Subscription-free business model sets new standard for online multiplayer games
In a press release sent out today, ArenaNet and NCSoft announced that the Guild Wars franchise has broken the 4 million units sold mark across the world. The game's subscription-free model and focus on competitive gameplay has helped create a unique experience in the MMO space.
"ArenaNet's fantastic work on Guild Wars has helped make NCsoft the leading online gaming publisher in the world," said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. "Guild Wars players continue to join in droves and stay loyal to the franchise thanks to a business model that makes for a very accessible product. We are all excited about the future of Guild Wars with the expansion ready to be released and Guild Wars 2TM on the horizon."
To read more about the press release, head over to the Press Release - August 21, 2007 page.
Comments
Well I wouldn't want them to raise the number of levels as much as add some more meaningful content for PvP. Sieging and conquest for example. Right now the game is great but its more of an Online RPG because the PvP is about winning matches and GvGs (all instanced)
Guild Wars is a good game to. I play it. What I think it lacks is the continuity that WoW gives you. There are only 20 levels in Guild Wars and I got them fairly quickly. There are only a handful of things to do after that 20 mark and they don't really give you the drive to do them. I think however, that ArenaNet know this is the main mistake. If you look at the additions they are making in the new expansion we can blatantly see that this is the case. If you look at what Guild Wars 2 is promising I'm guessing NCsoft and ArenaNet think they know how to bring down the WoW machine. Guild Wars 2 is very different from the current Guild Wars. More levels. A persistent world. Instanced play for group activity (I anticipate this will keep with GWs idea of instances). It looks to me like they ARE trying to creat another World of Warcraft but they are trying to keep them 1 million or so players they have now.
Just to be specify, http://gigaom.com/2007/06/13/top-ten-most-popular-mmos/ claims that Guild Wars has an active players base of around 2,000,000 which is not quite the 9,000,000 WoW has but there you go :-P
This I'm actually curious about as well. I'm sure World of Warcraft has sold something like 12-13 million copies, if not more.
I bought it... but I don't play it...
so out of these 4 million sold... who still plays?
WoW has over 9 million active players... and for a good reason, its a great game.