Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game currently in development by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSoft. It is set to be a sequel to the Guild Wars series of games published by ArenaNet and NCSoft. The first installment of the series was released on April 24th 2005 as the first MMORPG from independent developer ArenaNet.
How Many GB is Guild Wars 2?
ArenaNet has confirmed that Guild Wars 2 will be a 5-disc install, with 4 disc files and 1 disc for the manual.
You may need an additional GW2 installation if you’re planning on buying the Collector’s Edition which comes with 3 discs. If you decide to buy any of the expansions then you’ll probably need another installation.
For reference, the original Guild Wars (with all 3 campaigns and Eye of the North expansions) comes with 4 discs.
So how much space does it take to install Guild Wars 2?
All in all it’s going to take around 5.6GB of free space on your hard drive.
ArenaNet has confirmed that there will be a 5GB minimum installation, with an additional 4GB for the files and 1GB for the manual. But they also said the Collector’s Edition would be a 27GB download due to uncompressed cinematics.
You can however get away with a minimal installation by downloading the game from digital distribution services such as GetGuildWars2 and using their installers (Steam and Direct2Drive, respectively.)
Guild Wars 2 Download Speed
I know I’ve seen screenshots of Guild Wars 2 with a lot less than 5 discs worth of data. But we want to find out exactly how big it is! More importantly, we wanted to see if there was a ‘minimum’ required to install and the answer is:
Yes, you need at least 5 discs worth of data to play Guild Wars 2. That’s because there are 5 discs in total – one for the game itself and 4 for the other components.
How to Download and Install Guild Wars 2
You’ll probably want to download Guild Wars 2 through digital distribution services like GetGuildWars2. This will save you some time when the game releases.
If you’re not interested in waiting for ArenaNet or your preferred retailer then there is another trick that allows you to download it without having to wait in line for hours!
You can download the installer with a torrent download. This is of course optional but you’ll save quite some time downloading it this way. You can use any BitTorrent client to do this, including our favourite uTorrent .
Just head on over to the Guild Wars 2 Installer page, choose your preferred language and platform (PC/Mac) and click the link. The torrent should start shortly.
After you’ve downloaded it, all you have to do is run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. There will be a EULA (End User Licence Agreement) that you’ll need to accept before the installation begins. Make sure not to cancel any of the steps or you’ll have to start over.
If the installer fails then there are some issues with your BitTorrent client or firewall settings. Make sure you have disabled your antivirus, firewall and any other security tools you might have before attempting this again.
Once it’s finished downloading all 5 discs, just run GuildWars2-All-In-One.exe and follow the on-screen instructions.
If you have Windows 8 installed, you might get an alert saying GW2 is blocked because it’s a security risk. This is just a false positive so select More info then run anyway . After that simply install Guild Wars 2 by clicking Run at the bottom of the window.
Finally, after the installer is finished you can start playing Guild Wars 2! It takes quite a bit of time to finish installing so be patient.
Is There a Patch?
Guild Wars 2 has been in development for quite a while but they have been regularly releasing updates and you can easily download them through the launcher.
There doesn’t seem to be one currently available but it might take a few days, so just check back later. Make sure that your Guild Wars 2 folder is not being blocked by any security tools you might have installed on your PC.
Conclusion
We’re not entirely sure why the game requires 5 discs, but I suppose it doesn’t matter since you won’t need them once GW2 is installed. You might be interested in saving some time by using a BitTorrent client to download the game through digital distribution services like GetGuildWars2.