Early Access & Retail Access

Now, this kind of confused me. On the GW main site, it says that Early access starts on the beginning of the 27th and ends at the end of the 28th, and it also says that retail begins at the start of the 28th. Does this mean that Retail and Early access are going to be two different "worlds"? It doesn't make sense for Early access to end 24 hours AFTER retail starts, shouldn't it be a direct transition from early access to retail?

Nah they're just going to overlap.

Early Access Starts, then 24 hours later Retail opens, then 24 hours later early access ends. Aka, you NEED a retail key by the end of the grace period to keep playing.

As far as I know, preorders get 48 hours of early access, which means retail only won't be playing during early access (hence the name). It hits the shelves on the 28th but you cannot play until 12:01 AM on the 29th if you only have retail. There are lots of posts on this.

Ah, that makes sense. So basically it's just a free day with another one tagged on the end for people who can't pick up the game right away.

If you pre-ordered Guildwars(have a pre-order key linked to your account: friends keys won't work), you will get to play GW starting 12:01 AM on the 27th. You can play during the Early Access period(until 11:59 PM on the 28th) using only your pre-order key. In order to access the game after that point, you'll need to enter the retail key that you get with your copy of the game. Basically, the Early Access period is a bonus day for those who pre-ordered the game: when the 28th rolls around, you'll be playing in the same world with everyone else who bought the game- you'll just have a 1-day head start. The Early Access period ends since it's based only on pre-order keys, and you'll need to buy the game in order to keep playing.

edit- Wow, 3 replies while I was typing up this post.

It does make sense, it gives those people whose pre-order is delivered late, a little time to carry on playing until it arrives. Everyone will be in the same world, whether they are playing with a pre-order key or a retail key.

You sure about that?

http://www.guildwars.com/community/f...-friday42.html
please refer to the appropriate sticky for further information.

nope... wrong.


They overlap. Perhaps you didn't notice that the early access period will not be whiped.

On the 27th, only early access can play. On the 28th, both can play, on the 29th, only people with the game can play.