Guild Wars 2 hits 400,000 concurrent players during headstart

NCsoft, publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and ArenaNet, developer of the Guild Wars franchise, are announcing the launch of Guild Wars 2.

Even before the launch, more than one million fans had paid for the game in full to enjoy a three day headstart. Additionally, demand for the game during this headstart has been record-breaking, with a peak concurrency of more than 400,000 players online at once. Whether it’s because of the vast and dynamic world that changes based on player actions, the engaging, customisable personal storyline, or the visceral, highly-mobile action, it’s clear that online gamers are eager for Guild Wars 2.

“This is the culmination of a five-year journey and to be greeted by this level of enthusiasm by our fans is truly amazing,” said O’Brien, president and co-founder of ArenaNet. “But really our work is just beginning. Now our focus is shifting to building on this living world we’ve delivered, continuously refining our game and improving services to ensure our players have the best possible experience."

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The Guild Wars had more than 400,000 simultaneous players

One of the biggest features of Guild Wars 2 is that unlike other major MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 has no monthly subscription fee. The game follows a one-time payment model that you usually get from other games. Another great feature is the inclusion of a personal story for your character, where your character goes through a story which is moulded by the choices you make for the character during the creation of the character and other quests. The game also aims for a more dynamic combat system than what players are used to from the likes of World of Warcraft, Everquest or Star Wars: The Old Republic, with mechanics such as spells which have to be aimed properly instead of being targeted abilities and the ability to dodge attacks.

Here are the system requirements for Guild Wars 2:

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 or better
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2 or better
• 2GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800, ATI Radeon X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
• 25GB available HDD space
• Broadband Internet connection
• Keyboard and mouse

For players that are yet to purchase Guild Wars 2, it is now available on the game’s website as well as from numerous online and retail partners.