Guild Wars 3 was announced
A couple weeks ago (June 05, 2026) at the Summer Game Fest, developer ArenaNet officially announced the third installment in their Guild Wars series, Guild Wars 3.
I dump a lot fewer hours into video games than I used to when I was younger, having found a much healthier balance of activities in my life, but I can't deny that I was really excited to hear this; in fact, it may be the first time in many years that I've actually been excited by the announcement of a new video game.
I mean, how gorgeous is that? Very gorgeous, of course. This teaser commits but one sin, and that's that, after the narrator speaks her final word, "Magic," the erhu restates its opening motif, heard at 0:28. Big mistake. If it had stated the motif from 0:00-0:04 here instead (in the teaser track's E minor, of course), I do believe people would've lost their proverbial shit:
Alas, ArenaNet did not consult me before releasing the Guild Wars 3 trailer.
Over the last two weeks, we've received a trickle of information about Guild Wars 3: it's set 1,200 years before the events of Guild Wars 1, the team at ArenaNet is dedicated to developing it alongside both of its predecessors, and it will attempt to fill a niche that neither of its predecessors does (that is, it will be more focused on medium-sized groups playing together). This all sounds great to me. GW1 and GW2 are two of the greatest games ever created, and I am not particularly worried about GW3 joining their ranks.
But some of the internet disagrees. Almost immediately after the teaser and each bit of further news, Professional Gamers™ rushed to the scene, the scene being reddit and YouTube, those unassailable bastions of academic discussion, to complain about, well, everything. Because of course they did.
I won't list their grievances, because they're stupid grievances, written by people desperately determined to be miserable about everything, and no one cares about them.
The overwhelming response I've seen outside of the usual shitholes has been one of sheer excitement, and that's where I'll be dedicating my time. One of my favorite podcasts to listen to while jogging is what may be the only noteworthy Guild Wars 2 podcast: The Lightbringers (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpd_AEgMn5JErkj7M8wy7ncVj3fW9TfYj). They had a three-hour (!) discussion about the announcement, and it was just really great to listen to a bunch of people be really excited about one of their favorite game series.
Fall 2027 can't come quickly enough.