Guild Wars 2 is going to continue as is.
Guild Wars 2 is going to continue as is.
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ArenaNet makes Guild Wars 2 free as it preps paid Heart of Thorns expansion

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Confirming rumors, ArenaNet announced today that the Guild Wars 2 core online game is going to be available for free, starting today. At the same time, ArenaNet is preparing a paid expansion pack, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, for launch on October 23.

The Seattle-based company announced the changes at the PAX Prime event in Seattle.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.