Everything we know about Guild Wars 3

ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 3 during Summer Game Fest on 5 June 2026. It is the studio's first brand-new game since the original Guild Wars 2 launched in 2012, and the team has framed it as a "modern evolution of the MMORPG" rather than a straight sequel.

Guild Wars 3 is a prequel. It takes place in the region of Orr more than a thousand years before the events of the first Guild Wars, long before the cataclysm that fans of the series associate with that land. Rather than the drowned ruins of Orr of GW2, this is a living frontier.

ArenaNet describes Orr here as a vast wilderness rich with the world's raw magic, home to nature spirits - referred to as Vael spirits - that are deeply tied to the land itself.

Narrative lead Aaron Linde has framed the era as the Orrian golden age, a mythic time when "the Elder Dragons' slumber is at its deepest point" and magic flows so freely through Orr that it draws humanity's gods out of the Mists and into Tyria.

The gods are present in this era: their high city of Arah "looms as large on the horizon as its hosts" and Orr's collapse is still over a thousand years away.

Combat is built around momentum. ArenaNet has shown a traversal system that flows between gliding, running, sliding, riding, and jumping, carrying your speed from one mode into the next. That speed and momentum can be converted into damage, making positioning and movement part of the fight.

The studio says it is blending action-RPG combat with the build-making the series is known for, and that the whole system is designed to feel equally at home on controller and on keyboard and mouse.

Guild Wars 3 launches with four playable species. Two are returning from earlier games: Humans and Asura. The third is the Kodan, ArenaNet's "awesome bear people", playable for the first time. The fourth is a new species described as one "whose story connects deeply to Orr's past but has been lost to history", and is still being kept secret.

ArenaNet has dropped the term "playable races" in favour of "playable species", saying the old wording "didn't accurately describe the biological differences between the peoples of Tyria".

Choice is purely cosmetic or to define the player identity, it does not grant any gameplay advantages (such as stat differences, racial abilities or even hitbox differences).

More species are intended to follow after launch. Some (that are too different from a human form) have been ruled out such as the 4-armed Forgotten

Humans: They were brought to Tyria from a realm beyond the Mists by their six gods, and have lived there for over 700 years.

Kodan: Originally from the Far Shiverpeaks, a group of them migrated to Orr over a century ago, called by their god Koda to protect the land. They allied with the Vaelwardens, and playable kodan are members of that order.

Asura: They first reached Orr around 300 BE, drawn to its raw magic, and run the surface outpost of Rata Pten near Criterion Canyon. These early-era asura are a little taller and furrier than their GW2 descendants, and the Vaelwardens eventually taught them signet artificing.

There is currently no information about any specific professions or classes for Guild Wars 3.

Signets are described as small gems that each hold a fixed expression of magic. The Order of the Vael was the first among mortals granted the power to create them, a gift tied to the divine support of Melandru and Dwayna.

Over the order's history signets spread far beyond the order itself, becoming commodities that were bought, sold, and traded on the black market.

It is unsure what role the player will take in the story, but early lore drops hint at the player not being the hero of the story (unlike in GW2): "you are not a chosen one, anointed by destiny to save the world—you are the last of an order that the world has written off"

The Vael are magical spirits unique to this period of Orr's history, described as "a wondrous ecosystem of magical spirits" that flourished across the land while the Elder Dragons slept.

Players take on the role of a Vaelwarden, a member of an order of adventurers sworn to safeguard both the wild spirits of Orr and the land they inhabit. The Vaelwardens are positioned as the central faction of the game and the lens through which you experience its world.

Also called the Order of the Vael, they are the oldest guild in Orr, founded to protect the Vael spirits and the lands they inhabit. Long before the other guilds rose, they were mediating relations between Orr's sentient species and the Vael. Its founding members earned the support of the goddesses Melandru and Dwayna, who granted them the use of magic through sigils.

ArenaNet has stressed that the franchise's hallmarks - deep character customisation and build-crafting through skills - remain at the core of how a Vaelwarden grows.

ArenaNet frames the present day of the game as a low point for the order. By the time players take up the mantle, the order has been pushed to the margins and is widely dismissed as "aloof zealots clinging to a cause that died decades ago.

The Mavenwrights are introduced as a rival faction representing Orr's industrial interests. They oppose the order's preservation efforts, viewing the magical wilds and the Vael as resources to be exploited.

They see in Orr's magic "the possibility of a better, stronger future built with human hands", "stone and steel, signets and artifacts".

Every player is paired with a Seeker, a spirit-bonded companion that doubles as a mount. Beyond carrying you across the open world, the Seeker is described as your personal connection to Orr's wild spirits, tying traversal and the game's spiritual themes together.

ArenaNet has since described Seekers as spirit companions the player deepens their relationship with over the course of the game.

Guild Wars 3 is confirmed for PC (including Steam) and PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 5 version is notable as the first time a Guild Wars game has been built for home consoles, and the combat being designed around controllers reflects that.

The first beta test is scheduled for fall 2027. A full release date has not been given, and ArenaNet has said it will share beta details, pricing, and timing across late 2026 and into 2027.

NCSoft hinted at a Q2 2028 release date (or earlier) in their Q2 2026 earnings call, because of a loan coming due at that time.

Guild Wars 3 is being built in Unreal Engine 5, with ArenaNet emphasising large-scale open-world exploration, dynamic combat, and a world that reacts to player choices.

Game director Colin Johanson framed the goal as creating an online world that feels believable, rewarding, responsive, and innovative while still respecting players' time.

ArenaNet has been explicit that Guild Wars 3 is not the end of Guild Wars 2. The studio stated it is committing to actively developing three games at once: Guild Wars Reforged, Guild Wars 2, and Guild Wars 3.