ArenaNet says Guild Wars 2 gets nearly a full year of improvements after Visions of Eternity
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Guild Wars 2, which is ArenaNet's long-running fantasy world, wraps up its Visions of Eternity expansion, meaning a large paid addition of land and story, in September. The studio says it then spends nearly a year on the game itself. In a post published on 6 June 2026, ArenaNet said it will spend "nearly a full year going back through each era of Guild Wars 2, making meaningful improvements to the player experience".
That starts with the first Hall of Monuments update, "coming later this year". The Hall of Monuments, which is a place inside Guild Wars 2 that players can visit, goes first. Guild Wars Reforged, which is a third ArenaNet game alongside Guild Wars 2 and the announced Guild Wars 3, is mentioned further down. The post naming September is dated 6 June 2026, so our reading is September 2026.
The post went up one day after ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 3. Our reading is that it is the half of that week most useful to anyone already playing.
Updated 13 September 2026. ArenaNet has since named the day. Its post of 8 September 2026 says Code of Creation, the final chapter of Visions of Eternity, "drops September 15". The section below is our reading of the two June posts, which gave the month and no day. Its wording is unchanged apart from its heading, which now says when it was true.
What ArenaNet committed to, and what it had not dated in June
The post gives one month and no day for any of that work. On 3 September 2026 we read the front page of ArenaNet's news index and its events page. The newest article listed was dated 25 August 2026, and the events page carried no Visions of Eternity entry. Nothing we read on either named a day for the finale.
That is our own check on one day, not a claim about every page ArenaNet has ever posted.
| The commitment | What ArenaNet has actually said, across its 5 and 6 June 2026 posts |
|---|---|
| Visions of Eternity wraps up | "in September", the month, with no day published |
| What comes next | "improving the foundations of Guild Wars 2" |
| How long | "nearly a full year" |
| The scope | "going back through each era of Guild Wars 2" |
| The first piece | The first Hall of Monuments update, "coming later this year" |
| Where players send requests | "the new feedback forum", for players to "share your ideas on what you’d like us to address" |
| Guild Wars 2's status (5 June) | "we’re not done making Guild Wars 2" |
| Guild Wars Reforged's status (5 June) | Also not done; three games "actively developing" at once |
| Guild Wars 3 beta (5 June) | "a chance to join" it, "in the fall of 2027" |
Not one row carries a day. Three carry a period: September, "later this year", "the fall of 2027". One carries a duration, "nearly a full year". The remaining five carry no time at all. That is worth saying plainly rather than filing under detail. Our reading is that nearly a year of improvements with one named milestone is a direction rather than a plan, and no player can put any of it in a calendar yet.
Where this sits against the sequel
ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 3 on 5 June 2026, calling it its first brand-new game announcement in almost two decades. It is set in Orr, which is a region players already know from the current game, and ArenaNet promises you will explore it as you never have before. It runs on PC and PlayStation 5, and its combat is built to work with a controller or with a mouse and keyboard.
You join the Vaelwardens, described as a guild sworn to protect the land, the people living beyond the walls of Orr's towns and cities, and the nature spirits who call Orr home.
Our reading is that ArenaNet gave the sequel its own day on purpose. The announcement post promises detail on Guild Wars 2 "tomorrow", and adds: "Today, we’re celebrating the first brand-new game announcement for ArenaNet in almost two decades, and that deserves its moment in the spotlight." The answer for existing players arrived the following day, from the Guild Wars 2 game director in a studio update video, alongside the studio head and the Guild Wars Reforged game director.
Our take: the unglamorous year is the good news
Nearly a year of going back through each era of a game people are still playing is the least announceable work a studio can do, and close to the most valuable. None of it ships as a trailer. Nobody puts a repaired old zone, meaning one area of the game's map, on a shopping list.
Our reading is that this is the shape of work a studio does when it wants an old world to still be worth living in after the sequel arrives. ArenaNet marked Guild Wars 2's fourteenth anniversary on 25 August 2026, so there is a great deal of era to go back through.
Our reservation is the calendar, and it is smaller than it was. The finale has a day now, 15 September 2026, named on 8 September. Nearly a year of work still has one named milestone. A beta, meaning a public test before release, that is a chance rather than a place in a queue, and our maths puts the fall of 2027 about a year past the finale. The finale is a date now. The other two are still kinds of "later". Our reading is that ArenaNet has told players what it intends and almost nothing about when. Still better than a roadmap that quietly slips. Still not something you can schedule your play around.
We said we would move our cross-game calendar row the day ArenaNet named one. We did not manage the day. ArenaNet named it on 8 September 2026 and we moved the row on 13 September, when our fortnightly re-read of every source behind that calendar reached it, so for five days the row showed an estimate and the answer was published. It now reads 15 September, announced.
Common questions
What is ArenaNet doing with Guild Wars 2 after Visions of Eternity?
Improving its foundations. ArenaNet is the studio behind Guild Wars 2, and Visions of Eternity is its current expansion, which is a large paid addition of land and story. Its post of 6 June 2026 says that once that expansion wraps up in September the studio is "turning our attention to improving the foundations of Guild Wars 2". The Hall of Monuments is a place inside Guild Wars 2 that players can visit. ArenaNet's words are that "starting with" the first Hall of Monuments update, "coming later this year", it will "spend nearly a full year going back through each era of Guild Wars 2". So that update opens the year rather than following it.
When does Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity finish?
Its last chapter arrives on 15 September 2026. ArenaNet's post of 8 September 2026 says that final chapter, called Code of Creation, "drops September 15", and sends players into the depths of Castora, the place this expansion is set, across six story chapters. That is the day the chapter lands; ArenaNet has not separately said which day the expansion itself stops. When this piece first went up the studio had given only the month, "in September", in its post of 6 June 2026, and our cross-game calendar at 0hp.com carried the end of the month as a labelled estimate. It now carries 15 September.
Is Guild Wars 2 shutting down now that Guild Wars 3 is announced?
No. The 5 June 2026 announcement post says the studio is not done making Guild Wars 2, nor Guild Wars Reforged for that matter, and that it is committing to actively developing all three games at the same time.
When is the Guild Wars 3 beta?
ArenaNet's 5 June 2026 post points at the autumn of 2027 for the Guild Wars 3 beta, which is a public test before release, and it is a chance rather than a date. Signing up for the Guild Wars 3 newsletter is described as being "for a chance to join the Guild Wars 3 beta in the fall of 2027".
How can players tell ArenaNet what to fix in Guild Wars 2?
Through a feedback forum. ArenaNet's 6 June 2026 post calls it "the new feedback forum" and asks players to "share your ideas on what you’d like us to address".
Written by 0hp from the publisher's own announcement, linked above, and every specific in it was checked against that page by a second pass before it published. Independent, and not affiliated with the publisher. Dates are announced or labelled as estimates. How this site is written, and how to correct it.
