With the 20th anniversary of Guild Wars this year, developer ArenaNet has prepared a substantial visual and gameplay refresh of the 2005 MMORPG, which launched December 3.
In an exclusive reveal with IGN, we got a first look at Guild Wars Reforged, and learned from ArenaNet game director Stephen Clarke-Wilson, along with Brandon Dillon, CEO and co-founder of new studio 2weeks, what’s in store for the new and improved Guild Wars.
Co-developed by ArenaNet and 2weeks, which is made up of former ArenaNet creatives, Guild Wars Reforged is a modernized edition of the original MMORPG and its expansions. The Reforged edition features an HD overhaul that enhances the in-game visuals, performance, and user interface, along with proper controller support and full Steam Deck optimization. Furthermore, the price point will be lowered to $20 for the complete package for newcomers, but will be a free update for current owners of the game.
Speaking with IGN, Stephen Clarke-Wilson, game director of the original Guild Wars, spoke about the enduring popularity of the subscription-free MMORPG and why the developers wanted to give the original game a refresh.
“Reforged means we’ve toughened it up!” said the Guild Wars game director. “There’s a certain charm to the game, and besides being an MMO and letting you play with friends, you can play solo, you can have henchmen, and you can play with anyone, anywhere in the world at any time. We’ve had 100% uptime [of new players] for the last over six years now, even with the changes we’ve made, it’s so easy to get into. It was a good time to give it a refresh.”
Here’s a quick rundown of the key features coming with Guild Wars Reforged:
- A free update for all existing Guild Wars players — including free upgrades to expansions — and with a new $20 price point for new players.
- HD visual update with improved resolution, along with enhanced ambient occlusion and bloom effects.
- Official controller support via X-Input.
- Accessibility options for improved readability and gameplay, including an optional objective guide to assist with world navigation.
- Steam Deck verified.
The original Guild Wars campaign was released in 2005, and it was one of many MMORPGs released in the wake of World of Warcraft’s breakout popularity. ArenaNet’s online game found its own success and a loyal following due to its being an MMORPG that allowed for a more free-form approach to exploration and didn’t require a subscription fee, which made the barrier to entry significantly easier for players stepping into a new game world.
The Reforged edition features a sweeping set of visual improvements and gameplay tweaks. However, the developers stated that gameplay changes are largely minor tweaks, allowing existing players to seamlessly jump into the updated version, adjusting visual and UI improvements as they see fit.
Guild Wars Reforged Screenshots
According to the developers, the Reforged edition of Guild Wars began development in early 2025, with 2weeks working in tandem with ArenaNet. 2weeks CEO and co-founder Brandon Dillon stated that the speedy turnaround for Guild Wars Reforged was due to the developers having experience working on both Guild Wars 1 and 2, as well as extensive access to technical archives.
“It’s been great returning to [Guild Wars], and honestly, ArenaNet had a really strong engineering culture right from the beginning, and they’ve done an impeccable job maintaining the code base for the original game,” Dillon said. “Like when we showed back up, it was in much better condition than when I had left it 15 years ago, and it was really nice returning to all of those systems and getting to work in it again.”
Last April, the original Guild Wars hosted an anniversary event that brought in a variety of veteran players and newcomers to the game, highlighting the sustained popularity of the original. However, according to the developers during our interview, it also revealed areas for improvement, such as a crash bug that affected players running the game on 4K monitors. The Reforged edition will run the game properly on 4K displays.
One of the larger motivators for the Reforged edition of Guild Wars was to build upon support for the game on Steam Deck. The current version had compromises to get it running. However, with the Reforged edition, the MMORPG will be Steam Deck verified and will also support full controller functionality.
“It’s not a remaster, but we’ve really focused on modernizing the experience and reacting to the big influx of new and returning players around the anniversary, and finding all the limitations the game had with modern PCs,” Dillon explained. “For instance, the UI was really tiny on super high resolution displays, because we didn’t have anything bigger than 1024 by 768 in 2003. This was all about ensuring that Reforged worked seamlessly with the modern system while maintaining the core aesthetic and beauty of the original game. The biggest chunk of work really was building the right user experience on Steam Deck and supporting controllers, which was a deep and interesting problem, but really rewarding to work on.”
Guild Wars Reforged is not a remaster, but is a significant upgrade. Image credit: ArenaNet.
Guild Wars Reforged arrives at a time when gamers have been showing interest in revisiting classic online games. For the developers, revisiting the original Guild Wars for a sweeping update allowed the team to rediscover a renewed appreciation for the game and their experience working on it.
“Guild Wars was a very nostalgic game to play, but it was also a very nostalgic game to come back to, because as we’re digging into these systems and updating things and re-experiencing the content,” said Dillon.
“I was remembering all the amazing developers on the project, the programmers that I worked with who built these cool features that we were adapting, and the artists and designers who just built this fantastic content and these beautiful worlds. It’s an amazingly handcrafted and huge experience; it’s kind of conceptually overwhelming to engage with. But it’s in active development for years and years and years, and it’s a special thing that resonated with the community, and it’s been rewarding on multiple levels, to revisit all this craft of work.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
