Another delay might be necessary.

[zealex.9410]

Before you tear me apart im not saying this exclusively because of the state of what we've seen so far from eod, in an unlucky turn of events Feb specifically and generally early q1 is shaping up to be an incredibly loaded quarter for gaming.

 

To name a few we have Dying light 2 thesequel to the very succesful Dl1 on Feb 4, Horizon Forbiden west on Feb 18, Destiny 2 WhichQueen on Feb 22, Elden Ring on Feb 25 and Saints row on the same date.

The first major patch for final fantasy 14 Endwalker which will include story and an ultimate among many other new stuff is slated for late Feb as well and its heavily speculated that Wow's 9.2 (which supposedly blizzard is even taking ppl off the the next expansion to make sure they get it out) is highly likely to release late Feb to compete with that ff14 patch. 

This is only some of the bigger releases on the month and theres just as many small ones. I think it was wise for anet to delay the expac into 2022 but looking at the gaming landscape and how loaded it will be it might be wise to push it back to late March or mid April.

Internal matters with the expansion itself also support a case for delaying it further:

Gw2 has had a couple very rough years following the layoffs mid Season 4 and the scope cut of Season 5 for eod. Its also worth aknowledging that so far most of the stuff shown have been somewhat divisive, the quality and polish of the masteries shown so far have been for many lackluster, every single elite spec shown so far has been problematic and are in clear need of more work and polish.

Im not saying any of these features are bad or are destined to unimpress, but, anet really needs a win and they can only achieve that by having a smooth launch for the best posible product they can ship. EOD needs to be the best it can quality and quantity wise and it needs to perform as good as it possibly can finantially for the sake of Anet the studio itself. To that end i think they should steer clear of feb and or q1 entirely to avoid the fierce competition and ensure the expac takes all the time it need to deliver.

Edited October 18, 2021 by zealex.9410

[witcher.3197]

There's something happening every month, they can't keep delaying things indefinitely because of that.

And it doesn't matter when it's going to release, Blizzard is always keeping track of new releases so whenever Anet's releasing EoD they'll also release something for retail or TBC or classic fresh anyways. Can't dodge everything.

Edited October 18, 2021 by witcher.3197

[zealex.9410]

44 minutes ago, witcher.3197 said:

There's something happening every month, they can't keep delaying things indefinitely because of that.

And it doesn't matter when it's going to release, Blizzard is always keeping track of new releases so whenever Anet's releasing EoD they'll also release something for retail or TBC or classic fresh anyways. Can't dodge everything.

Feb doesnt consist of something and then gw2, its literally stacked with new game releases as well as big updates to many popular titles.

As for wow, true but its mot likely thehy will ship their a game update to compete with ff14s first and foremost and whats left to hit other releases, TBC isnt doing so hot and classic fresh is lukewarm at best, i think EOD could compete there.

Edited October 18, 2021 by zealex.9410

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Or, another delay might turn off prospective purchasers.  Or send veterans elsewhere.  🤷‍♂️

[Jumpel.3972]

1 hour ago, zealex.9410 said:

To name a few we have Dying light 2 thesequel to the very succesful Dl1 on Feb 4, Horizon Forbiden west on Feb 18, Destiny 2 WhichQueen on Feb 22, Elden Ring on Feb 25 and Saints row on the same date.

So there is room in early Feb like the first wich is a Tuesday 😁

[Mungo Zen.9364]

1 hour ago, zealex.9410 said:

Im not saying any of these features are bad or are destined to unimpress, but, anet really needs a win and they can only achieve that by having a smooth launch for the best posible product they can ship. EOD needs to be the best it can quality and quantity wise and it needs to perform as good as it possibly can finantially for the sake of Anet the studio itself. To that end i think they should steer clear of feb and or q1 entirely to avoid the fierce competition and ensure the expac takes all the time it need to deliver.

What?

Why does Anet need a win?  How does that affect the average player?  Why show a lack of faith that Anet can deliver on what they promised?

Given that they have already pushed back the release to February I would say that they are already taking the time they need.  Combined with the visible number of presales Raptor skins being used, I think they are in pretty great shape so far.

And if it sucks?  Hey thanks for giving me a list of other games I might want to play instead, but I will worry about that in February, not October.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

There's ALWAYS competition for games.  And I don't care about any of the other ones you listed.  So, ANet, please aim for that February release!

[Ashantara.8731]

The only valid reason for a delay would be their willingness to do a complete overhaul of all the new elite specs and come up with something far better than the Willbender and other terrible specs.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

1 hour ago, Jumpel.3972 said:

So there is room in early Feb like the first wich is a Tuesday 😁

The Devs have already announced late February for the release.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-winter-livestream-broadcast-schedule/

[Jumpel.3972]

26 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The Devs have already announced late February for the release.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-winter-livestream-broadcast-schedule/

 Ho ! I miss this one.

Thank

[b k.1648]

Most of those other releases are in different genres and won't be competing for the same players. They'd want to avoid coinciding with expansion releases for other major MMOs, but a small content patch doesn't count.

[Puck.3697]

6 hours ago, zealex.9410 said:

To that end i think they should steer clear of feb and or q1 entirely to avoid the fierce competition and ensure the expac takes all the time it need to deliver.

theres a Secondary factor you ignore.

The Longer something is Shown but not "launched" by default kills hype continously... it becomes Old news and over saturated in Datamining and more, something remaining in "Suspense" for too long is also super negative.

Its important yes the game gets a good launch Date. but at the same time its also important to get New Stuff flowing into your game.. this games lacking some major updates realistically. and is lacking new content to keep it relevant. if it needs Delaying to Polish the game or improve the Content sure, but for the sake of dodging other things happening is likely a bad Start

[zealex.9410]

2 hours ago, Daddy.8125 said:

theres a Secondary factor you ignore.

The Longer something is Shown but not "launched" by default kills hype continously... it becomes Old news and over saturated in Datamining and more, something remaining in "Suspense" for too long is also super negative.

Its important yes the game gets a good launch Date. but at the same time its also important to get New Stuff flowing into your game.. this games lacking some major updates realistically. and is lacking new content to keep it relevant. if it needs Delaying to Polish the game or improve the Content sure, but for the sake of dodging other things happening is likely a bad Start

I imagine they wouldnt say "hey we are delaying this to avoid some of the heat from February" then proceed to sit an do nothing from february till the next release.

[Puck.3697]

2 minutes ago, zealex.9410 said:

I imagine they wouldnt say "hey we are delaying this to avoid some of the heat from February" then proceed to sit an do nothing from february till the next release.

thats where your wrong.. game has a allocated budget, once they've spent the budget they cant work on anything further without launching something to generate money.

so no, game would reach a State where they stop working on it til launch.

[Sobx.1758]

Yes, now that a random player (not meant as anything offensive, I see all of us as "random players") made a thread saying "another delay might be neccessary", I'm sure Anet will seriously consider that possibility if they didn't want to do it before creation of this thread.

10 hours ago, zealex.9410 said:

Internal matters with the expansion itself also support a case for delaying it further:

Stop pretending you know anything valuable about the "internal matters" of a company that will somehow let you "help the company decide" about the delay of their expansion. You don't. This thread is just weird and I don't understand what its actual, realistic purpose is.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[radda.8920]

Regardless of the release date, it will only be regular Guild Wars 2 players who will purchase this expansion.

frankly what type of player do you want to attract with this? no raid, no pvp, no new class, soporific features like fishing a carp ...

This extension is emptiness, it is no longer useful to delay it, it is irrecoverable.

They have no content to sell, given the competition, it is already lost to attract anyone except the regulars players. So on the contrary, if they take a long time to launch it, they risk scaring off the only people who are sure to buy it.

Edited October 19, 2021 by radda.8920

[NotTooFoolish.7412]

The only reason to delay the expac would be if it was not ready for launch by Feb 2022. Anet mentioned the month couple of times already, we are following a still accurate roadmap, that ain't happening. 

Bringing up Saints Row and Dying Light releases here makes no sense at all. Those games are targetted at a different audiences, there's nothing wrong with liking both titles and GW2 simultaneously (that's not the whole demographic!).

Are we worried about other MMORPGs? Who has time to play 2 of those aside from streamers and teenagers? Go live a little, meet some people, see a movie... and then come back to grind some more legendaries with us. This is not the time for panic (hello, fellow AB enjoyers), this is the time for hype. We have content, there's more to come... HYPE.
 

[Faridah.8431]

There's no reason to delay at this point unless it just isn't finished by end of Feb 2022. You don't delay another month of two and get grand new features out of it. At this stage the work is refining what they've built, fixing things, etc.

Also, why would an MMO care about when a racing game and Dying Light 2 release? Every month has game releases.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[Dami.5046]

I get the impression OP has a ton of games they want to play next year and Gw2 isn't high on the list. 

However, they have already moved the release date once to February, and rightly or wrongly pretty much committed to that date.   

Unless they hit major issues, i don't think another push back would be in Anets favour. 

 

[AgentMoore.9453]

11 hours ago, radda.8920 said:

frankly what type of player do you want to attract with this?

Near as I can tell, the target audience is new players who skip straight to the third expansion, existing players, and those who want/like the atmosphere Cantha is going to provide. It may also attract a few people who like fishing and boats in other games who might piddle around doing it in GW2 just because it's there.

..but I think you're right that mostly it's just going to be existing players who pick this one up, either as a matter of loyalty, desperation, or some misguided impression that buying it will result in getting the features they want put in the game via funding. I'm pretty dubious about EoD given what happened with IBS; if they could toss that many plot points over their shoulder to make way for the next big thing, it follows that they can (and may) do so again.
 

21 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Why does Anet need a win?  Why show a lack of faith that Anet can deliver on what they promised?

*Gestures at the Icebrood Saga*

LS5 was very poorly received, and ArenaNet repeatedly told us that resources were being pulled from it in order to release a truly spectacular expansion. If EoD ends up not being truly spectacular (or at least on par/better than average), it'll just be one more thing that wasn't delivered on. That's why people feel that a lot is riding on EoD's success (or failure), because of those expectations laid out by ArenaNet.

@ OP: Personally, I don't think what other games are doing in February matters at all to the people who are looking at buying a GW2 expansion. I also don't believe the layoffs had anything to do with GW2, but rather some side projects that were leeching resources away from GW2 which put ArenaNet in dire straights that NCSoft later had to slap them out of. The issues they have are poor marketing and poor product/project management, not monetary (though one usually does lead to the other).

I'd hope February is already the delay that was needed, but we really don't know how far along they are with EoD's development, so unfortunately we can't decisively say 'this needs a delay' until it's too late to change anything (ie: launch day when we see what they have).

[Mungo Zen.9364]

2 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

*Gestures at the Icebrood Saga*

LS5 was very poorly received, and ArenaNet repeatedly told us that resources were being pulled from it in order to release a truly spectacular expansion. If EoD ends up not being truly spectacular (or at least on par/better than average), it'll just be one more thing that wasn't delivered on. That's why people feel that a lot is riding on EoD's success (or failure), because of those expectations laid out by ArenaNet.

I don't recall them saying it will be 'truly spectacular' but then I also ignore a lot of superlative adjectives/adverbs.  They are going to release an expansion, and the metric which we as players might define a win is probably not the same metric Anet is going to use.

Anet provided some fairly solid reasons for why IBS was delivered as it was.  They didn't sugarcoat that they didn't have the resources available to complete it as intended, and that they were diverting some of what they did have away to EoD.  They also didn't hide from the fact that they wanted more time to tell the IBS storyline.

Circumstances dictated a change in direction for the team and I would suggest that EoD would have to be worse than IBS for EoD to not be a win.  Yes, I am suggesting that EoD could be as bad as IBS and still be very successful.  However, the number of things Anet does deliver on, and has done so to warm reception, are positives many overlook.  DX11 is a huge win, for example, since it expands the ability for players to play the game.  UI/UX updates also make it easier for players to play the game.  Legendary Armory (with a few vocal exceptions) is a massive QoL change.  Even giving away the entire Living World series for free this year has been a positive experience for many players.  Plus updates to Festivals and Rush weeks and various game modes etc.  Oh and didn't they re-hire a bunch of the better developers/leaders they have had with the team to lead them into the Expansion?

/shrug

Anet puts out a product that is sometimes great, sometimes awful but usually in between leaning towards 'pretty good'.  I don't expect anything more or less for EoD or any other future content.  It will be playable and some people will enjoy it, hopefully me too.

[Puck.3697]

14 hours ago, radda.8920 said:

Regardless of the release date, it will only be regular Guild Wars 2 players who will purchase this expansion.

frankly what type of player do you want to attract with this? no raid, no pvp, no new class, soporific features like fishing a carp ...

This extension is emptiness, it is no longer useful to delay it, it is irrecoverable.

They have no content to sell, given the competition, it is already lost to attract anyone except the regulars players. So on the contrary, if they take a long time to launch it, they risk scaring off the only people who are sure to buy it.

Not rly true. I joined the game during a time with no new raids also. 

Most mmorpgs don't launch expansions with raids on day 1 it's pretty expected and for a new player every proffession is new they don't need new proffessions to choose from. 

WvWvW is getting a overhaul. 

There is PvP... And new elites and more will create new PvP metas and balancing. 

[radda.8920]

4 hours ago, Daddy.8125 said:

Not rly true. I joined the game during a time with no new raids also. 

Most mmorpgs don't launch expansions with raids on day 1 it's pretty expected and for a new player every proffession is new they don't need new proffessions to choose from. 

WvWvW is getting a overhaul. 

There is PvP... And new elites and more will create new PvP metas and balancing. 

 

pvp is absolute emptiness, when you look at the evolution close to nothingness for 9 years. When you see gw1 which was filled with interesting  pvp modes, i find it sad

But  it's too late now. it's not just by changing the meta that you give a revival to pvp.... cantha had lots of pvp modes on gw1, it was an opportunity to be inspired by it.

 

but I guess the fishing was more urgent

[Dami.5046]

If anything they should change the name. 

My opinion. 

 

[witcher.3197]

On 10/18/2021 at 6:45 PM, zealex.9410 said:

Feb doesnt consist of something and then gw2, its literally stacked with new game releases as well as big updates to many popular titles.

As for wow, true but its mot likely thehy will ship their a game update to compete with ff14s first and foremost and whats left to hit other releases, TBC isnt doing so hot and classic fresh is lukewarm at best, i think EOD could compete there.

Maybe you are right and it looks stacked but think about this: there are months until February. Lots of things could still be announced by then. What if Anet says "okay we'll delay it until May"? That's half a year away, maybe things will come out in May we don't even know of yet.

Choosing not to compete isn't always great either. If you release something later than a competitor and people are hooked on that already then you're screwed anyway. Making the game good is what matters most.

Edited October 20, 2021 by witcher.3197