ArenaNet Launches ‘Guild Wars 2’ OS X Beta!

Guild Wars 2 seems to be taking the world by storm. The much anticipated title launched just a few short weeks ago to rave reviews and much fanfare.

The title had its share of issues at launch, largely stemming from insane popularity that even ArenaNet couldn’t have anticipated. For a short time after launch, digital copies of the game were pulled to lessen the server load for current players.

The issues seem to be fixed, the game is a great time, and ArenaNet had a very cool (and unexpected) announcement today for Mac users.

The Guild Wars 2 client is now available for OS X (In beta form for now)! This opens the game up to millions of new users who haven’t ever been able to enter the world of Tyria. It also means that us BootCamp users will have one less reason to restart!

I’m currently downloading the beta, so I have no indication yet of how it runs, but I’ve heard plenty of good things!

Kudos to ArenaNet for thinking of us!

From the press release:

Today we’re happy to announce another major milestone in the development of Guild Wars 2: going forward, ArenaNet will also be supporting the game on Apple’s Mac OS X. The Mac Beta client is available immediately for all Guild Wars 2 players. It shares the same features and connects to the same live game servers as the PC client. Anyone who purchases Guild Wars 2 can now play it on both PC and Mac.

Bringing Guild Wars 2 to the Mac is huge for us, because it introduces the game to an entire group of players who are often ignored by game developers. The ability to play together with your friends is one of the underlying principles of Guild Wars 2, and providing a Mac client means that friends and guildmates can play together regardless of what operating system they favor.

On top of it all, ArenaNet staffers are big fans of Macs. We offer them as part of our employee laptop subsidy program, and our president Mike O’Brien is rarely seen without his Mac laptop. We’re as excited as anyone to play Guild Wars 2 on OS X.

I’m excited! Anyone else currently playing? What are your thoughts on the game?