ArenaNet has announced Guild Wars Afterlife, a paid expansion for the original Guild Wars and the game's first since Eye of the North in August 2007, Eurogamer and GameSpot reported. Eurogamer said the expansion is co-developed with studio 2Weeks. It launches on January 13, 2027 on PC, Steam, iOS and Android.
Afterlife costs $29.99, €29.99 or £25.99 at full price, according to Eurogamer, with a 20 percent pre-order discount bringing it to $24 until launch. MassivelyOP reported that pre-orders also unlock a costume called the Vestments of the Order. Playing the expansion requires Guild Wars Reforged, the 2025 re-release of the original game, GameSpot said.
The expansion takes players away from Tyria and through the Mists to the land of Xotecha, where, according to the official description quoted by MassivelyOP, the Order of Moonless Night is seeking help against a rising tide of Nightmares and a group called the Cult of Odran. GameSpot reported that the Mesoamerican-inspired Xotecha appears to draw on content from Utopia, a Guild Wars campaign that was cancelled. MassivelyOP said dataminers had recently found Mesoamerican-themed files in Reforged, leading fans to expect a revived Utopia, and that the announcement instead turned out to be an all-new expansion.
The centrepiece is a roguelike dungeon called the Unformed, which changes after each run. Teams of players, or henchmen, move through a sequence of new maps, enemies and bosses while uncovering a story set in Xotecha, MassivelyOP reported. Each attempt begins with the creation of a custom skill bar unique to that run, with new abilities to pick after every cleared encounter, and rewards earned there can be used both in the mode and in the rest of the game.
Reforged, an enhanced version of the original MMO, received a new dungeon in April, Eurogamer reported. ArenaNet also continues to support Guild Wars 2 and is developing Guild Wars 3; when the latter was announced, the studio said it was committed to "actively developing all three games at the same time," GameSpot reported.
