leaving me without an answer to reply until now!

 

[gigastar]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

What about MMO's that predate WoW, Such as RuneScape?

And what about TF2? Thats an MMO too i think.

 

[RA92]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

All MMOs trying to be WoW? EVE Online says hello.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Good for them. As much as i loved the very first closed beta, and am waiting this game sooo much, i'm not gonna pay anything until they announce release date.

 

[RA92]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

All MMOs trying to be WoW? EVE Online says hello.

*Yawn* Oh sorry, I must have dozed off due to an overwhelming sense of tedium I just felt.

Perhaps I should have been more specific, I meant like WoW in that they are wildly successful and at least entertaining to play.

FarmVille is wildly successful as well, but it has little to do with quality.

Yeah, the learning curve is steep, but there is no other MMO out there that has EVE's level of PvP drama.

 

[Dragonmaster3]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

It's funny how you can be so stupid. GW2 is nothing like WoW, and it isn't trying to copy WoW but actually try some new stuff, unlike SWTOR. But no point in trying to idiots, they never listen.

 

[Blind Sight]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

All MMOs trying to be WoW? EVE Online says hello.

*Yawn* Oh sorry, I must have dozed off due to an overwhelming sense of tedium I just felt.

Perhaps I should have been more specific, I meant like WoW in that they are wildly successful and at least entertaining to play.

FarmVille is wildly successful as well, but it has little to do with quality.

Yeah, the learning curve is steep, but there is no other MMO out there that has EVE's level of PvP drama.

Indeed, regardless of whether you enjoy the game, EVE does offer up a unique (and sometimes worrying) look into the gaming psyche in an anarchic system that you can't really get in any other MMO. The Mittani's columns are always full of interesting stuff, like how apparently autocracies are the most effective form of government while representative democracies tend to collapse very quickly. Or how territorial boundaries can shift and turn an unwanted area filled with loosely allied miners into a war zone between two major powers based on an update.

 

[Noxogz]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

I beg to disagree, while it is true that almost all MMOs are trying to "beat" WoW, not all MMOs are trying to "be" WoW.

GW2 happens to be the case of an MMO that's honestly trying it's best to NOT be like WoW, don't get me wrong, it's still an MMO just as Half-Life 2 is as much of an FPS as Call of Duty even if they could not be anymore different from one another.

If you still don't believe me, check this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9593-Guild-Wars-2-Preview] preview by The Escapist's very own Justin Clouse!

On the matter of them not being prepared to handle the amount of WoWs player base, I think over the years developers have learned to measure their expectations on actually beating WoW based on the amount of people who have tried and failed miserably.They might get into the MMO market hoping to beat WoW but they don't really expect to follow through in order to not be unprepared when they don't do it.

This happens to be the case when the game's demand exceeded the expectations of the developers, let's not forget the game doesn't even have a release date yet and you have to pay up front full price in order to get guarantied access to the beta, I can definitely see why they didn't expect to have so many people in the beta.

 

[gigastrike]

Why the hell are so many people feeding the troll? I thought Escapists were smarter than that.

 

[RA92]

It's funny how an MMO trying to be WoW isn't even prepared to come close to their player base. And don't tell me it's not because ALL MMOs are trying to be WoW.

All MMOs trying to be WoW? EVE Online says hello.

*Yawn* Oh sorry, I must have dozed off due to an overwhelming sense of tedium I just felt.

Perhaps I should have been more specific, I meant like WoW in that they are wildly successful and at least entertaining to play.

FarmVille is wildly successful as well, but it has little to do with quality.

Yeah, the learning curve is steep, but there is no other MMO out there that has EVE's level of PvP drama.

Indeed, regardless of whether you enjoy the game, EVE does offer up a unique (and sometimes worrying) look into the gaming psyche in an anarchic system that you can't really get in any other MMO. The Mittani's columns are always full of interesting stuff, like how apparently autocracies are the most effective form of government while representative democracies tend to collapse very quickly. Or how territorial boundaries can shift and turn an unwanted area filled with loosely allied miners into a war zone between two major powers based on an update.

Agree on all accounts. By the way, you might enjoy this article as well: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-22-the-banking-game

Basically it's about how CCP handles economy better than the US government.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

That explains why I couldn't get logged into the beta half the time. Also yay to another beta so soon. I shall be participating in the stress test on Monday and in the beta next weekend.

 

[Aeshi]

That doesn't really sound that overwhelming given how most MMOs have millions of subscribers.

 

[zombiesinc]

I really want to pre-order this, but I really don't have... any money. Maybe I'll convince someone to pre-order this for me soon, although I can't say I won't be thoroughly distracted with Diablo III by this Tuesday.

[sup]And Max Payne 3.[/sup]

[sup][sup]Then it's Dragon's Dogma the following week...[/sup][/sup]

[sup][sup][sup]Damn, I don't think I'll be able to keep up. [/sup][/sup][/sup]