A private Steam playtest for a Guild Wars game called Lion’s Arch: GuildWars Arena might be a new CCG.
It appears that Guild Wars franchise might be getting a new adventure. Reports of an unannounced playtest appeared on Steam over the weekend, via SteamDB and the team at PCGamesN. While developer ArenaNet has a hugely successful ongoing MMORPG that is still swinging its sword through Tyria, all speculation seems to indicate that this isn’t an indication of Guild Wars 3 or an upcoming expansion for the hugely successful MMO.
The new entry in SteamDB appeared just days ago and while it doesn’t give a whole lot of detail, it does include a title, key art, and a small player base. Active player count, at the time of reporting, was just a handful of individuals. That small player base indicates that the game isn’t likely in testing with a full private alpha or beta yet, but any appearance on Steam has to be encouraging. Initially arriving in the steam library during September, the recent update to include at least a little more information does point to a CCG. Previous job postings on the NCSoft careers website seems to cement that hypothesis, with hires indicating a TCG was, or is, in the works.
This isn’t the first time that ArenaNet and NCSoft has tried to take the Guild Wars 2 franchise mobile. Early promises of a connected experience in Tyria were never fulfilled, and an previous unnamed mobile endeavour failed to get off the ground too.
The Guild Wars franchise, however, in a strong position. Guild Wars 2 is one of the eminent titles in the MMO genre. It’s mix of dynamic events, strong storytelling, engaging combat, and deep lore mean that is continues to grab headlines and pocket your gold after more than a decade. A card battler would have tons of tales to draw on, much like Gwent or Legends of Runeterra. Now, we just wait and see when ArenaNet is willing to show its hand.
