Guild Wars 2 China preorders begin today, game launches May 15

Now that we’ve finally got all the details of Guild Wars 2‘s launch in China—we know all about the pricing and the various packages available—it’s time to get on to what’s actually important: playing the game! To that end, here’s some news: the game will officially launch its beta in China on May 15.

Of course, Guild Wars 2 already did a couple weeks of free play in China to give locals a taste for the game, and pre-orders for it actually kick off today. All preorders come with some special in-game items, and pre-orders of the digital edition (which at just $14 is by far the cheapest option) will be limited to 500,000, so if you want to be playing Guild Wars 2 the second the game goes live again on May 15, you may want to head over to the official game store and complete your preorder now.

For outsiders interested in China’s gaming scene, May is likely to be an interesting month. With two major global MMOs (Guild Wars 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online) both having announced they won’t be using free-to-play monetization models, it will be very interesting to see if Chinese gamers take to Guild Wars 2 once the game goes live.

(via 17173)