ArenaNet Confirms Guild Wars 3 Setting in Ancient Orr, Says It's for Lore Fans and Newcomers
ArenaNet says Guild Wars 3 is set 1,000 years before the first game in ancient Orr, aiming at lore veterans and newcomers alike.
The confirmation came during an exclusive Gamescom preview attended by TechRadar Gaming, where the studio gave a guided presentation of the game's new momentum system. ArenaNet studio head Colin Johanson said players take the role of a Veil Warden.
Johanson said much of Guild Wars' history and lore originates from ancient Orr, and that he knows fans "care deeply" about it and have been asking ArenaNet for more. He described the period as a natural direction for the sequel.
"Some of the themes from Guild Wars 1 all tie back to moments in this timeline before the gods disappeared from the world," Johanson said. "In Guild Wars 2, the ruins of Orr are raised from the bottom of the ocean by a giant undead dragon, and players get to visit the remains of what Orr was 1000 years in the future, and players have been asking us for over a decade to see what Orr was like before the gods left, before it was destroyed, and so this is very much for our fans to give them something to get excited about."
While the setting might seem lore-heavy, Johanson confirmed that "it's also for new fans" and that newcomers will not need to play the first two games to understand what is going on.
"This period of time has about two pages of recorded history that we've ever released outside of the studio," Johanson said. "We have a lot more internally that we haven't shared, but our fans have only seen a tiny amount of info about what actually happened in this timeline and setting, which means it's the perfect time for new people to come join the Guild Wars franchise because you don't have to have played Guild Wars 1 or Guild Wars 2 to understand what's going on in the story."
He continued: "Everyone's going to learn it all together, and if you're a big Guild Wars fan, you'll know what some of the species are and some of the characters or some of the locations. But for the most part, everybody is on equal footing."
Guild Wars 3 does not have a release date yet. A beta is scheduled for Fall 2027, and the game is launching on PC and PlayStation 5.