how many people will be playing this?

j/w i dont like to pre-order things off the web but if i have to i will...WoW somehow was big so that if u didnt get it in the first day you didnt get it pretty much....is this an equally anticipated game or do i have to worry about pre-ordering?

and how much will it cost?

many

not much

about 50 dollars US

listed as one of the most anticipated games by whoever it was

From http://www.guildwars.com/press/pr08-02-14-05.html...

"According to EB Games™, Guild Wars is one of the best-selling preorder PC games year-to-date in North America. More than 500,000 players have participated in public preview events in the US and Europe."

http://www.mmhell.com/articles/01240..._2004_cp2.html <- Voted "Most Anticipated Massive Multiplayer Game of 2004."

My guess would be that, with the overall player turnout just from the Beta Weekend Events alone, that come release day (April 28th), you may have some difficulty getting a hold of a copy of Guild Wars.

It's not necessary to pre-order the game online; I know for certain that Best Buy has it (that's where I got mine), EB Games, and GameStop. CompUSA and Fry's Electronics (never heard of it before) will also have Pre-order copies which you can buy. And there are some incentives to buying the Pre-Order pack: you get access to the last two BWE, special access to the game the day before it's finally released, a special in-game item, variant on which store you purchase it from, a little tournament strategy book, and they even throw in a little poster. For spending only $10 to get those goodies and to have the peace of mind to know that you'll have a copy on its release day is well worth it.

Edit: You guys beat me to the punch with the cost... But to be exact, it will be $52.74 ($49.99 + 5.5% Wisconsin sales tax)

Anet says "it will be competitively priced with other games of the same nature"....or something to that sort....which probably means like $50....

I would say its definately worth preordering just to play on the Beta Weekends.....but that may just be me

Also, you dont have to preorder of the net if you dont want....go to a local store that has the preorders and get one there.....(guildwars.com should have a listing of what stores carry it)....I know Best Buy does as I got mine there...

MINUS whatever you paid for the preorder

Also if you dont get on the pre-order your likely to be dealing with the same situation (ie. release date gets sold out before you get off work!). I just called the store to verify how many their store is getting, we have 3 preorders on the list. Current list length is 30 ... they have 50 coming in at initial release date. I even tried bribing him to get my copy the day before ... we will see. Last BWE hosted I believe 250,000 about ... this beta will likely be close to 300,000 and by release with word spreading like wild fire across the world ... I'd be a safe assumption to estimate that 500,000 copies will go on the first day!
/edit ... including all our preorders

Wait wait wait.. ok I have pre-ordered this game but like, I know about the BWE, but I can also play on the 27th of april the day it coems out?

If you lay down the preorder cost that gives you access to all of the BWE and a guaranteed reserved copy of the game when it comes out. You still have to go back to the store you bought the preorder from to pay the remaining amount after the preorder money you put down is subtracted. The only way you will be able to play GW after the next BWE is if you have your own full copy of the game.

My guess is it will be 55$, seems like the prices of games are creeping up a little. lol

For some reason I sense that there won't be as many purchases of GW as WoW did on the first day or so, mainly because it seems like WoW had a lot of hype and coverage. That's just the general feeling I get. Though I may be wrong because all these BWE over the this long period of time might spread the word about this awesome game.

iono...

maybe we can beat this

in reference to the TOPIC of this tread, while we cant predict the number of players, we can give an estimate.

in the E3 for everyone event there were(correct me if im wrong) 200,000 people playing, and in the World Preveiw Event[COLOR=DarkSlateGray] there were 500,000 players. if they all buy the game, thats at least 500,000 people playing. Of course not eveyone will play who bought the game, but any people who find this game after the events (like me ) should round that out.

PS: sorry for any misspells, i cant find the spell check button
(edit: sorry meant world preveiw not BWE)

I think an intial release of around 250,000 would not be surprising. I believe the E3 event was the largest since it required no special key, but the BWE's have been pretty good. I also expect there are quite a few who will wait to jump in on release.

I am sure the numbers for the WPE in October was 400,000. This is what Arenanet stated on their homepage after the event.

It would not surprise me if even more players would join at release with all the hype around the game. This is the most anticipated game in Korea - the fanatic gaming country of the world (and yes they are good). I am guessing about 750,000 players playing withing a week and at least 500,000 on the date of release.

It is going to be interesting to see if Arenanet's marketing campaign is paying of with all the Beta Weekend Events. I hope it does.

I personnally have never been so excited about a game release. I am even more excited about beeing able to play for 24 hours prior to the regular crowd rushing in.

Ratatass

I agree alot there, so when/if (probably when, unless they stagger the char incoming to different zones/districts or such there) there is a huge lag when all of the chars are made within a few secs in old ascalon, ill already be well out of that place, and on my way to 20 Not to mention all the blockage from all the bodies piled up, with pathing blocking pssible, you migh find yourself hemmed in now THAT will be a good thing to miss out on

I can verify that the final price at Fry's Electronics will be $49.99 + tax(they were kind enough to let me view the inventory for each store when the pre-order was first released as it hadn't made it to the SF, CA Bay Area yet - some stores had ordered up to almost 200 copies of the pre-order initially).

I'm pretty sure that Best Buy is also $49.99, at least that's what it is on the web and I would have to double check my pre-order receipt but I'm positive is said $10.00(+ tax) off of $49.99.

I will add to this and comfirm that at EB Games it is also $50+Tax. Thats where I just bought mine today! Or, er, if you want to get technical I didn't technically "buy" it, I preordered it.

At Best Buy, Guild Wars will be $49.99 + tax, according to both the website and the store and which I purchased the Pre-Order from.

Have some games begun to increase their base price though (to $55)? I've never seen a newly released game do that yet...

Half-Life 2, but that might have been because CS:Source came with it also, so nvm.

Yes. Some games offer more content for it (ala Halo 2 CE). Some just charge the extra money, such as HL2 or Doom 3.

Game companies are pushing hard for the "base price" to be pushed to $60 for the next generation of consoles, and I'm sure PC games will follow.

I'd call it neccessary due to inflation if I didn't know the game industry was a multi-billion dollar one... (9.9 billion last year to be precise)

I highly doubt Guild Wars will outsell WoW on release, but maybe over time. When people get tired of paying for their MMO's they might decide to try "that free one" they've heard about.

given the amount of complaining spam that people put up on one BBS i'm on, i'll be thrilled when GW comes out so i can tell them to either go to a game that doesn't have the problems they keep whining about, or shut up and go back to their nancing elf characters.