The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the announcement. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.

The announcement of The Icebrood Saga was held at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington on August 30, 2019. It offered a look at an all-new chapter in Guild Wars 2's Living World story.

Introduction [1:00:02] [ edit ]

Announcer: It's show time. Please welcome your host from Kinda Funny, Greg Miller.

Greg Miller: What's up, Guild Wars 2 community? How are you guys today? How are you guys today? Oh my goodness. I love this audience already. Thank you so much for everyone here in Seattle for joining us in the historic Moore Theater. How are you guys doing today? I'm going to need you to keep that energy up all day long, ladies and gentlemen. You have a whole bunch of developers back there who have been busting their buns making an amazing showcase today for you, so please, when they get out here and you see something you like, cheer. Give it to them. When they say something you don't like, boo them until you are hoarse. Boo them until nothing else.

Greg: Thank you everyone of course for joining us today. Is everybody ready to hear about Guild Wars 2? And the Living World. Excellent. If you said no, you are about to have a very boring hour. We are going to be premiering the first look at the all new Living World story coming to Guild Wars 2. Everyone is so excited to share it with you, but, before we get to all of that, please put your hands together and help me welcome game director Mike Z to the stage.

Announcement [1:01:24] [ edit ]

Mike Zadorojny: Thank you so much for all of you joining us here in Seattle, those of us who are joining online. Guild Wars 2 is a very, very special game because of this community, so first and foremost I definitely want to thank you for helping us celebrate this week, the seventh anniversary of Guild Wars 2. The love and passion that you all show this franchise is what drives us every single day, so I speak for the entire team on Guild Wars 2 when I say that we are pumped to finally show you and unveil the next chapter of Living World, but before I get to that I want to take a quick brief moment to look at where the game is today.

They are launching a story seasons recap video:

https://youtu.be/U7nEC7vgY2g?t=3727

Mike Z: Since Path of Fire launched in 2017, there has been an amazing amount of content added to this game. We continued the epic story in the Elonian desert after the defeat of Balthazar and the struggle of emerging powers in the vacuum that happened thereafter. In six episodes across season four, we put you face to face with Kralkatorrik in two massive confrontations and also helped you prepare Aurene for the next chapter of Tyria. We welcome back two classic festivals: Dragon Bash and Festival of the Four Winds, in addition to adding additional content to all of our existing festivals. We introduced three additional mounts: the speedy roller beetle, the battle hardened Warclaw, and the soaring Skyscale, giving you all new ways to explore the massive world of Tyria.

Mike Z: For our PvP players, we've rolled out new maps, new rewards. We just started season 18 and very, very shortly we're about to begin public testing of Swiss-style tournaments.

Mike Z: On the World versus World side, we released private squad support, new rewards, the previously-mentioned Warclaw, and new live events. The next major focus for us is landing World Restructuring, aimed at creating a more balanced and automated environment.

Mike Z: Earlier this week we also introduced cooking 500 to the chefs of Tyria. So you can find even more delicious meals being made within the game.

Mike Z: Dedicated players also now have more flexibility in customizing their builds with the introduction of legendary runes and sigils, allowing you to create the perfect gear stats for any situation, and this leads to perhaps our biggest quality of life improvement for these dedicated fans. Character build and gear templates are coming to Guild Wars 2 in the near future. This means that players will be able to easily share their builds and switch between different loadouts with ease. You'll be equipped with the most appropriate gear for whatever activity you're doing. Whether you're showing off in Lion's Arch, optimizing for raids, or getting ready for the next big clash in World verses World, you'll have full control over your character's kit. All of these content updates, features, and quality of life improvements continue to be given for free with no monthly subscription fee.

Mike Z: To the community, the team at ArenaNet is continually humbled and amazed at your streams, your tweets, your fan art, and most importantly, your support over the last two years. The stories that you share with us mean so much. We've aimed at making Guild Wars 2 one of the best valued MMORPGs on the market, and we couldn't have done it without your support. So, you may be asking, where do we go from here? Well, we're here to pull back the curtain on the continued commitment we have for Guild Wars 2 and the next chapter of Living Story. So without further ado, I want to introduce you to the new season.

Icebrood Saga Trailer [1:06:25] [ edit ]

https://youtu.be/U7nEC7vgY2g?t=3985

[Painterly shot of a Shiverpeaks valley. A bird sits on a branch in the foreground, and flies away with a squawk.]

Voice over: You do not fear death.

[The camera pans right, revealing a blackened, burning charr town. The camera pauses on a charr silhouette, which disintegrates into embers as the voice speaks.]

Voice over: You fear something far worse: You fear outliving the ones you swore to protect.

[Cuts to a shot of a Kodan. As the camera zooms out, we realise they're lying on a funeral pyre, floating on a chunk of ice. Burning arrows shoot past, until finally one hits, and it goes up in flames. Cuts to the shore, where a group of Kodan solemnly watch as dozens of burning pyres float out to sea.]

Voice over: You fear the day your children no longer feel the chill of the frost or the warmth of the flame.

[Cuts to a close-up shot of a forest floor. Human feet bound in rags walk past. Cuts to a zoomed-out shot of the scene. A centaur guard whips one of the haggard men stumbling past, who falls to his knees.]

Voice over: It is this fear that is your enemy, not I.

[The centaur cracks his whip again, and the lash transforms into a torn sail fluttering in the wind. A burning ship, half-sunk, sits in the background. The camera dives under the water, and the body of a drowned norn sinks past.]

Voice over: The prison in which all races of Tyria suffer.

[Cuts to a Shiverpeak mountain range. The bird from before soars towards a group of limping norn, seemingly guiding them to safety. As we cut to a close-up shot of the group, one norn falls over in exhaustion. His companion places a hand on his back in concern, but it's too late: he's dead.]

Jormag's Army

Voice over: But you need not fear me, champion.

[Cuts to a swirling thundersnow storm. Three icebrood emerge purposefully from the fog.]

Voice over: For I can set you free.

[Cuts to Rytlock Brimstone, Braham Eirsson, and Jhavi Jorasdottir leading an army to meet the icebrood outside Hoelbrak.]

Voice over: Join me, and you shall have the strength to protect your people in the trials to come. Voice over: Stand against me... and you stand alone.

[As Rytlock watches the now-numerous icebrood approach, we finally see the face of the voice we've been hearing as it emerges from the fog: Jormag. Just before the scene cuts to the Living World logo, the bird flies past us once more, blue and covered in ice crystals: a member of the ever-increasing icebrood army.]







Once the trailer is finished:

Mike Z: So, in The Icebrood Saga, there are whispers of a stirring trouble in the northern Shiverpeaks. And we're going to be putting you and your allies front and center as the threat slowly reveals itself. The northern reaches of Tyria are a blasted wasteland of ice and frost. The original home of the heroic norn and the charr races. So, what this means is that we are going to be pulling back the curtain on these two cultures to take an even more important role in the story. You're going to be able to explore the personal histories of fan favorite characters like Rytlock and Braham. You're going to go toe to toe with the Icebrood themselves, Jormag's twisted cult of norn, who serve as avatars of the dragons corrupting power, and we're excited to announce that the Icebrood saga begins on September 17th with a prologue episode that will be free for all players who own Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire.

Mordrem-themed glider

Mike Z: But that's not all. So, with The Icebrood Saga, not only is now a great entry point for new players to come join us in Tyria, to get all of our free rolling updates, the new improvements, the new content, but beginning today, we are making it even easier for everyone to get into Guild Wars 2. When you purchase Path of Fire starting in about 15 minutes, Heart of Thorns, our first expansion, will be included for free. This means that, moving forward, there's one single purchase that gives you access to both the Maguuma and it's masteries like gliding, and the Elonian desert and the mounts. So if you've never experiences Guild Wars 2 before or have yet to try the revolutionary genre-defining mounts, this is the perfect time to jump in. For those of you who have already purchased Heart of Thorns and have enjoyed countless hours in the Maguuma, we want to show you our appreciation for your loyalty and with that we're going to release a support through an exclusive Heart of Thorns veteran's pack. This veteran's pack includes a Mordrem-themed glider, a new title "Vanguard", both of which can only be obtained through this, and a voucher for one of 16 possible gem store armor piece skins. For players who already own Heart of Thorns.. err sorry Path of Fire, but not Heart of Thorns, later this week you will receive the expansion added free to your account. All of this will start being rolled out early next week because, y'know, PAX is kind of important.

Mike Z: So, from all of us on the Guild Wars 2 team, we are incredibly thankful and humbled by your continued support for this franchise. We know our fans are the absolute best. You are what motivates us to push ourselves to create great content year after year. So from all of us, thank you.

Story interview [1:12:13] [ edit ]

Greg: Let's keep it going for Mike, everybody. Were we happy with that? I know the one person up front with the "woo!", I know you're very excited, but that's what I wanted. You guys are a great audience, I want you to know because everybody back there, of course, yesterday in rehearsal is super like, "Oh my God. Are they going to like it or what's going to happen?" You guys are killing it. Thank you so much.

Crowd member: We like it!

Greg: You like? Guys, they like it! You did all right. That's just the start though, ladies and gentlemen. Sure it's an amazing trailer, but let's talk about what's actually happening in Icebrood. Please welcome to the stage alongside me, Julia Nardin and of course, Novera King, the Narrative Team. Come on out here.

Greg: Is it a weight off your shoulders? People know now, you don't have to worry about leaking anything, you're okay.

Julia Nardin: Yes! You have no idea.

Greg: I bet. I think, when I got announced as the host for this, obviously I started going to the communities, talking to everybody about it. One of the big questions was, where are we going? What are we going to be doing? What are the inspirations for where you're going? Obviously Shiverpeaks, right? Icebrood. What did you guys look to? What did you want to accomplish with the setting?

Julia: Yeah, so Guild Wars 2 has a really incredibly rich lore populated with fantastic characters and we've barely scratched the surface of that. So far we've tackled three of the elder dragons, we've gotten Zhaitan, Mordremoth, and Kralkatorrik, but there's three left and we really wanted to get back to what makes the game great which is the player races and we haven't given as much love to the charr and the norn as we've given to the others. The sylvari had Heart of Thorns and the humans kind of took center stage in Elona. So the Shiverpeaks really seemed to us the perfect setting to tell a different type of dragon story centered around the charr and the norn. We're kind of wondering what's the new status quo not that three of the elder dragons are gone, two are asleep, and we don't know going on with the third one. They aren't what we thought they were, and we're starting to wonder and it turns out Jormag is wondering what the new status quo is too.

Greg: Can't imagine he's happy. Seems like there's a lot going on in his world, right?

Julia: He's got a pitch, yeah.

Greg: And so, Novera, for you what does it all mean? What does it all shake down for you?

Novera King: Yeah. Well, part of the awesome thing about going into Shiverpeaks is that we're going to have the opportunity to really get immersed into norn and charr culture, which I'm super excited about, personally. I think with Braham and Rytlock we've had friends who are norn and charr, char and norn, Braham and Rytlock, norn and charr.

Greg: These are the kind of things you got to lock up now otherwise the twitch chat will eat you alive.

Julia: No.

Novera: Yeah, don't. Just nerves guys, just nerves. There's a lot of you. Hi.

Greg: Everybody this is Novera, you can say hi back.

Novera: Hi. Thanks, I feel a lot better now. So, part of what's awesome is that we're going to have this opportunity to really see heir homelands and see norn through norn eyes and charr through charr eyes, and when we get to have that opportunity where we're immersed, we get to understand the nuances of those cultures, not just what makes them awesome to play, but who they really are and no culture's a monolith, right? So we're going to have lots of different opinions and points of view and that offers us as writers amazing conflict and drama opportunities to bring you guys really stellar, entertaining content.

Greg: I was going to say, what is that like for you guys, right? Because again, since the launch of Guild Wars 2 people have known about the charr, they've known about the norn, right? They want to know their characters based around these people. You've seen one, you've seen two. What's it like to now go and get invested in those civilizations?

Novera: I think part of it is that, especially with our very first episode where, the Prologue: Bound by Blood.

Greg: And yeah what's that all about? Why is it prologue and not episode one? That's a great questions.

Novera: Well, we want to have an opportunity to celebrate this new era, Kralkatorrik's gone, he's been a really dark force over Tyria for so long and so we wanted this opportunity to really celebrate and have that time before we bridge into the next event.

Julia: Is that what we're calling it?

Greg: The event.

Novera: It is an Icebrood saga' so I fell like, you know.

Greg: Oh I got a question for that too, don't worry.

Novera: But I think part of it also is that with, so the first prologue episode, we're jumping right in with the charr. It is the all-legion rally on the charr, Blood Legion Homelands. We're bringing everybody in. We've got Blood, we've got Ash, we've got Iron. We've even got Flame, y'all. Yeah. That's what I was looking for, that's what I was looking for.

Julia: Flame Legion's back. Flame legion is back.

Show screenshot of a lot of charr concept arts:

Charr concept arts

Novera: So it's sort of one of those, I mean, the flame legion, they are charr, they are part of Tyria. What has the death of Kralkatorrik meant for them? We're going to get an opportunity to see that, but also on a more personal level, I mean let's think about the charr. They're very military, group-oriented society that has a structure unlike anything else in Tyria. What does family mean to charr? And with Rytlock, if anybody's been following his TWINE, he's kind of maturing a little bit in his outlook, but he's been away for a long time so we're going to have this opportunity to delve into his history in relationships. He mentioned in the TWINE he had cubs.

Julia: Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Novera: Yeah, there's a thing, but also he has a relationship with the Blood Legion imperator. So, Bangar Ruinbringer, we're going to get to see him and spend some time with him and the other imperators are going to get face time too because, let's face it, it's a dawn of a new era. What does that mean for the charr? What does that mean for everybody, but does this mean that the treaties that brought all the different races together, are those still valid? Some have questions about that. Is it time for all the legions to come together? Is it time for another Khan-Ur? Is it time for a different path entirely? I think different characters...

Greg: Well, tell us the answers. You know the answers.

Novera: I'm just giving y'all teases. These are just teases. You got to come and play, but this is one of those moments where we're going to have the opportunity to see the different perspectives from different characters and see where that takes us and then Julia can tell us more about the norn.

Julia: And yeah. The norn. Yeah let's give it up.

Novera: Yeah, seriously. The norn.

Julia: So, kind of each race in Tyria is connected to an elder dragon, and the non are the ones that are connected with Jormag so they have a really personal history with this dragon. For those of you in the audience, maybe this is your first time coming to a Guild Wars 2 event don't know a lot about the game, when the dragons first awoke, Jormag drove the norn out of their ancestral homelands,, and they settles further south in the settlement called Hoelbrak. And the norn had this prophecy about the Fang of the Serpent, which is one of Jormag's teeth, that they have hanging up in there and the norn to crack that Fang is going to be the one to slay Jormag and bring them back home again. In season three, Braham cracked that fang. He also went to go slay Jormag and failed pretty spectacularly. He showed back up, and we don't know what became of his guild, we don't know what the repercussions are for the norn who had this culture that's focused on legend and reputation. To go and do that and fail has some pretty meaningful consequences and we're going to experience those with him firsthand.

Julia: We've also got the Sons of Svanir, who are a dragon worship...

Crowd: Boo!

Julia: Boo! Right? They're a dragon-worshiping cult. They worship Jormag and...

Novera: They're all dudes.

Julia: They're all dudes. We'll get to that in the game, but... They're all dudes. But they've been kind of watching from the shadows for the last few years. Seeing us kill Zhaitan, seeing us kill Mordremoth, seeing us kill Kralkatorrik.

Greg: And this seems against their core values.

Julia: This is against their core values. Some keen players noticed some Sons of Svanir having some opinions about that at Dragon Bash. So we're going to explore that in a bigger way, and Jormag's kind of a little anxious about that too. The other things we want to look at in the Shiverpeaks region are the Spirits of the Wild. The norn follow these spirit guides. You can choose, if you play a norn, between Snow Leopard, Bear, Raven, and Wolf, but we also have some ones that went missing. That when the norn fled south they stayed behind to, kind of, fend Jormag off so that's Owl, Wolverine, Ox, Eagle, and we're going to let you guys know what happened to them this season too.

Audience cheers

Julia: Yeah! Yeah, you guys have been wondering about a lot of things as far as the norn are concerned and behind me we've got the kodans. So you'll be visiting with them as well and learning more about, kind of, their relationship to the norn.

Greg: Now, I'm looking through the notes I jotted down and Julia, you just slipped up.

Julia: No I didn't. I...

Greg: You called it a season. It says very clearly, Icebrood Saga.

Julia: Icebrood Saga, yes.

Greg: I've see the Twitch chat since the announcement. What is going on? What is the difference? Is this a full blown season? Is this a saga? Don't try to dance out of it.

Julia: Oh no. Oh no.

Novera: No, I got to help my girl out. I got to help my girl out, because yes, it is a saga, but that doesn't mean that you can... You can still expect the awesome episodic content that you're used to. The difference is, we've now got four content teams and so that kind of gives us a little bit of leeway on what a "release" is.

Julia: Yeah, I mean, sometimes that's going to be a story focused episode, but it could also mean on expanding existing content or focusing on another element of the game or trying a new type of content that we've never tried before. So, we also have some surprises we want to slide in and I think the design teams going to speak to some of that too in a few minutes here.

Novera: Yeah, it's bigger than a season. It's a saga.

Greg: It feels like it gives you more leniency too to try things.

Julia: It does.

Novera: Absolutely.

Julia: It's fluid, it's flexible, but the most important point is it's the new chapter. We're starting a new point in Tyria's history. We're moving forward and we really wanted to make it a great, accessible place for new players who aren't familiar with the franchise to jump on and have a wonderful time.

Greg: Okay. Does that sound good to you guys?

Greg: I was worried about the "saga" verses "season" thing. I didn't know that would go over.

Greg: Julia, Novera, thank you so much for coming out.

Julia: Thank you so much.

Novera: Thanks for having us.

Greg: Great work. Get back to making the game! Looking great. All this talk of Icebrood I feel like I need a jacket because it's cold. They say I'm only kinda funny, sorry.

Gameplay interview [1:22:57] [ edit ]

Greg: My next guest, ladies and gentlemen, have been hard at work designing all the fun you're going to be having when you start playing on September 17th. Please welcome to the stage Clayton and Jason from the gameplay team. Come on, guys! Power. Thanks for coming out.

Greg: So I mean, really, the saga's already begun, right? You guys up to the cooking level, everybody lost their minds, even when it got mentioned in the opening. I mean, what else can you possibly do in this? What do you guys have planned?

Clayton Kisko: We have a ton of new stuff and so I'll talk about some of those things. Some of them, not all of them, right?

Greg: Boo. Boo him, I told you to boo.

Blood Keep

Clayton: So we're going to be starting off with the prologue episode, which is called Bound by Blood. That is going to be set in the location that is often requested by fans which is the charr homelands, called Grothmar Valley.

Audience cheers

Clayton: Yeah! Right. But then from there with episode one and episode two, we're going to the far Shiverpeaks and that is the furthest north we've ever been in GW2, so suffice to say the commander's going to need a jacket. It's going to be a little bit chilly. So then from there we're going to go into some masteries. Z had alluded before that we will be taking existing masteries and bringing them into future content. So expect things like gliding, jumping mushrooms, updrafts, right? But we're also continuing our horizontal progression philosophy by introducing a new mastery line. Starting with episode one. That mastery line will actually evolve and grow into episode two and if you're wondering what that is, it is actually going to be exploring the history of the norn deities called the Spirits of the Wild and for episode one the first spirit is going to be the raven spirit.

Audience applauds

Clayton: Yeah. Yeah.

Greg: Are we getting some cool third eye abilities and all...

Clayton: All the third eyes.

Greg: Okay good. All the third eyes? Wow!

Clayton: So yeah and you'll be able to harness the power of the raven spirit to unlock its cryptic secrets and all of its different powers. Z had mentioned, it's a really great jumping off point, and he's absolutely right. It's a fresh arc. It's a fresh story. It's a great jumping off point for old players, new players, and players who just want to continue this crazy ride.

Greg: Now you talk about it being the jumping off point, again, prologue, not episode one. This is the start of the saga or even before the start of the saga if that's how prologues work. What does that mean? What are you introducing here and how does influence the rest of the story going forward?

Jason Reynolds: So with the prologue we are, as everyone's said multiple times, we're going to Grothmar Valley, but back in season four we killed the elder dragon Kralkatorrik, and so all the charr war bands are grouping up to come together in a peaceful, big-ass party.

Greg: Woo!

Rock concerts

Metal Legion

Jason: So there's going to be rock concerts, there's derby racing, Colosseum battles, ceremonial burning of the flame legion effigy.

Greg: Yeah, yeah!

Jason: I mean look a this.

Greg: This is where I want to go. This is where I want to party.

Jason: I know. Look at that laser pointer show, kitties losing their minds.

Jason: But yeah so Bound by Blood, the prologue, is going to be a lot of what you guys are familiar with already with our releases. Going into episode one and two, that Clayton and I are working on, we're trying out some new stuff and so episode one and two have a deeply intertwined story and it's also going to be a tone difference from the prologue because there's heavy inspiration from Lovecraftian horror. It's a little bit darker.

Greg: Not as many rock concerts in Lovecraftian horror. No, no.

Jason: I bet Cthulhu could kill it on the drums, I'm just saying. But yeah, so there's going to be a dynamic growth of the map between episode one and two. New areas, new stories, new achievements, new events, mastery unlocks, all that across the two episodes, and we're really looking forward to this different dynamic approach.

Greg: What about new bosses? I think that's something you guys have been known for, right? Giant things that we can all go pummel.

Clayton: Yeah. What are players going to be hitting with their sticks, right?

Greg: Yes.

Clayton: And how are we going to be hitting these things with our sticks? And so...

Greg: Keyboard, mouse generally.

Clayton: Well yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.

Icebrood Construct

Clayton: But we're excited to announce a new feature that will answer that question in the form of Strike Missions and so what strike missions are are going to allow players to group up, up to 10 people, and take on challenging boss encounters. It's going to be an introductory into raid content, but without a lot of the stress.

Greg: Oh nice.

Clayton: Yeah. We heard all you. It can be intimidating sometimes to get into that twitchy type of content. The high choreographed content and so we want to introduce something that is going to be that stepping stone into something like that...

Greg: I assume more digestible too. Like raids are great, right, but they're such a time commitment.

Clayton: They're an extreme time commitment. Sometimes it's really hard to even get a bunch of friends together, right? Different time zones, like all different types of stuff like that so we're introducing a public mode with this which will allow you to group up to people in the map looking for the same boss that you're trying to take out. So we're really excited about that and, let's see, with prologue we're actually introducing the first one which is this Icebrood construct. Yeah, it's right behind me. Super scary, but what's interesting about this guy is he's going to evolve from the prologue to episode one. So not only in his model, but also in his game mechanics as well and then in episode one, back to Lovecraftian horror that you were speaking to Jason, we're going to introduce this thing called a "boneskinner" and this thing is terrifying. It's going to haunt you.

Boneskinner concept art

Greg: No, don't want that. Don't want that.

Clayton: It's going to set traps, it's going to ambush you, it's going to throw it's voice to trick you. It is going to be a force of nature in this map so you're going to be constantly looking over your shoulder to see where this thing is.

Greg: How often do you walk around the office looking at him going, "Boneskinner's ready!"?

Clayton: Every day, Greg, every day. People are actually upset with me, but it's fine.

Greg: It's really annoying. People don't like it.

Clayton: Yeah, yeah. Right, right.

Jason: Actually, if you meet this guy afterwards, talk about WWF. You got to, you have to talk about the wrestling stuff.

Clayton: Yeah.

Greg: Let's just do it now.

Jason: It's a big thing right now.

Clayton: Right, so and another thing just to mention is from a design standpoint with this, what trike missions allow us to do is to take creatures and bosses that we create in, like the story campaign where most players only play once, we get to take that, we get to tweak that, we get to modify that. Put them in these strike missions and players can play that over and over again, get great rewards for it, right? So we're really excited about that and that's not all.

Drakkar concept art

Clayton: So last but not least, we're also continuing our lineage of world bosses. So starting with episode two, we'll introduce another one. His name is Drakkar and so yeah. So for those of you who don't know, in GW1, there was this creature underneath this ice. You knew it was Drakkar, but you couldn't really see, couldn't really interact with it. Well in GW2, he's going to be the world boss that you get tin interact with. The concept art behind me is very early, it's still changing. We're still in the process of taking pieces of what we like and other things and mashing them together, but for episode two, players will be able to not only interact with this guy, be able to beat the crap out of him as well.

Greg: A smattering of applause to team up and fight stuff. Guild Wars is also known for all of you fighting each other. Is there PvP stuff for this?

Jason: Absolutely. So we actually have a new armor set coming soon.

Greg: From the back of the room the one PvP fan, we got him. Hahaha!

Upcoming PVP armor set

Jason: Yeah we're getting that new armor set. Also Z mentioned Swiss-style tournaments. Those are coming. I'm pretty excited about those personally, and then we also have mini seasons coming between conquest seasons. So that's a way, it's our opportunity for us to sort of change up gameplay, different activities and so on between conquest seasons.

Jason: And then finally, we have not forgotten about world restructuring. We're actually really excited to talk about that in the coming months.

Greg: No, you called the event. Talk about it now! You brought all of us here!

Jason: Give more info.

Greg: Always with the teases. Guys, I think it looks great. Do you guys think it looks great?

Audience cheers

Greg: Thank you both for all your work on it.

Jason: Yeah.

Greg: Get off the stage and get back to making it. You know what I mean? Somebody's got to. They're here talking to us, no one's making it at home and that's a problem. Thank you. Round of applause for your stage crew please too.

Merchandise [1:31:25] [ edit ]

Greg: Before we leave you today we have a few more final exciting announcements for you, so I'd like to welcome NCSOFT VP of marketing, Mike Silbowitz to the stage. Come on, Mike!

Greg: Yeah, get them.

Mike Silbowitz: Hey, everyone. You liking everything? Awesome. Man, I haven't been this nervous since I was on Guild Chat so give me a moment here. All right, we've been hard at work with our wonderful third party partners on a couple of projects we hope you will love. As you know, ArenaNet's 20th anniversary is coming up next year. To commemorate that milestone, we've partnered with Dark Horse Comics to release a special compilation showcasing the Guild Wars franchise's rich visuals and art. The complete art of Guild Wars 20th anniversary edition will let you explore the living history of Tyria through an expansive collection of never-before-seen concept art, production materials, and creator commentary. It's an absolutely gorgeous volume releasing in the spring of 2020 and it's available to preorder right now at darkhorse.com.

Mike S: Last month we announced our partnership with Wild Bangarang to release some Guild Wars-themed leggings and dresses. I was going to wear it today. I couldn't get on in my size... But we're expanding our clothing options that are available. This weekend, both Hot Topic and For Fans By Fans will be debuting brand new Guild Wars 2 t-shirt designs in their online stores and UK based apparel company, Insert Coin, will be featuring a new line of Guild Wars 2 inspired hoodies and t-shirts starting next month. We are also partnering with Razer on a line of Guild Wars 2 phone gases and mouse pads.

Mike S: If you like the music of the game then we're happy to let you know you'll be able to stream the original scores for Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, and Living World seasons two through four through Tidal. We've also been working with a company that's just up the road from us to help bring some Guild Wars most memorable characters to life. Yep. The team at Funko are huge fans of the game, and today we are extremely happy to announce a line of Guild Wars 2 Funko Pops featuring beloved characters, Aurene, Rytlock Brimstone, nice, and everyone's favorite lich, Palawa Joko. These Pops will be available in January and will also include a code for a special Funko Pop minipet for the character in game.

Mike S: Your continued support of the game has made all of this possible. These partnerships would not happen without you. We cannot wait to show you more about the Icebrood Saga in the coming months. For now, here's one last tease to get you ready for the new season. As the commander and Dragons Watch arrive to greet the Blood Legion imperator, Banga Ruinbringer, tempers flare between old acquaintances.

Cutscene preview [1:35:15] [ edit ]

https://youtu.be/U7nEC7vgY2g?t=5716

Bangar Ruinbringer

Bangar Ruinbringer appearance revealed

Dialogue:

Rytlock Brimstone: I'm here now.

Bangar Ruinbringer: Nobody wants you here, cub.

Rytlock Brimstone: You're the one who ordered me here.

Bangar Ruinbringer: Sentimentality. For a second, I forgot what you really are.

Rytlock Brimstone: Your tribune.

Bangar Ruinbringer: My disappointment. Good thing your cub had me for a father.

Rytlock is punching Bangar in the face, he responded, suddenly Rytlock stops as Bangar is speaking:

Bangar Ruinbringer: Look whose fangs finally came in.

Close [1:36:00] [ edit ]

Greg: Keep it going, right? That was a sneak peak, of course.

Greg tries to squeeze between two cosplayers on the stage

Greg: Come on, give me... a little... Okay, sorry.

Greg: That was a sneak peak, oh my god, of the Icebrood Saga prologue episode Bound by Blood. Of course you know it launches September 17th and believe it or not ladies and gentlemen, that wraps up our show this morning. Please, before we go though give a huge round of applause to these cosplayers. If you weren't here live, they were out there taking photos. Bjorn's Workshop, our norn guardian. Terrible Trio Creations, the charr legion heir, Khan Grimblood. They're actually going to be on YouTube. Hyper X is doing a show called Behind the Cosplay. You'll see them there in the coming weeks. Thank you all so much for being here in Seattle. One more time for yourselves, please, you've been such a great audience. Thank you for watching on the stream. Remember, please, follow Guild Wars on Twitter, Guild Wars 2 Twitter, Instagram, find out more about the Icebrood Saga and one more time before we go, Let's roll that trailer. Thank you guys!