As someone who absolutely loved Guild Wars 2, but found herself straying down the World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV path, End of Dragons was everything I needed and more. The MMORPG‘s Asian-inspired DLC was a breath of fresh, Canthan air, and the Guild Wars 2 player count has skyrocketed as a result.
Our Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons review called the expansion a “refreshing return” for the age-old MMO, and that’s something I echo tenfold. The gorgeous new zone and the innovative new trait lines are all wrapped up in a soaring story that, quite honestly, is one of my favorite in any MMO to date – and I have played a lot of MMOs.
In an exclusive interview with PCGamesN following the release of the latest content patch, What Lies Within, I asked Guild Wars 2 game director Josh Davis about the impact End of Dragons – and laterally Guild Wars 2 coming to Steam – has had on the series.
“We’re feeling really good [about End of Dragons’ performance]! It’s amazing that Guild Wars 2, a game preparing to celebrate its eleventh anniversary, is not just doing well – it’s thriving!” he tells me. “We give a lot of credit for that to the End of Dragons expansion and our summer 2022 Steam launch, both of which helped revitalize the community by bringing back a ton of veteran players and introducing the game to entirely new generation of Guild Wars fans.”
He also provided me with some never-seen-before data. “The February 2022 launch of End of Dragons helped us land our strongest Q1 performance since the announcement of Heart of Thorns in 2015 – a huge success in our book.
“But it gets better! We beat that number again this year by 20%, and we achieved that without an expansion launch. This growth has allowed us to increase the size of the Guild Wars 2 development team for the
first time in years.”
The game’s Steam debut also ushered in hordes of new players, with Davis telling PCGamesN “we’ve seen over a million new Guild Wars fans play the game! These new users aren’t all coming in through Steam – we’re seeing a good proportion of them coming in through GuildWars2.com – which signals to us that Steam has helped improve the awareness of Guild Wars 2 generally, not just on the Steam platform.”
It’s a pretty sizable number given the misconception that Guild Wars 2 is a ‘dead game’ when compared to competitors. As we draw ever closer to the game’s fourth expansion – and a approach that’ll see new, smaller content released more frequently to avoid huge waits – I really can’t wait to see what’s next for Guild Wars 2. The fourth expansion ushers in a new age for Tyria, and that’s oh so very exciting for a long-time fan like me.
If you’re looking to pass the time while we wait for more news on the fourth expansion, we have a list of the best dragon games to sate your draconic woes, as well as a rundown of all the best fantasy games so you can get that magical fix.