Guild Wars 2 "Core Game" Now Free-To-Play, Heart Of Thorns Expansion October 23rd
The MMORPG Guild Wars 2 is now officially free-to-play for its core game as ArenaNet gears up for the first expansion, which is due out October 23rd. The expansion will need to be bought at launch.
Heart of Thorns adds a huge number of changes to the long-running MMO which doesn't have any monthly subscription charges, but now even that's changed as it goes entirely free-to-play for the base game.
"Expansions are the one place where the buy-to-play model gets a little tricky. When you’re coming in as a new player to a game that has a bunch of expansions, what exactly should you buy in order to play with your friends? The base game and also every single expansion? We’ve seen examples in the industry where that kind of thing has gotten out of control."
"It doesn’t seem right, and we want to do better. As we get ready to ship our first expansion for Guild Wars 2, we want to ensure that we keep the business model friendly and simple. So let’s be clear that when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns."
"To accomplish that, we’ve already included the core game as a free bundle for anyone who buys Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. And today we’ll go a step further: we’re making the core game free for everyone. For anyone who’s been curious about Guild Wars 2, now you can just go to guildwars2.com, download the game, and start playing."
Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns releases on PC October 23rd. Visit the official website to learn more about the expansion.