A new Guild Wars game might be happening as mysterious playtest appears on Steam

A new game bearing the Guild Wars name has appeared on Steam, sparking rumours of a potential spinoff for the beloved NCSoft MMORPG.

Outside of the heavy hitters in the MMORPG space – the likes of FF14 and World of Warcraft – Guild Wars 2 remains one of the most consistent genre stalwarts. A beautiful free-to-play fantasy world with distinctive character design and satisfying combat, it’s highly active more than a decade after launch, with new expansion Janthir Wilds arriving very recently. But it looks as though publisher NCSoft might have even more on the cards, as a mysterious new Guild Wars app appears on the Steam back end. It’s not Guild Wars 3, but it could just be the game to tide us over.

Originally appearing on SteamDB in September, the application in question got an official name today – ‘Lion’s Arch: GuildWars Arena (Private Playtest).’ Guild Wars 2 players will already be familiar with Lion’s Arch, a coastal city found in Kryta. There are very few other details given currently – and, unlike the MMORPG, you won’t find it on Steam yet, as it’s been hidden from public view on the Valve storefront for now.

This is further elaborated if you dig into Steam’s EULA archive, where Valve keeps its end user license agreements. Here, you’ll find an agreement to be accepted by potential players, which demands users pledge to “strictly observe the confidentiality of all information and materials including trade secrets of NCSoft Co, Ltd.” That pairs the app more definitively to the Guild Wars publisher, which also makes the recently launched Throne and Liberty.

The next question, then, is what the game might be. Speculation is already rife, although the leading contender may well be the card game that has been speculated to be in development since job listings appeared on a Korean recruitment site last year, which advertised a role on a ‘CCG’ project using the Guild Wars IP.

Alternatively, it could be a more action-driven, combat-focused offering closer to what we know from the series so far. Of course, there’s no official confirmation yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see what lies ahead. For now, we have contacted NCSoft for comment, and will update this story if we receive a response.

In the meantime, you can look forward to the biggest and best upcoming PC games we do know about for sure, or perhaps jump into one of the best new MMOs in 2024.

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