Guild Wars 3 will feature no mandatory subscription or premium battlepass, and will be buyable as a premium product like previous games in the series.
Revealed by studio head Collin Johanson during an IGN Live interview, following the game’s reveal at Summer Game Fest, the game will be playable “as much or as little” as people want.
He also highlighted a perception around MMOs that they are like “second jobs”, and you have to give up a chunk of your life to play these sorts of games. Johanson emphasised that ArenaNet has no intention of “keeping people hostage”, as was the case in previous Guild Wars games.
Johanson also said the team at ArenaNet is aiming to target MMO problems currently frustrating players around right now. “We feel like right now, the MMO genre is ready for something new. That it has stagnated, and we’re playing the same games for over a decade. This is when ArenaNet is at its best, when we say let’s solve these problems and innovate.”
This tracks with how previous Guild Wars games have worked. The original Guild Wars was noteworthy due to its no-subscription model, with players able to play it as long as desired with a single purchase. Guild Wars 2 too had no subscription, instead supported by expansions and cosmetic microtransactions.
Guild Wars 2 does have the Wizard’s Vault, a free-to-access selection of daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges. These provide currency which can be exchanged for in-game items and exclusive cosmetics. All free, no real money required.
In addition, ArenaNet announced that both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 will continue to be supported even with Guild Wars 3 on the horizon. Guild Wars 2 is having expansions paused until the release of the sequel, though work will be done improving older portions of the game in the meantime. In addition, once Guild Wars 3 releases, expansions will continue to be released for Guild Wars 2. So, in short, all three games will remain supported for the foreseeable future.
