NCsoft Lifts Lid On Guild Wars Sequel News

NCsoft has today confirmed Guild Wars: Eye of the Night, and Guild Wars 2, both of which had been rumoured in recent weeks.

Set in the original Guild Wars: Prophecies land of Tyria, Eye of the Night will be the fourth instalment in the franchise, and will be the first addition to require players to own one of the previous expansions. The game has been pencilled in for release during the third quarter of 2007, and will include over 150 new skills between the 10 professions, 10 new heroes, and 18 massive dungeons. As a bridge between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, Eye of the Night will include a Hall of Monuments, enabling gamers to unlock bonus items with their characters when the fully fledged sequel makes an appearance in 2009.

"We felt it was extremely important to reward those people who have been playing Guild Wars since the game first launched in 2005," said Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet. "Those players have seen three very large campaigns created in a little under two years and so we think it's time to begin filling in the details of the existing world and to provide more content for current characters. We are thrilled to focus our time on something that our players have been asking for."

"It's the payoff we hope players will appreciate as we continue to build on the Guild Wars franchise," said Strain. "We're excited to announce these two new products and we want players to know that Guild Wars has an extremely exciting future in the months and years ahead."

ArenaNet also announced that a Beta for Guild Wars 2 is scheduled to take place during the second half of 2008.