Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion will be playable at PAX East

When developer ArenaNet announced its first expansion for Guild Wars 2 earlier today, one major question they declined to address was when the expansion would actually release. They're still not ready to talk about that, but they have provided some news on how soon players will be able to go hands-on with the huge update.

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will have a playable demo at PAX East in approximately six weeks, game director Colin Johanson revealed in an interview with Polygon.

"We did wait to announce this until things had come together," Johanson said. "Now things are going to be happening quickly after this."

Some time after the playable PAX East demo, ArenaNet will be opening the expansion up to beta testing.

"Of course, the question on everybody's mind is when it's going to get released," Johanson said. "It's going to get released when beta testing says it's ready to get released. We want to involve our players in that. It'll be a process of beta testing the game and making sure that this fundamental groundwork that we're laying is the groundwork that we want to build on top of growing forward.

"When it's ready — when players help us determine it's ready through beta testing — that's when we'll release it."

PAX East takes place in Boston beginning Friday, March 6. Passes to the event are currently sold out. If you're not able to go yourself, Polygon will be there checking out Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns on your behalf, and we'll report back with any info we discover on the expansion.