Thursday 4 November 2004/...The results are in and they show that hundreds of thousands of people played Guild Wars® last weekend during ArenaNet® and NCsoft's® free World Preview Event. More than 400,000 people representing more than 140 countries participated in the event which took place 28-31 October.

"The World Preview Event was a great opportunity for people to try out Guild Wars," said Jeff Strain, Guild Wars producer and ArenaNet co-founder. "We were pleased that so many took advantage of this unique opportunity. If Guild Wars was available for purchase, last weekend's subscriber numbers would have ranked the game as one of the top three online role playing games operating in North America."

This weekend, ArenaNet will roll out another chance to play the game during the first of several Beta Weekend Events. These exclusive events will take place on the first weekend of each month and will be open to European players who obtain access to single events through cover disc promotions which are running in the leading PC games magazines throughout Europe, including PC Gamer (UK), PC Jeux (France), PC Games (Germany), PC Gaming World (Scandinavia) and Micromania (Spain).

Stephen Reid, NCsoft Europe's Content and Community Manager, said: "We've been delighted by the huge numbers of European gamers who played in the World Preview Event. I hope many more people take the opportunity to preview Guild Wars during the upcoming Beta Weekends, ahead of Guild Wars' global launch next year."

Each Beta Weekend Event will feature new content and offer exciting new challenges in the Guild Wars world. This weekend's event begins on Saturday 6th November at 12:01 a.m. PST. More information about Guild Wars and the Beta Weekend Events can be found at www.guildwars.com. ArenaNet and NCsoft plan a simultaneous global release of Guild Wars at the conclusion of the beta period, which they anticipate will be in early 2005.