Does PCGamer Confirm 2011 Release?

No, I am NOT predicting a release date. This post is not flame bait.

I picked up the December PCGamer magazine today to read the article. On an insert in the magazine, I noticed the following:



Do you see those words in the upper right hand corner?

Here they are...




Does PCGamer know something we don't? I know it's not a release date, but do we finally have a confirmation of a release year? I know, I know, it's not big news, but at least it's some news....

Hmmm,

Don't know why the images aren't showing up.

Here are the links for the images:

http://img833.imageshack.us/i/scanag.jpg/

http://img28.imageshack.us/i/scan2c.jpg/

no date is official until ANet say so.

I know. That's why I'm only asking the question. But PCGamer isn't really giving a date. Just a year.

Are you saying that PCGamer may have put "2011" on their magazine without checking with ANet? I suppose it's possible...

2011 is hardly a date. Obviously it isn't in 2010 and 2012 is a very long way away given the activity recently with HoM and gameshow demos. All in all, nothing to see here.

Right. I said as much in my post.

However, all the talk about GW:B in Cantha this week, that it would last as long as WiK (~6 months?), and then if they do a GW:B for Elona as well (which they might not...but if they did, would that also be 6 months?), brings us into early 2012. I was beginning to get scared that GW2 might not be released until 2012. I am *hoping* that PCGamer is correct.

I know, I know...lots of speculation above. But the hint from PCGamer helps. If it's accurate.

Seems like you already answered your question.

I still believe Riverside needs a sticky saying something about this. Nobody should ever be trying to raise the "when is the GW2 release date" question at this stage of the game.

It's not. It never was. It never will be.

The addition of 7 heroes in a party is an indicator for a 2011 release.

If you consider that a large amount of GW1 players will purchase GW2, which will leave a small population left playing GW1. This small group of players will find it difficult to get groups for the harder stuff due to lack of players. The ability to have 7 heroes without having to use 2 separate accounts would make it a lot easier for them.

Pure speculation, but if that's one of their reasons behind it then release could be within the next 6 months.

I'd expect that A.Net is aiming for 2011 as a release date. There is no point in doing all of this hype for GW2 if it's going to be a released in 2012, just a waste of time and money otherwise. They have to be cautious about naming a release date as anything could go wrong.

Personally I'm not expecting anything for at least 6 months, more than enough time to go do something else. So just keep on waiting.

So you're saying it won't be released in 2011? You must have an inside scoop...

Look, I'm not asking when it will be released, nor am I predicting a date. I bought a magazine about GW2, read the article, noticed something written in it, and decided to post about it. For me, it was nice to see.

It's not like I'm predicting the date of the return of Jesus Christ and getting lots of people to send me money.... even though I would probably get less criticism if I did that.

I'm saying that information about a release date that hasn't been spewed from ANet's mouth first has absolutely zero validity, and you and anyone else should feel terrible for thinking that there's a chance of that ever not being the case, in speculation or not.

I wouldn't expect to get a release date from Anet until after they run a beta and it will more than likely change several times after that.

"When it's ready" ~ANET on release date like. I would post all of the times they have said this, but I doubt I could find them all.

On a different note, why are my pictures not appearing?

I put the links in between [IMG][/IMG]

Edit: Got it figured out...

We've known 2011 for a number of years, so it isn't exactly a revelation. It first appeared in one of NCSoft's quarterly earnings reports.

Does it really matter if we get a year?

I mean, it's not as if Anet couldn't push back the release date, and we all know (hopefully) that they're not going to release when The Old Republic does. That would be MMO-suicide.

So, it'll have to be after Q2. Most likely (just based on release-marketing strategies), they'll release in late Q3/early Q4 for the holiday buyers. We are talking about a lot of teen buyers after all. If they miss Q3/Q4 2011, then most likely they'll get Q2 2012.

MMO developers tend to aim for the summer and Christmas, since they know that's when their primary buyers (teenagers) will have the most money and time.

Except ArenaNet has done, April (Prophecies), April (Factions), October (Nightfall) and August (EotN). So once again, they go against the flow.

@OP - I imagine that PCGamer is working from the same knowledge as the rest of the world and assuming a 2011 release based on the marketing being done this year.

April is Q2 (often a pre-summer release time. TOR is supposedly releasing around then too) and August is Q3 and October is Q4, exactly as I said.

If you release in Q2, it's for the summer. If you release in Q3/4, you release for the holidays, so it's typically late Q3 or 4 (August was a bit random, but EotN was an expansion). They always do it prior to the actual buying season in order to give hardcore gamers the chance to get the game first and spout off how much they love the game before casual gamers decide to buy it.

It builds hype for the game.

2011 seems reasonable to me. I would even go as far as to say we will get a beta around Christmas of this year(or whatever holiday you celebrate at that time of year).

There is still more game content to come out for GW1 before we get GW2 anyway, after the Cantha in Crisis we will probably get an Elona update dealing with the undead army and what not. Given the time between War in Kryta and when the next one comes out has been a while, I can only assume it will drag out the GW2 release.