ArenaNet, developer of the online roleplaying game Guild Wars, and NCsoft opened the virtual door for a weekend-long sneak peak at their new game Guild Wars Factions, and players around the world responded in record numbers. From 12:01 AM on Friday, 24 March until 11:59 PM on 26 March, more than 500,000 players participated in the invitation-only preview event and cumulatively spent more than three million hours online, making the Guild Wars Factions Preview Event (FPE) one of the largest preview events in gaming history. Guild Wars Factions is set to hit store shelves on 28 April 2006 with a suggested retail price of USD 49.99, GBP 29.99 and Euro 44.99.
We knew that by focusing on new ways to play and new things to do within the game, such as the 12x12 Alliance Battles, which were extremely popular with both PvP and roleplaying gamers, that fans would respond enthusiastically, says Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet.
The Guild Wars Factions pre-order pack offered a key code for access into the Factions Preview Event, driving gamers to their local game stores and driving sales of the pre-order pack into weekly Top 10 lists alongside full retail titles at stores and chains around the world.
Guild Wars Factions is the highly anticipated stand-alone follow up to the critically acclaimed game Guild Wars, an online roleplaying game in which players explore a rich fantasy world, acquire skills, build personalised characters, and compete in head-to-head battles with players from around the world. The Guild Wars franchise has proved extremely popular due to its compelling game design, innovative technology and its daring and successful business model with no monthly subscription fees charged to users.