Guild Wars 2 Free-To-Play Confirmed At PAX

By Jason Winter, News Editor August 29, 2015

It was leaked a few days ago, but now we've got official confirmation: The core Guild Wars 2 game is now free-to-play. ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien took the stage at PAX Prime Saturday morning to make the announcement, and you can go to the Guild Wars 2 site right now to read a letter from him as well as download the game and jump in immediately.

Some restrictions do apply, of course, to help protect current and future players from the spam and wave of gold-sellers that usually come with a F2P game. As O'Brien said:

Our goal is to protect our community and protect our current players while still making it easy to invite your friends into the game.

The game experience stays the same, we're just opening it up to more players. We can actually do this because we believe in buy-to-play [and] believe that when players come into the game, that they'll love Guild Wars 2 and buy Heart of Thorns

Free Guild Wars 2 accounts:

Start with fewer character and bag slots

Cannot use map-wide chat

Can only start a new whisper conversation every 30 seconds

Can't mail random stuff to other players

Can't buy gems with gold

Have level restrictions on where they can go in the world: 10 to leave starter zones, 35 to visit Lion's Arch, 60 to join World vs. World

You can see a full list of the differences between free and paid accounts here. The Gem Store will remain unchanged, and players can "upgrade" to a full game, with no restrictions, by purchasing Heart of Thorns, which launches Oct. 23 and has a revamped website that also went live today.

All right, so now that it's official, what do you think? If you hadn't tried GW2 before, are you going to jump in now?

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In this article: ncsoft, Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

BAYAG 6 years ago

can't trade.. cant /w for 30 sec.. deeyyymm.. i think those 2 make's the "F2P"ish horrible....

anip 6 years ago

The free account throws me away from this game...

- Character, bag slot and map level restricts I can live with
- but can't chat?... 30 seconds to reply to someone... this kills off any sort of personal trading
- can't mail, really? what the hell?
- what's gems? is that important? if it is, so it's P2W for players without free account?

LordNoX 6 years ago

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.....nobody cares -_-

*goes back to playing the only decent MMO on the market: ElderScrolls Online.

Ethan Florke 6 years ago

i've downloaded it but it didn't allow me to log in its just keep loading

Bilbo Baggins 6 years ago

So does this mean that those that bought the original GW for 50$ will be demoted to F2P for not buying the HoT expansion?? The original buyers get scrooged again?

ColdHell 6 years ago

And i thoght DCUO is bad,ohh boy!

Fornicaras 6 years ago

Free 2 play players will not be able to receive Laurels from daily log in rewards,this only means you will not be able to obtain Acended accessories same way as we do,you will have to pray to rng gods or play huge amount of fractals but thats just earings xd

Derpina 6 years ago

To the derps posting questions but having their "reply" turned off: (^) (-.-)

eunusunt 6 years ago

Finally I can try it out...but these restrictions, damn! This is true freemium.

Detestt 6 years ago

"Play for free" not "Free to play" there IS a difference. Braindead millenials.

Detestt 6 years ago

Nope and nope.

zzzx 6 years ago

FAKE FREE TO PLAY GAME! Locked content PAY TO WIN STUFF! For stupid people, rushit tramps there everywhere trying to scam people, poor criminals and beggars

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Jooq 6 years ago

Can only start a new whisper conversation every 30 seconds..always hate those kind of restrictions )

Red Wolf 6 years ago

WOW that's there Free To Play ............................

Lagwin 6 years ago

Kinda relieved, had bought heart of thorns + core game less than a month ago...was kinda pissed that basically more than half of the money i spent was getting given away for free now....as to the game itself...seems alright, not played it to much yet though what with having other stuff to do.

CONSIDERABLYHAPPY 6 years ago

BYEE world of wastewarcraft i'm goin to gw2!!

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Mystika 6 years ago

I'm okay with this honestly. Some of the restrictions seem quite good on paper for keeping out bots. Maybe I'll have another crack at the game, and get some friends who never played it to join me.

Merkadis 6 years ago

Figures, yet another proof that no game can live without f2p simply because of the masses it brings in, because more people equals more fun.
Still... with all those retarded restrictions (like they gonna keep gold sellers out heh, nice BS to justify em though) i'm not sure i want to bother..

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BOOM! 6 years ago

Wow... I rather buy the game to play this F2P model they will have.

gamekniggk 6 years ago

they call that f2p hahahah funny i will rather buy the game for 20 buck than that

Ikhy 6 years ago

I start playing in the closed betas and still I don't have a single character at max level, not event close and everytime I just manage to get to level 60 or so, it's just a boring game, glad it will be FTP it will just fit the ingame.

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Nidoto 6 years ago

Honestly, i hate this. They should keep the buy to play model with no free to play option what so ever. It's not because i think people who don't have the money shouldn't play but now it's going to get filled with gold sellers, trolls, and people who honestly don't belong in the game. This really sucks. I hope they don't let the game get ruined.

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OkayIguess 6 years ago

I am glad more people will be playing. I payed 60 bux... 3years ago or something when it first came out haha. It is not like we are losing anything. Original players should get a gift of some sort before the F2P starts.

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Todoran 6 years ago

delleting my TERA/RIFT/Skyforge.... no more Blade and soul waiting..... Guild Wars 2! DOWNLOADING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bye bad made f2p games ......

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Blackaria 6 years ago

Did no see that one coming but I like it, some people mite be mad about it but I think this is a great way for games to get more people into there games. I love guild wars 2, I just don't play it like most games I go back to it as my fall back game when I get bored of things. It is a great game that keeps getting better. At first I thought heart of thorns was kind of high on the price, but after looking at everything and how long I have been playing. I think it is a fair price for a new expansion.