The first Guild Wars ended up producing three different expansions. Given that track record it only seemed natural to assume that Guild Wars 2 would follow suit and have several expansions of its own, particularly with as successful as the game has been.
With all that said, the MMO has been available for less than a year and still has a few people grousing about it missing features that they desire. Most notably, the PvP still has many people dissatisfied given Arenanet’s stated intention of making the game viable as an e-sport, a goal it is still quite a distance from achieving. An expansion now would be a rather serious mistake until they have the playerbase satisfied with the current product.
Arenanet seems to agree. Colin Johanson, head of development at Arenanet, addressed the question in an interview with IGN by stating in no uncertain terms that there are no current plans for an expansion to Guild Wars 2. He did acknowledge that the consideration of such a thing is something they are open to, but that their focus is on perfecting the core game itself before adding anything in an expansion format.
This falls well in line with previous statements from Johanson, all of which focus more on polishing and perfecting rather than adding to. For a game whose cost is entirely up-front, the dedication to such is a pleasant surprise. It is also smart. That choice is more likely to promote the kind of loyal and dedicated community that an MMO requires to survive long-term far better than expansions. Bringing in new players keeps a game going, but not strong the same way having loyal fans does.
Johanson was also asked about the possibility of a full sequel to Guild Wars 2. He shot the idea down, stating that the intention is to keep the game growing and changing to provide the maximum experience possible. They want to be able to evolve the game into Guild Wars 2.5 or 3, rather than make a whole new game to accomplish the same thing. For the sake of the game and everyone’s wallets, I hope they can manage it.
