Guild Wars series tops 5 million sales

NCsoft is celebrating after sales of its Guild Wars series topped 5 million units worldwide.

The series is comprised of the original Guild Wars game, campaign add-ons Factions and Nightfall plus recent expansion Eye of the North.

Guild Wars launched in May 2005 in the face of competition from none other than World of Warcraft.

However, due to its subscription-free business model and less grind-heavy gameplay, it has picked up a considerable fanbase in the intervening years. A meaty chunk of that base are competitive guilds battling it out in server-wide PvP tournaments.

Developer ArenaNet is now over ten times the size it was when key ex-Blizzard staff formed it in 2000 and boasts more than 130 staff.

"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, one of the co-founders of ArenaNet.

"We are committed to supporting all of our Guild Wars players, and at the same time, we're extremely excited to work on the game's evolution. Certainly the future of Guild Wars is as bright as its past and present."

Guild Wars 2 was unveiled in April last year, and ArenaNet has said it is making it for fans as well as newcomers.

It will continue to be subscription-free but is said to have a much, much higher level cap than 20, along with multiple races to play and a more persistent world - so less instancing, although this will still feature considerably.

Pop over to our Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 gamepages to play catch up.