Guild Wars 3 is coming, and it promises "a modern evolution of the MMO"

This week, ArenaNet teased something was coming. Its messaging, which spanned all of its Guild Wars-related social channels, indicated that it would be ‘world shifting.’ Well, it’s now been revealed at Summer Game Fest that, after much enthusiastic speculation online, Guild Wars 3 is officially coming.

The Guild Wars 3 announcement trailer promises “a modern evolution of the MMO.” Speaking at the showcase, ArenaNet Studio Head Colin Johanson says: “Guild Wars 3 is an epic world that is both beautiful and fun to explore, where the joy of movement is powered by your character’s momentum, and combat will usher in an entirely new type of MMO experience.”

Judging from Guild Wars 3’s Steam page, the next chapter in Tyria’s story will take place in Orr. Here, you’ll become a Vaelwarden – a guardian charged with protecting the people of the land. There’s a lot of chatter here about its “one-of-a-kind,” momentum-based movement system, which honestly sounds supremely cool if it comes together how I’m picturing it.

The writing was pretty much on the wall that Guild Wars 3 would be announced at SGF, after ArenaNet recently shared a cryptic post online that pointed to today. Then, on June 5, X user ‘lucy’ shared that the Guild Wars 3 domain had just been updated. Of course, domains typically auto-renew, but the timing was certainly a little too coincidental. Additionally, as others have pointed out, the GW3 site had already recently been topped up beforehand.

Guild Wars 3 will launch on PC and PlayStation 5 – the MMO’s first foray into the console world. You can wishlist it on Steam right now. The beta won’t begin until Fall 2027, so you’ve got plenty of time to sign up over at the official website, which has just gone live.

Until Guild Wars 3 transports us to a new, shinier version of Tyria, there’ll be plenty more GW2 goodness to revel in, I’m sure. Current expansion Visions of Eternity’s latest major update, ‘The Only Way,’ dropped last month. It brought with it a new zone, Eternity’s Garden, fresh rewards, and a change to fashion templates that makes it easier to look your best. Hopefully, your endgame garms will look even better should they persist into Guild Wars 3.