Guild Wars 2 reveals Spring 2022 roadmap, commits to fourth expansion

Guild Wars 2 players may be taking a step back and marveling over what lays before them. NCSoft and ArenaNet promised the End of Dragons and the MMORPG's expansion is delivering with a climactic story that closed the book on a ten-year arc. However, Guild Wars 2's story does not appear to be over. In fact, ArenaNet looks to have its eye squarely on the future, revealing the Spring 2022 roadmap and also announcing that a fourth Guild Wars 2 expansion is currently in development.

The details were posted to the Guild Wars 2 website, courtesy of Executive Producer Amy Liu and new Game Director Josh "Grouch" Davis. The next several months of Guild Wars 2 will center around final polish for the End of Dragons expansion, but also mainly on preparation for the game's long-awaited Steam build, which was heavily delayed since its initial announcement.

"You only get to launch on Steam once, and we want to make sure we do it right," reads the Tuesday announcement. "Over the coming months we'll be wrapping up work on the Steam integration, cleaning up some aspects of the early game experience, and ensuring that the game and the studio are operationally ready for a new platform launch. We're also working on getting DirectX11 ready to exit beta and making it the default graphics setting for new users."

The Spring 2022 roadmap can be seen above. In addition to that, here are the dates to keep in mind:

March 15: End of Dragons Polish Build
March 29: Super Adventure Festival, End of Dragons Polish Build
April 19: Living World Season 1 Episode 1, Aetherblade Hideout Challenge Mode
May 10: Xunlai Jade Junkyard Challenge Mode
May 24: Living World Season 1 Episode 2, Kaineng Overlook Challenge Mode, New Legendary Weapon Variant
June 7: Dragon Bash Festival, Harvest Temple Challenge Mode
June 28: Balance Update, New Legendary Weapon Variant

World vs. World is also expected to receive a massive restructuring in the months ahead. It will center around backend infrastructure changes, bug fixes, major revamps to the rewards system, and core system adjustments. ArenaNet is not ready to announce a date on when any WvW changes will go into effect. The team will issue a date once one is available.

Lastly, ArenaNet already appears to be working on Guild Wars 2's next expansion. While it's too early to reveal any details, the team confirmed that a fourth expansion is in development. Expect to hear more about this in the years ahead, but the story will continue to unfold in the meantime. A new story update is currently in development and will debut an all-new map in the Cantha region. ArenaNet will issue more details about this at a later date.

Even with the End of Dragons at hand, Guild Wars 2 does not appear to be slowing down. We'll continue monitoring what's happening in Tyria in the months ahead, so keep it on Shacknews for the latest updates.