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NCsoft, the publisher behind the Guild Wars, announced that
the fracnhise developed by ArenaNet has sold five million units worldwide.
The franchise includes three stand-alone episodes, the
original game released in April 2005, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall,
and the recently released expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North.
ArenaNet, located in Bellevue,
Washington, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of NCsoft, was founded
by key members of the creative teams behind the hit games
Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, and the creators of Battle.net.
Guild Wars, a MMORPG, allows players to explore a rich
fantasy game world, acquire skills, build personalized characters and compete
in head-to-head guild battles with their friends.
Unlike other similar games, playing Guild Wars does not
require any online fees.
“Reaching the five million mark is extremely gratifying for
us at ArenaNet because it shows the hard work and dedication we put into our
games has resonated with the fans,” said Mike O’Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet.
ArenaNet announced last year that GuildWars 2 is already in
works and a beta version will be released this year.
In January, Blizzard announced that its World of Warcraft
title has 10 million subscribers. According to Blizzard’s definition a
subscriber is anyone who has paid a subscription fee, has an active prepaid
card or used an internet game room in the last 30 days. This figure doesn't
include free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and
expired prepaid card.
Blizzard said that currently there are more than 2 million
subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, while in Asia 5.5 million are playing World Of Warcraft.
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