@isnipeyoudie said:

But they DO need to fix things. I just can't see how they can get all that optimization and those bug fixes/balancing out the door in two months.

I could maybe, MAYBE see end of July/early August, but late June just seems impossible to me.

You don't know how long they have been working on optimizing the game though, they might have builds with better performance now but it still needs more work before they can actually use those builds for the beta events.

@Xyber: They've said that they're using the data from those BWEs to optimize further, but even if that build was a month back from current optimization, it's still a huge stretch for late June, as it would take at least two months to optimize from the point that the BWE build was at (meaning they'd be done with optimization in about mid-June at that rate). Then they still have to fix all the bugs and balancing, too.

I played all weekend in PvP and PvE and didn't have any game-breaking issues that didn't reek of beta.  Only things I noticed were some balance things and random MMO glitches.  (Beetletun skillpoint)  I'm not expecting June, but I don't think it needs to be end of the year either.   They need to get the pet AI up to snuff, fix the overflow grouping issues, and optimize.  Those were the only major issues I encountered.   (Also some mob scaling, but that falls in the "balance" category) 
 
Remember that in betas, you are always playing an older build than what they actually have.

http://kotaku.com/5910509/guild-wars-2-retail-ad-shows-june-28-release-date

Just caught this story. Apparently Fry's in Texas had promotional material on display, showing a June 28th release date. It's unclear if that's the 3-day headstart or the full release. Anet and NCsoft say, I'll paraphrase, 'we'll release when it's ready - we don't know yet if we are ready for our End of June release window.'

Hopefully they really aren't hellbent on releasing on schedule. Shit better be tight. Backend stuff like the Trading Post system didn't work during the BWE or Stresstest, for the most parts. That's the kind of stuff they'll have to be 'sure enough' about. The gameplay itself seems mighty fine to me already - good to go.

@Seppli: Ehhhh. That looks like in-store promotional material more than any kind of memo from ArenaNet. Plus, I don't exactly think "super, upstanding business practices" when I think Fry's. But maybe I'm wrong, who knows!

@Dark_Lord_Spam: @Seppli

Along with the Fry's issue, I also tend to take any "news" that comes out of Kotaku with a grain of salt. Also, the trading post worked for me in the BWE and the stress test. I was trading stuff throughout both of those events. Hell, I even made a video about it.

Can't wait to try it once they've sorted the performance issues. Right now I'm wondering when I get to try it again.

@Funkydupe:

This coming weekend or the one after. I'd bet on it, if I was a gambling man. Hopefully with either Asura or Sylvari or both.

My bet was for this weekend, but I would have thought ANet would have announced it by now. Next weekend it is then.

I am thinking it will come on Memorial Day weekend and they will give us all 3 days to play it. In America, Mem. Day is the 28th of May. I truly believe we won't get a beta this month though. I think we will get it in June.

@Jayzilla: I think they've said that there'll be a beta weekend every month until release.

Not sure how many of you saw this but it's pointing towards the game being released at the end of Q3 at the earliest.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/tngpu/ncsoft_2012_q1_earnings_call/

Apparently they already met their sales goals? That's kinda awesome.

Ignore everything about fiscal years, business years, american vs korean financial etc. etc. etc. in that thread. Q3 means July / August / September like it does on the calendar.