[UPDATED] Guild Wars 2 is Coming to Steam - [Merged]

[Flash.7465]

Wow, amazing news! Just awesome! Please, oh please make it so we can link our current accounts with our Steam accounts! :(

[Deihnyx.6318]

What if I buy the game on steam, but then log in with my current account?That's what I did for GW1 and it works.

[Luthan.5236]

A good idea - since on Steam you can gather a lot more new players. Especially since the game is free if you play without the expansions.I just hope there won't be exclusive stuff being sold on Stream which people not active there could miss. :P

Hopefully we'll slow a bit down with releases until the next expansion. So steam new players can settle and catch up a bit.

(I guess the next expansion might happen late next year and until then finishing of the releases of the Icebrood Saga with 4 more chapters or so. Sounds like a good time plan. Upcoming next months will have mainly festivals with Halloween and Wintersday - good for new players to enjoy some festival stuff with everyone.)

[Schumi.4285]

How will game updates be handled on Steam?Will they just download the launcher and then update from the same servers as every non-Steam player or will they receive game updates via Steam?Just asking because lots of people put a negative review on Steam for the newest Flight Sim because of the fact that a launcher downloading stuff counts as play time on steam making people lose their 2 hour refund window. Don't give them ammo for some negative reviews :)If it's f2p at start it won't be a problem though....

[RobbyBunny.2948]

I seriously hope they do something to address the fact you cannot link or transfer your existing GW2 account to steam. I've worked hard on my Legendaries (Eternity) SAB infusions, mounts and guild. It's not reasonable to expect me to start again just to play on my prefered platform.

You're supposed to respect your loyal players. This just makes me feel like an afterthought in AN's eyes.

[Widmo.3186]

Cool move, but still...

@Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:However, please note that you cannot convert an existing Guild Wars 2 account to a Steam account or convert a Steam account to a non-Steam account.Is there a limit of foolishness from ANet side? Cant you act like a normal company, like kakao games which moved to steam with BDO and allowed ppl to log-in through steam? No? I ask for too much?

[Edgewalker.5963]

That's amazing news for the game and I hope both ANet and the players will make good use of it, further expanding the player base.

If I may suggest something, though, regarding the Steam page...

1) Explain how the game has been developing (two expansions made, Living Worlds releases, third expansion in the works) so that nobody can say it's a "ded gaem", as it constantly grows. The "dead game" comments are guaranteed and are already flowing in.2) At the same time, make it clear we've got a horizontal progression system here, which is unique for MMOs. It should alleviate the fears of those saying "meh, this is an 8-year-old MMORPG, no chance I'm gonna spend tens of hours catching up on empty maps before I get to max level and can actually do something". Such mindset is typical (and justified, to be honest) in the genre, but it doesn't fit GW2. Make it your strength.3) We've got gliders, which might attract more than Aion players, and we've got absolutely best-in-class mounts. Why isn't either mentioned anywhere? Why is the gliding player visible on a single screenshot (and in a perspective that doesn't convey the "we have gliding" message)? Why aren't there mounts ANYWHERE in the screenshots?4) Speaking of screenshots - you mention awe-inspiring landscapes, which is 100% true... and the only screenshot that shows us a larger area is that one orange-tinted pic from the HoT era? Come on! You've got magnificent Divinity's Reach and other much, much better-looking material to show.5) Finally, meta events are the majority of typical PvE gameplay and, again, it is not mentioned or showcased visually. You've got Drizzlewood metas, impressive bosses such as Claw of Jormag, and the only group event shown is the Xera encounter? It clearly looks like a raid, so it's a good choice, but that's not representative enough.

[krz.1327]

why november?

[Cronos.6532]

Also, Steam rewards players for buying on their platform, so it would be nice to have money spent on Guild Wars 2 to go towards that.

Hope you guys add trading cards, etc., when the game becomes eligible!

[Yoshioka.4967]

Prepare to not be able to properly play the game in the next months. The servers can't handle these simple festivals imagine with the incoming players...

[Zero.6517]

and please add the Russian language to the game, which the Russian community has been waiting for for eight years. (we hope You hear us someday)

[sixburn.5807]

Is it exclusive on Steam? or is there a chance for GW2 to come to Epic Games too or GoG?

[shadowfoxza.2537]

Glad to see the game come to Steam, and look forward to seeing new players in the game.

For those of you who somehow feel that you're being ignored by Anet because you can't link your account - would you stop being entitled for a moment and consider that there might be technical issues that stop it from being a straightforward implementation? It's not like you absolutely HAVE to play via Steam and suddenly lose all your progress over the past number of years - because going by some of the comments (here and on Facebook), some people are acting like they're being told to start over.

I've got a few online games who joined Steam well after launch, so I've seen this situation happen before. Technical limitations is first on my list of probable reasons that it's not being implemented - and you never know, they might figure out a way to implement it sometime in the future.

[gurkoz.3284]

Omg i was so excited about a Steam release and then 5 seconds later i realized this trash. Seriously. Look at SWTOR that just did the same transition. All to the BENEFIT of both developers and the players..

This effectively makes me want to play LESS since i want to play through Steam and i eventually have to start over..

I get it. It's complicated. But just let us do a one-time move if that makes it any easier for you.

[Corpus Christi.2057]

To ArenaNet,

While this news is generally great, as I'm also one of those many that use Steam for most of my games, when I realised, if I understand it correctly, that you will not be able to use your current Account that I have had since the game's premiere on Steam, it became pretty much pointless to introduce it for me and the alikes. I mean, it is really smart to have new players attracted via the most popular gaming platform, Steam, let's be honest here - the majority would still be the existing or returning players, not the new players. Therefore, not allowing to use an existing account on Steam with tens of thounsands of hours spent and achievements unlocked, is extremely bad an idea. I'm rather confident the majority of playerbase would really like the idea of transfering the account and progress from many years to Steam and at the same time they're unlikely to create new accounts just for the sake of having a game on Steam with a new account. MMORPGs are games that like the idea of continually developing an existing account and having it progress further and further, and that's why not allowing us to have our accounts used on Steam would seem pretty illogical.

I can only hope that You guys, as great as you are, will re-evaluate your position and introduce the Steam version for the existing ArenaNet client users so we can continue the progress of our accounts on Steam.

Best regards,

Your 8th-anniversary account User and devoted Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 player, Corpus

[particlepinata.9865]

I wonder how this will work with the future expansion. Does that mean that a steam version will not be upgradable to a existing non steam version by that time?

[Pifil.5193]

@particlepinata.9865 said:I wonder how this will work with the future expansion. Does that mean that a steam version will not be upgradable to a existing non steam version by that time?

I would think that it would continue to work the same way: the stream version would require the stream version of the expansion the non stream version will require the non steam version.

[Pifil.5193]

@gurkoz.3284 said:Omg i was so excited about a Steam release and then 5 seconds later i realized this trash. Seriously. Look at SWTOR that just did the same transition. All to the BENEFIT of both developers and the players..

This effectively makes me want to play LESS since i want to play through Steam and i eventually have to start over..

Why would you want to play through steam? What's the difference?

I mean you're going to be launching the same game (probably with the same launcher) as you are now but by clicking on an icon on steam.

[Donari.5237]

I avoid Steam for the most part, though I have to use it to try out New World shortly, and I think Baldur's Gate 3 will be on it only as well. So I can't give direct warnings. But note that people who have ESO on Steam have had numerous problems over the past years per the forums, to the point that playing ESO via Steam has been a source of regret for many. Glitched patching, blocked logins, etc. Any time someone there asks for advice on using Steam for ESO, they get a lot of "don't do it" replies.

I hope this newer partnership goes more smoothly. Getting new players in that wouldn't have tried the game without Steam will be wonderful -- so long as they don't get such a terrible connection experience that they decide the fault lies in ANet rather than Steam and turn it into negative press.

[krz.1327]

@shadowfoxza.2537 said:Glad to see the game come to Steam, and look forward to seeing new players in the game.

For those of you who somehow feel that you're being ignored by Anet because you can't link your account - would you stop being entitled for a moment and consider that there might be technical issues that stop it from being a straightforward implementation? It's not like you absolutely HAVE to play via Steam and suddenly lose all your progress over the past number of years - because going by some of the comments (here and on Facebook), some people are acting like they're being told to start over.

I've got a few online games who joined Steam well after launch, so I've seen this situation happen before. Technical limitations is first on my list of probable reasons that it's not being implemented - and you never know, they might figure out a way to implement it sometime in the future.

for some people the fact that they can inflate their hours played number on steam is more important than actually playing the game

[TreeDude.7480]

@sixburn.5807 said:Is it exclusive on Steam? or is there a chance for GW2 to come to Epic Games too or GoG?

GoG is DRM free and their 2.0 client has GW2 integration so I don't see the point there. Epic's store is still quite basic and lacks the social aspects of Steam.

I really want to be able to use my current account with Steam. I would even be willing to make a purchase to do it.

[XenoSpyro.1780]

@Seymourx.1372 said:recommended settings looks strange24GB ram ?!?Yeah this is a lie. You can use a machine with as low as 8 GB and you'd still be fine, minus the loss of dual channel. Hell, even 4 would be feasible as long as you have an SSD to make up for drive swap. This is even WITH the dx12 wrapper by the way, which can increase ram usage.@"Butterfly Kingdom.8349" said:please note that you cannot convert an existing Guild Wars 2 account to a Steam account or convert a Steam account to a non-Steam account.I'm sorry, "convert"? Whatever happen to just logging in using an email? Path of Exile has this figured out.

[Danikat.8537]

@Pifil.5193 said:

@gurkoz.3284 said:Omg i was so excited about a Steam release and then 5 seconds later i realized this trash. Seriously. Look at SWTOR that just did the same transition. All to the BENEFIT of both developers and the players..

This effectively makes me want to play LESS since i want to play through Steam and i eventually have to start over..

Why would you want to play through steam? What's the difference?

I mean you're going to be launching the same game (probably with the same launcher) as you are now but by clicking on an icon on steam.

I don't get it either. I know Steam has it's own friends list so I guess it makes it a bit easier to add people you know in real life or from other games, but I don't see why it would be so important to some people to go through a 3rd party to launch the same game they've already got.

[Xivos.9102]

"you cannot convert an existing Guild Wars 2 account to a Steam account or convert a Steam account to a non-Steam account."But why? whats the point? I was thinking about going back into GW2 world, and maybe get some of my friends to play, but there is no reason for me to do that? I cant get steam achivements, cards, and play time.

[zellurs.8601]

First of all, I want to say this was a great decision and long overdue. The MMO Rift which came out around the same time as GW2 reportedly had the highest amount of new players ever once they had their f2p launch on Steam. If you're at all familiar with the Guild Wars 2 subreddit, I'm sure you've noticed that there are constantly new posts by people who are shocked by how much they like the game and the fact they've heard next to nothing about it - I'm certain a Steam launch will draw in new players that will stick with Guild Wars 2.

I'd really like to see this transition go well, so I'd recommend the following things:

1) Incentivize current Guild Wars 2 players to log in and put in hours through Steam. - I recently decided I wanted to pick up a looter-shooter and I was deciding between Destiny 2 and Warframe. Ultimately I went with Destiny 2 first because it had twice the amount of players logging in that Warframe did at the time. Set a time frame where veteran players get some exclusive or rare items when logging in through Steam. Make it worth it.

2) Cross promotion - I'm not sure if Valve really does this much anymore, but I know with Team Fortress 2 they did lots of cross promotion cosmetics, for example buying Deus Ex net me some TF2 cosmetics based on items featured in Deus Ex. I believe the same thing is done with DOTA2, and the high fantasy settings mesh with GW2's well. I really think if this option is available that it should be leveraged. Maybe doing a quest in GW2 ties to unlocking an achievement in your Steam profile, which unlocks a skin for DOTA2.

3) Steam Marketplace - Not many developers really engage with the marketplace and that's a missed opportunity. I realize the amount of work it'd take to consolidate the player's entire inventory on Steam, which is why I think a "giftwrap" option would be a good idea. Basically you buy a piece of wrapping paper from the gemstore and you can put a tradeable item inside of it, which transfers it to your linked Steam account Inventory, which can then be sold on the marketplace. I'm not sure if devs get a cut from the market purchase, but you'd be making money on the wrap at the very least.

4) Steam Cards - more of an afterthought really but having Steam cards, emojis, backgrounds etc is always nice.

I'm positive simply having GW2 available on Steam will draw in new players, but I really do believe that if Anet goes the extra mile in integrating and promoting within Steam, it could be the flagship MMO of the platform.