Back in 2007, ArenaNet announced they were going to begin the development of the sequel to their successful MMO, Guild Wars noone actually knew how big this was going to be.
When the game was first showcased, jaws started to drop and eyebrows and questions started to raise. "Would GW2 live up to its expectation?", "How big will it be?", and the same old dumb question: "Will it be a WoW-killer?".
When Beta testing started, some of these questions were answered and, as usual, some others appeared.
When someone from ArenaNet was asked about when GW2 would launch, they would always say: "When it's ready". Well, that statement now has a day, month and a year: August 28th, 2012 (August 25th for those who pre-purchased).
Along with the launch date (made public 24hrs after the latest Stress Test), a new and final Beta Weekend Event was announced: July 20th - 22nd.
Here is the press release by ArenaNet:
Earlier this year I told you that 2012 would be the
Year of the Dragon, and that the next few betas would help us nail down our actual launch date. Well, after the results of our latest stress test, I’m happy to announce that we’re ready to nail down that date.Guild Wars 2
will officially launch on Tuesday, August 28th.This is an incredibly momentous day for the studio and for me personally. This journey began in 2007 when we first announced that we were beginning work on
Guild Wars 2 and that you wouldn’t be hearing from us for a while. Then in 2010 we unveiled our manifesto for Guild Wars 2: a living breathing online world that challenges convention, that’s designed for fun instead of grind, and that brings social interaction to a new level in an online world.Through all the long hours and hard decisions, we were bolstered by the knowledge that we were not in this alone. All along you’ve been there for us, cheering us on, supporting us when we needed it, testing early versions of the game, and above all, giving us your honest feedback every step of the way.
Guild Wars 2 is a better game for all of the work that our community has put in.
Now that we’re just two months away from launch, we’ll spend our remaining time optimizing, polishing, and balancing the game, to ensure that we provide you with the best launch-day experience we possibly can.
To this end, I’m excited to announce that our next and final Beta Weekend Event is planned for
July 20-22.
These are exciting times; we’re on the cusp of a new era in online roleplaying games, and we’re glad you’re on this journey with us.
We’ll see you in-game.
Oh, yeah... Damn sure I'm gonna be there!