Yearly/Semi-Yearly Expansions Sounds a lot like Icebrood Saga we pay for.

[MarkoGold.7126]

Also you might want to acutally update the sab event its like the only one i have any intrerest in and you cant make world 3 for like 7 years now.

[DarcShriek.5829]

Historically, Anet has not been very good about keeping schedules.  They constantly suffer from interruptions.

[Linken.6345]

9 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

I don't speculate on stuff before I see it because it's silly to do so. Or rather, I can speculation all I want, but I don't assume what I've speculated is somehow definitely going to be true.  And I don't report those speculations as some sort of truth.

 

This community as often expressed fears as truth, they've done it throughout the years, and sometimes the fears come to pass, but in my experience, more often than not, it's just people who aren't patient enough to wait and see.

 

I lost track of how many people said there wouldn't be an expansion before HoT came out, and how many said there wouldn't be one after PoF came out.

At the end of the day it's all just guesswork. And if people express it as guesswork, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Nah the ones before hot was just going on the information we were given Anet themself stated we wont do any expansion instead living world.

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

I truly, truly hope this is the case. I got most of LW for free, but would have gladly paid for it (and in fact did, when I missed the login windows). I think maintaining the status quo but just getting more of us to pay for it makes sense.

You might not have understood me fully. I did not mean they'd want to do it in addition to expansions, but instead of the expansion and LS combo we have now. There won't be any "big expacs" anymore, what we'll get will likely be just upsized LS chapters sold as expansions.

 

[Sobx.1758]

18 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

You might not have understood me fully. I did not mean they'd want to do it in addition to expansions, but instead of the expansion and LS combo we have now. There won't be any "big expacs" anymore, what we'll get will likely be just upsized LS chapters sold as expansions.

That doesn't seem to be even something we have to wonder about since that's what they straight up told us. These are slightly smaller, more frequent expansion releases.

And yes, this will probably have better optics outside of the gw2 community, seeing how it's rather clear what new expansion means, while living world is a new concept (even if only name-wise) to people not familiar with the game.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[RoastedBloop.9817]

1 hour ago, MarkoGold.7126 said:

So i have read the https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/studio-update-guild-wars-2-in-2023/ post and if im reading this right they have split the living season team to one that works on game improvements and one that does expansions, so does that mean instead of free living season episodes we will have to buy them in the expansions that are gonna come more often maybe once every 3-4 months or so 🙂 ? how is this not just paid dlc masquarading as an ls episodes.

 

No, the quarterly updates are free. Once the mini expansion hits, you'll be paying for just the expansion. Any quarterly updates there after gets added will be bundled with the new expansion. 

 

Like this: 

 

EOD: Update, update, update, new expansion

New expansion: update, update, update, newest expansion 

 

All updates from 28th till the new expansion, those updates will be bundled with eod. At no cost. You're no longer paying for the smaller in between content. 

[Hida Oni.7652]

23 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

You have always paid for it. This is probably a cleverly disguised price increase. They mentioned a price reduction so it depends on what that price will be. If the price drops to $15 then it's around the same. On the other hand if it goes from $30->$20. It will probably result in a roughly 33% price increase.

and its not, even if its 15$, because living story was free, and expansions came once per few years, and now calc how often you would need to pay that 15$ for less content

 

to me this seems like a cash grab, mostly same as in eso, where they do quarterly updates that you obligated to buy, if you dont want to be left in old empty zones.

[Sime.3681]

Seasons (except for S1) were always paid dlcs unless you got them for free when they launched. However, from now on, additional content will always be free as long as you have the related expansion.

[Randulf.7614]

You buy the expansions and you still get free updates similar to this living world. The only difference is paid expansions are going to be tiny and the free updates are quarterly. The idea is to reduce the amount of story and map content to improve the content for all other areas.

You also don’t get updates free for logging in, you get them free at any time if you bought the associated expac. It’s basically a staggered expac.

[Hida Oni.7652]

20 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

As far as players who can't "afford" 15-20$ per year (that's what I assume the price will be at), while that is very unfortunate, I'm sad to say: you are not the target audience here.

1) its only what you assume, not what told or set in stone, this can be half year, one year or more.

2) who are you to decide who are target audience in this game or no?

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

Lots of people with crystal balls in this thread.

 

1 hour ago, Naxos.2503 said:

Mostly people that dont know what to expect really...

ArenaNet giving us just enough information for our hopes and fears to fill in the rest.

I've seen several different people on Reddit noting that this announcement and other recent blog posts read a lot like politicians speak.

[Gibson.4036]

26 minutes ago, RoastedBloop.9817 said:

 

No, the quarterly updates are free. Once the mini expansion hits, you'll be paying for just the expansion. Any quarterly updates there after gets added will be bundled with the new expansion. 

 

So hopefully this doesn't sound like quibbling, but it's an important distinction: the quarterly updates aren't free. They're included in the cost of the expansion.

So you'll be paying for an expansion, but only getting a portion of it at the outset.

If you don't like paying and only getting partial delivery, you can wait until all of it has been delivered, then buy the expansion.

[mythical.6315]

1 hour ago, MarkoGold.7126 said:

So i have read the https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/studio-update-guild-wars-2-in-2023/ post and if im reading this right they have split the living season team to one that works on game improvements and one that does expansions, so does that mean instead of free living season episodes we will have to buy them in the expansions that are gonna come more often maybe once every 3-4 months or so 🙂 ? how is this not just paid dlc masquarading as an ls episodes.

The expansions, being smaller in scale, are essentially DLC than expansions. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still marketed as expansions like how they marketed LS5 as a “saga”. Nothing concrete has been given regarding their frequency other than they’ll release quicker than a full expansion. 

The LS episodes that we’re used to will be less frequency in number and scale but be free to all those who have the paid DLC that they are attached to. There’s no need to log in within a certain window to unlock them. These will release quarterly which is basically what they were doing with LS episodes anyway. The only difference is that these quarterly releases would be smaller in scale and probably involve maps being piecemealed over releases. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by mythical.6315

[Ashen.2907]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

slightly smaller,

Didn't they specify half the size of EoD? I don't think that qualifies as, "slightly smaller." I thought they used, "slightly," in reference to reduced price point for future expansions. I doubt they mean, "half the price."

[Sobx.1758]

8 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Didn't they specify half the size of EoD? I don't think that qualifies as, "slightly smaller." I thought they used, "slightly," in reference to reduced price point for future expansions. I doubt they mean, "half the price."

I don't know, where did they say that? All I saw is that they are supposed to have 3 maps (release+quarterly release) while eod got 4.

[Farohna.6247]

Kind of curious how much Steam also influenced quarterly/smaller expansions to keep up with the DLCs of other games.  

Getting DLCs with purchase of expansion feels more like a rebranding and less FOMO with new LW seasons and people freaking out when they have to buy them with gems.  Perhaps this will be a more clear cut way for newer players to understand.  

Either way, I'll give it a try.

[Pifil.5193]

33 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

I don't know, where did they say that? All I saw is that they are supposed to have 3 maps (release+quarterly release) while eod got 4.

 

EoD is going to get at least 5 maps.

[Kalocin.5982]

It's going to be really hard to sell people on buy 4+ expansions and a cash shop all at once in the future. There's too many games out there competing for your time and wallet, and while short quick expansions are easier to market, it's going to be harder to bring new or returning players in when they've got a truckload of stuff they have to buy.

 

Most MMOs will give you all the content right off the bat, and while subscription fees may seem expensive, not every player remains subscribed for the whole time. I myself on pop in around patch days for FFXIV. With the cash shop, GW2 has the chance of potentially being more expensive in the long run. GW2 used to favour taking breaks with horizontal progression but with shorter content cycles to pay for, it'll actually be more expensive to return to it.

 

Now that might not be an issue, but I don't see the value with the current content we've been receiving in recent years. I'm hoping this means that we'll start seeing some higher quality products. I wouldn't mind it then.

 

Regardless, they do need find a way to condense how many purchases there are because eventually it's going to look messy.

[Vayne.8563]

2 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Nah the ones before hot was just going on the information we were given Anet themself stated we wont do any expansion instead living world.

Anet never said we're never going to do an expansion and I seriously doubt you'd ever be able to find a quote. What Anet said was we don't need to do an expansion because we can deliver everything we need to through the living world. And for a year and a half that was true.

But at that same time, some of us were saying that we believed there would be an expansion.  Furthermore even though Anet said they didn't need to make an expansion, NcSoft kept annoucing that an expansion would be coming at stock calls. Seems to me that it wasn't quite as definitive as you remember. 

[Cyninja.2954]

3 hours ago, Hida Oni.7652 said:

1) its only what you assume, not what told or set in stone, this can be half year, one year or more.

True, the time frames provided are open for interpretation. There are realistic assumptions though, past content delivery and competitive products in the market to base ones assumption on.

3 hours ago, Hida Oni.7652 said:

2) who are you to decide who are target audience in this game or no?

The primary target audience is the one that makes the studio money.

Now can the business model work and be based around subsidisation where part of the player base pays more so that others can pay less? Sure. That's what the gem store does basically, and the gem-gold exchange.

In case of content for money though, it's clear that the target audience is players who are able and willing to pay and while GW2 remains a very good value for money product, in the end the developer studio is not a charity but a business which is here to make money.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Cyninja.2954

[phantom.1675]

I don't understand why people are so confused over the pricing model they outlined - This game (other than the F2P core game) has always been Buy To Play. It's going to continue being that way, just with a more regular schedule.

 

People also seem to be obsessed with language, expansion vs DLC, LW vs quarterly release. Anet is going to make you pay money to access stuff they release. Wait and see, if you dont like what they release, dont buy it. If that doesn't keep you around, great. There are a lot of games out there. And if it's really the price of the content you are worried about, play less, get a better job for a while, then come buy the stuff if it still interests you.
 

[Ashen.2907]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

I don't know, where did they say that? All I saw is that they are supposed to have 3 maps (release+quarterly release) while eod got 4.

In the update they said that going forward an expansion will include 2 maps (EoD got 4). Both EoD and future expansions will be receiving post expansion maps as well.

"The first release in an expansion cycle is the launch point for a new story arc, bringing with it two new open-world maps, "

Edited February 14, 2023 by Ashen.2907

[lezbefriends.7516]

28 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

True, the time frames provided are open for interpretation. There are realistic assumptions though, past content delivery and competitive products in the market to base ones assumption on.

The primary target audience is the one that makes the studio money.

Now can the business model work and be based around subsidisation where part of the player base pays more so that others can pay less? Sure. That's what the gem store does basically, and the gem-gold exchange.

In case of content for money though, it's clear that the target audience is players who are able and willing to pay and while GW2 remains a very good value for money product, in the end the developer studio is no a charity but a business which is here to make money.

Except that targeting ALL audiences makes the most money. And trying to specialize in everything is impossible, leading to haphazard everything, but don’t tell the customers! It is, after all, “just a business.”

Edited February 14, 2023 by lezbefriends.7516

[Ashen.2907]

1 minute ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

Except that targeting ALL audiences makes the most money

This is rarely true.

[lezbefriends.7516]

6 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

This is rarely true.

Yes, that’s why all game companies try to cater to everyone.. because they’re just stupid!