"Guild Wars 2 will not get a third expansion, at least not any time soon" - Mike Z

[Metal.3194]

So, MMORPG released a new article yesterday, in which they mention that during a talk with Mike Z at Gamescon, Mike Z said there wouldn't be a 3rd expansion, or at least any time soon (as we know this could be another 2-3 years, which means IF we do end up seeing a 3rd expansion, it'll likely be in 2021 or 2022, leaving us 4-5 years without expansions, which translates to 4-5 years of no new exposure, no exciting comment, and mostly, less revenue for ANET).

Here's the reference:

"Back in 2018, Mike Z sat down with us at Gamescom and revealed that Guild Wars 2 would not get a third expansion, at least not any time soon. Instead, the Seattle studio would plow on with the Living Story, an episodic injection of content that periodically expands the frontiers of Tyria while edging the narrative of the game further forward. It's a formula that has worked relatively well for some time, and after the incendiary pace of Living Story Season 2, it finally seemed that this might be ArenaNet settling into a sustainable cadence that suited the studio."

You can read more at https://www.mmorpg.com/guild-wars-2/columns/guild-wars-2-more-than-just-a-damage-number-1000013464#PX8XQz63Ol0dTtvM.99 if you feel like reading everything (pretty good article).

Now, we'll have to see if LWS5 will ACTUALLY bring "expansion-like" content (i highly doubt this. It is mostly PR talk to get people hyped). But this brings a problem, LW episodes do NOT bring new players in, at best, it brings some veterans back for 2 hours of content and then they proceed to a (?better?) MMO game.

Discuss.

[AsPeeXXXVIII.9571]

It makes sense that a third expansion wouldn't even be in serious consideration when PoF was released not too long ago.

[vyncius.6105]

@AsPeeXXXVIII.9571 said:It makes sense that a third expansion wouldn't even be in serious consideration when PoF was released not too long ago.

pof is almost 18 months old, we sure need new one

[Loosmaster.8263]

Well that pretty much falls in the timeline we can expect the completion of the World Restructuring for WvW. Welcome to the "Soon" mode.

[derd.6413]

looks like they're just talking about season 4 going straight into season 5.

this is old news at this point

[otto.5684]

@AsPeeXXXVIII.9571 said:It makes sense that a third expansion wouldn't even be in serious consideration when PoF was released not too long ago.

PoF was released on Sept of 2017. How is that not too long ago?

If there is not an expansion next year, the game will never have one cuz there is not going to be enough players to buy it.

[Arkantos.7460]

yay powershiro tpvp for all eternity.....

[Blocki.4931]

We don't know any timespan. When 2018? December? We still have one episode of Season 4, then Season 5 starts 3ish months after that. Assuming it will be another 6 episode season that is another year and a half of content to be released this way. An expansion would be 2020 earliest. So 2 years after that comment was made. Big nothingburger.

We'll see about the scope of Season 5 soon enough. Season 4 has already given us a taste of "expansion scale" content. New armor sets, new weapon sets. We will get the Season 4 legendary trinket (most likely) and another legendary ring from raids.

If anything needs to change they have to absolutely drop the episodes being contained in themselves. Make content/abilities from Ep 1 of a season relevant in the future as well. Do not worry about people missing out if they skipped an episode, they can easily buy them if they care for the story. If they didn't bother logging in even once during that time they don't have a right to complain about missing out, or claiming it's unfair to them. If they are late, give us bundles with reduced prices or big sales on full season "passes" for lack of a better term.

Edit: I also want to add that the recent layoffs do not have me worried about this whatsoever. They admitted that GW2 wasn't their main focus. The layoffs mean that it will be back in that position. This should speed things up a little, quality and content wise. That would be the most reasonable plan forward anyway.

[Teratus.2859]

I agree with Derd.. I think he was just referencing season 4 going straight into season 5 rather than into an expansion which is what a lot of us were expecting.

I still expect an expansion after season 5 in all honesty.. or at the very latest.. after season 6.Really depends how the story all pans out around Kralkatorrik.. and no matter how good the living world gets, I still firmly believe that killing an Elder Dragon in living world would be a big mistake and a waste of one of the game's main antagonists.Paid Expansions are the best place for those kinds of events.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Fact checks:

• Gamescon 2018, the reported time of the interview, was held in August 2018
• Assuming an average delivery of 90 days per LS episodes starting with LS4.5, LS5.5 would release around July 2020, 16 months from now.

From August 2018 to July 2020 is 2 years, which I think most people can agree is "not any time soon" compared to the date of the interview. It's unclear, however, if @Mike Zadorojny.7058 meant that ANet had no plans for Ex3, if they were already working on Ex3 for after LS5, or if they were waiting to see before deciding.

But that's the same information we had when ANet first announced that LS5 would start immediately after LS4, i.e. the new article doesn't change anything. People predicting ANet's demise or GW2's death will still cry that the sky is falling. People who believed that things are fine will still say this is expected, this is just a glitch in the long run (even if big). And folks like me who think it's too soon to have any idea at all about anything happening more than 6 months from now will still say we haven't any idea, not yet.

tl;dr old news

[Master Ketsu.4569]

With the layoffs and restructuring anything they said before about the future direction of the game should be taken with a grain of salt.

[Healix.5819]

They had likely planned on running the living world with a minimal team for a few more years while they were focused on their other project. Now that they need more funds, expect expansions to be the new focus and occur more quickly. They ultimately need a new game however, as GW2 is only guaranteed to decline no matter what.

[derd.6413]

@"Healix.5819" said:They had likely planned on running the living world with a minimal team for a few more years while they were focused on their other project. Now that they need more funds, expect expansions to be the new focus and occur more quickly. They ultimately need a new game however, as GW2 is only guaranteed to decline no matter what.

i was wondering when the "anet broke, gw2 dead" post would show up

[Ayakaru.6583]

I think the mention of 'for a while' is referring to the fact that if season 5 has 6 episodes like before, with approximately 3 months per, we're looking at a year and a half of living world again.They stated season 5 episodes would be slightly bigger with more expansion quality content (which could still mean anything at this point).

So ye, it will be 2021 by the time it'd be open for another expansion.

But i agree, two chains of living world, with the second set even bigger than the prior, we're looking at a financial dip.

[Balsa.3951]

Good Not even sure need x pacts . I imagine Anet runs the numbers between investment and win and may so that expansion not really pay off. They split population in the once who has and who not have go full free to play some day could make it easier to get new player hooked.

Specialization could still be added in fact everything could be added without one big x pac. The gem shop could be the way to go for everything so u buy those specialization only the ones u want even so I hope gemshop stays cosmetic only

[Haishao.6851]

Makes sense since at the time they were full on that other project so no other expansion were planned for a while.Maybe that'll change now after restructuring. I'd personally prefer if they still managed to go on with the other project.

[Hexalot.8194]

@derd.6413 said:

@"Healix.5819" said:They had likely planned on running the living world with a minimal team for a few more years while they were focused on their other project. Now that they need more funds, expect expansions to be the new focus and occur more quickly. They ultimately need a new game however, as GW2 is only guaranteed to decline no matter what.

i was wondering when the "anet broke, gw2 dead" post would show up

Nothing to do with broke or dead. Just a fact in gaming that as a game ages it's revenue earning potential declines as well. Not everyone is planning on sticking with GW2 for the next 15 years with the same fanatical fervor as you are, ya know. ;-)

[mortrialus.3062]

While Living World has been excellent since Season 3 started as far as I'm concerned. And Season 4 has truly lived up to expansion "quality" content like Roller Beetle, Warclaw Soon, as well as the epic quality and scope of storytelling. However nothing compared to the excitement and joy as logging in one day knowing you have an entirely new continent worth of zones to explore, with an entire new batch of skills for all the classes to learn and wrap their heads around. Just opening the map, and seeing not just one but five, six, potentially seven knew zones that could be filled with anything is huge part of what makes MMORPGs as a genre fun and rewarding to play.

I think Arenanet's reasoning is that at the time when you ignore the projects in the background that were canceled, Guild Wars 2 on it's own is doing better than it has been in a while. Especially during Heart of Thorns and the end of Core Tyria. Mount skins have proven to be profitable in a way nothing else in the cash shop ever has been. So financially they're probably right in that they can keep updating with living world and be well off for some time without needing an expansion to draw attention and drop new features and get a huge wave of boxed sales and new people coming in.

I think Arenanet's final test for proving to us that the game can be just as fulfilling without the need for huge expansions is for the next generation of Elite Specializations to drop in a Living World Episode, preferably the start of Episode 5 would be a great way to open the new season. They've shown us they can do new mounts, they can do huge story missions, and huge maps each Living World release. Elite Specializations are the last thing that only expansions have been able to deliver so far. Plus 2 elite specializations is an unusual number to end on and 3 specializations would feel much better.

[Kanok.3027]

Honestly, I'm perfectly okay with this and encourage it. Expansions usually mean new elite specs and honestly, we have more than enough to work with for the time being. Base classes (9), HoT specs (9) and PoF specs (9) for a total of 27 different ways to play, combined with different builds for each, which makes it even more chaotic. I'd rather the current classes and specs be tuned and balanced better before introducing a new elite spec. Plus, we still have lots of story to go through and we get new maps with each release, so what's the point in getting up in arms about it? Content will still be released! New masteries, maybe new mounts, we might even get something COMPLETELY new! Just because it's not an expansion doesn't mean they can't release something new.

I say, leave it be for some time until good ideas and better balance occurs...although the latter will take much longer than we'd all like.

[zealex.9410]

I feels like whatever thw unannounce projects were we were going to start learning about them after s5.

Since that tho is no more im curious how it will affect them, i mean, the lay off article said it best, box sales are king.

Pof took them what, 18 months of development? With that in mind we could see an expansion late mid to late 2020.

Alternatively they will just roll a se6 after a season 5, i REALLY hope the gane isnt going to be lw until the end of its life span, expansions are too good to not provide to the player.

[C Cspace Cowboy.5903]

They can’t properly balance what they got now and y’all want more profession classes? Lmao

[Hesacon.8735]

The problem with an expansion is it takes a long time to build it right. HoT and PoF were in development for a long time. Unless a new expansion is half-finished, it would be challenging to have it ready by the end of LW5. If development hasn't started, we're in for a really long wait.

I suppose if LW5 changed formats and was less resource heavy like LW2, there might be enough resources to roll an expansion out in a year.

[Balsa.3951]

@C Cspace Cowboy.5903 said:They can’t properly balance what they got now and y’all want more profession classes? Lmao

If they stop now with new specs we may get a build template:)

[mortrialus.3062]

@C Cspace Cowboy.5903 said:They can’t properly balance what they got now and y’all want more profession classes? Lmao

Yes. Elite specializations are the most fun thing about expansions aside from a wealth of new regions to explore. And heck theory crafting new OP builds from Elite Specs is half the fun of elite specs too.

[Balsa.3951]

@mortrialus.3062 said:

@C Cspace Cowboy.5903 said:They can’t properly balance what they got now and y’all want more profession classes? Lmao

Yes. Elite specializations are the most fun thing about expansions aside from a wealth of new regions to explore.

New regions u get with the ls already but it’s sadly also so that with each x pact core professions need to be redone kinda as well to be not broken and it must be done in a way to not affect existing spez.

Sometimes I think Anet didn’t done themselves a favor with that....a full new class could been easier to balance