One of the tidbits of info we confirmed back when ArenaNet lost a third of its studio staff back in February was that Guild Wars 2 was not then slated to get another expansion – the devs hadn’t even been greenlit by NCsoft to begin work on one. That meant that as rumored, season four would most definitely be followed by season five, not an expansion in line with the game’s previous publishing pattern. More concerningly, it meant that work on an expansion for after season five wasn’t underway either.

PCGN says that at PAX West, however, Mike Zadorojny told press the company hadn’t ruled out expansions. On the subject of whether the future of the game would continue to look like seasonal content or expansions, he said,

“I don’t think we have an answer for that one yet. For us, at least today, we know that with the stuff that we want to give – the quality of life improvements, the story we’re trying to tell – Icebrood Saga is the best way we can deliver free content to our players. […] Now, whether or not we change that method moving forward, we’ll have a different conversation at that point.”

And then Anet’s PR stepped in to say, “I think the important thing here, obviously, is that everyone at the studio knows that there’s a demand for an expansion. So it’s not like we’re ruling it out.”

Expansion talk has resurfaced this past week when ArenaNet revealed its fifth season of free living story content, which it’s calling a “saga.” Many longtime fans expressed disappointment over the inevitable reveal, having hoped to hear confirmation that an expansion might be coming at the conclusion of the season, particularly once the devs noted there are now four content teams working on the game. At the very least, players hoped for more “expansion-level content” planned for the season, since traditionally, paid expansions have been a huge boost to the game’s health and revenue and brought content that isn’t found in seasonal storytelling – like elite specs, for example. You can check out our Guild Wars 2 columnist’s run-down of the reveal in our latest Flameseeker Chronicles column.

Earlier this week, Guild Wars 2 began a rather rare event for the game that should help folks catch up in the storyline: two weeks of mastery experience boosts. There’s a goofy new mini-trailer for Icebrood too.