THE BUZZ: Mike O’Brien, president of ArenaNet, has announced that an open beta for Guild Wars 2 will begin in March.

“In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate,” he revealed.

O’Brian also confirmed that the game will be releasing some time later this year: ”And of course, this all leads to the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year.”

EGM’s TAKE: The original Guild Wars released almost seven years ago and was unique in the MMO scene by not requiring a subscription fee to play. A user simply had to purchase the game or subsequent expansion in order to enjoy unlimited play. The problem is that after so many years the game is starting to show its age and with new MMOs releasing last year, such as Rift and Star Wars, the game is starting to struggle. Hence why ArenaNet has been hard at work on Guild Wars 2, the game has been in closed beta for a few months and is now ready to release to a larger test audience. Can it build upon the foundations that the original laid and push on to greater things?

Are you looking forward to the game? What improvements would you like to see? Let us know below.

Source: ArenaNet