Arena Net is teasing a big announcement on June 5th as part of Summer Games Fest. The teaser was posted to Bluesky here and then the Summer Games Fest appearance was confirmed via Discord. This has been followed up by prominent community members receiving various teaser images. The immediate speculation is that they will announce Guild Wars 3.
While Guild Wars 3 is a possibility I want to temper my expectations as I've been burned two Summer Games Fests in a row. Two years ago it was the let down of the New World Aeternum announcement and then last year it was the assumption that ARC Raiders would shadow drop after SGF. I am NOT letting myself get swindled again this year so I am NOT expecting a Guild Wars 3 announcement. If it wasn't part of Summer Games Fest I may have a different opinion but the lesson we've learned is SGF pushes developers to hype their announcements even if they are big fat nothing burgers.
So what else could it be?
The leading backup would be another Guild Wars 2 expansion or large change to Guild Wars 2 such as a business model change. This sort of hype only to announce an expansion would be on par for my experience with Summer Games Fest the last two years. It is worth noting the teaser was posted to the Guild Wars 2 Bluesky account and not a more generic Arena Net account.
It could also be some sort of Guild Wars 1 update. They recently resurrected Guild Wars 1 with the Guild Wars Reforged launch and its been moderately successful so a big announcement for that game may fit, but still makes you wonder why they would use the Guild Wars 2 account. Maybe a cross over between Reforged and 2?
I saw some speculation in some comments about a company announcement and the possibility of Arena Net moving back under its own ownership. That would be sort of interesting but also a worrying sign knowing the state of the MMO market. It doesn't match up to having a spot in Summer Games Fest as that sort of corporate announcement would not match that audience.
Whatever it turns out to be my honest hope is it is related to MMORPGs. We need some good MMO news as its been a dumpster fire of a year for MMOs. But alas after getting burned two years in a row with Summer Games Fest I will wait for the announcements and news to come out after the fact. There is no way I am tuning in to watch.
