Guild Wars going semiannual

Peace just isn't in the cards for the massively multiplayer online world of Guild Wars. In an interview posted today as part of the VGM Daily podcast, ArenaNet cofounder Jeff Strain cast some light on the regular new installments that the company has promised for its MMO. The first such expansion, Guild Wars Factions, is expected on shelves later this month, almost a year to the day after the original Guild Wars shipped. Strain expects future campaigns to be released twice as fast.

"I would not be surprised to see something by the end of the year," Strain said. "Obviously we're so early in development we're not committing to any kind of release schedules, but if we're going to be on a two-a-year schedule and we're shipping one in April, that kind of helps you set the time frame for the next release."

Strain said that the third campaign was already well down the development path, and that the fourth installment was in the planning stages. Each campaign operates as a stand-alone MMO game with no subscription fees, although players who own multiple installments will be able to bring characters from one game into the others.