Guild Wars

For the first game in the series, see Guild Wars (video game).
Guild Wars
Original Guild Wars logo
Genre(s)ORPG, MMORPG
Developer(s)ArenaNet
Publisher(s)
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
First releaseGuild Wars Prophecies
April 28, 2005
Latest releaseGuild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds
August 20, 2024

Guild Wars is an online role-playing game franchise developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft. The games were critically well received[1][2][3][4] and won many editor's choice awards, as well as awards such as "Massively Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences,[5] as well as Best Value, Best Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), and Best Game.[6] Guild Wars was noted for being the "first major MMO to adopt a business model not based on monthly subscription fees",[7] its instanced approach to gameplay,[8] and the quality of the graphics and play for computers with low specifications.[9] In April 2009, NCSoft announced that 6 million units of games in the Guild Wars series had been sold.[10] The sequel and fourth major entry into the series, Guild Wars 2, was announced in March 2007 and released on August 28, 2012. It features updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, and continues the original Guild Wars tradition of no subscription fees.[11] The Guild Wars series had sold 11.5 million copies by August 2015 [12][13]

  1. ^ "Guild Wars (pc: 2005): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  2. ^ "Guild Wars Factions (pc: 2006): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  3. ^ "Guild Wars Nightfall (pc: 2006): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2010-05-03. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  4. ^ "Game Rankings — Search — Guild Wars". Archived from the original on 2007-10-26.
  5. ^ "9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Winners Announced by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences" (PDF). Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  6. ^ "Press: Awards".
  7. ^ Cavalli, Earnest (February 26, 2008). "Guild Wars Hits 5 Million units Sold". Wired. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  8. ^ Gillen, Kieron (2005-05-16). "Guild Wars". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
  9. ^ Dave Kosak and Miguel Lopez (2005-04-26). "Guild Wars". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
  10. ^ "Guildwars.com Press Release, Guild Wars Surpasses Six Million Units Sold".. Note that units sold does not equate to number of players, and, because Guild Wars accounts never expire, there is no notion of "active account" as used by other MMORPG companies.
  11. ^ Purchese, Rob (April 6, 2007). "The best things in life are free". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  12. ^ https://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/guild-wars-surpasses-6-5-million-sales-sequel-will-be-released/ GW1: 6.5M
  13. ^ [1] GW2: 5M