According to the official Guild Wars 2 Facebook and Twitter, ArenaNet has temporarily disabled first-party digital sales of their newly released MMO, Guild Wars 2.
It seems that the demand has been overwhelming for this sequel that was announced in 2007. So great, in fact, that the servers can’t possibly handle all of the stress.
Here’s just what ArenaNet had to say about this decision:
“Ensuring the best possible play experience for our fans is our highest priority. We’ve said before that we would be willing to temporarily disable first-party digital sales if we felt our high player concurrency may compromise player experiences. We have now reached that point.”
Fret not though, you can still pick up a physical or digital copy in stores or through ArenaNet’s retail partners. There has yet to be any word on when they will resume first-party digital sales.
As a longtime fan of the Guild Wars franchise (and ArenaNet), I can only see this as a good thing for everyone. Even the day before release all of the American servers were either high population or full. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen on release day. I’m glad that ArenaNet has learned from Blizzard’s Diablo 3 launch and is focusing on the consumers.
Update: The Digital Editions are once again available to buy on the Guild Wars 2 website. Go on then!
Not quite sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it is a good deal that they are making the correct choice in trying to reduce the load they have to deal with before they are ready for it. On the other hand, it is a shame that it got to that point. I feel like they should have been more prepared.
But, I still do commend them for making the right decision and coming out and talking about it. Most companies wouldn’t be so honest about it.
What I’m noticing is that a lot of people who were thinking of buying GW2 had not pre-ordered the game. Without accurate pre-order figures, Arenanet can’t possibly know how many people will be playing their game come launch.