NCSoft has revealed that the first chapter of Guild Wars and all its expansions has passed the 5 million user mark. The game is distributed in Europe, Asia and North America, with three expansions: Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Night fall and Guild Wars Eye of the North. The game’s unique amongst other MMORPGs for the lack of a monthly fee in order to play.

“Guild Wars is a huge success and it set new standards in the Online RPG genre, thanks to its different business models and a better playability than its rivals”, says Taek Jin Kim, CEO of NCSoft. “ArenaNet is always busy trying to create games that will expand the market and update them with necessary contents. That’s the basis of a success that is destined to grow with the next Guild Wars chapter”.

ArenaNet is currently working on Guild Wars 2. Contrarily to its predecessor, Guild Wars 2 will have a completely non-instanced world, like in World of Warcraft. Similary to the first Guild Wars, there will be no monthly fees to pay. No further details or release dates are known at this moment.

The partnership between Turbine and Tolkien Enterprises for the development of videogames based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was extended until 2014. Turbine is currently in charge of developing and updating on The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO).

The agreement with Tolkien Enterprises has an option of extension until 2017. Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine Inc seems very satisfied with the agreement, especially with the upcoming movies about The Hobbit, and its possible sequel, which should be airing in Movie Theaters in next few years.

Shadows of Angmar is based on the famous best-seller written by Tolkien. It’s possible to use the weapons seen in the Lord of the Rings movies or that were found in Tolkien’s books. Each battle has a specific strategy line and it’s possible to face them alone or with other players.

“The economic revenues from Tabula Rasa aren’t satisfying”. Says Lee Ja-ho, chief financial officer from NCSoft in an interview for the Korean Times.. The Software company would be already in the move for some cut-downs on their staff in the Austin branch. For now, there’s no talking of closing the official servers or ceasing support.

“About a year ago, we would tell the investitors and analysts that we had great expectations for Tabula Rasa. After only six months we had to change the first estimative of 10 million euros in revenues”. NCSoft has only managed 3.5 million euros in profit thanks to Tabula Rasa, which is a noticeable failure compared to the initial estimative. The game’s developing cost around 70 million euros.

“If we think about the production costs, it’s probable that the Tabula Rasa project will not allow us to generate profit”. Richard Garriot will however continue supervising the game’s developing. NCSoft, however, has claimed the article was written “in a sensationalistic and messy way”, although they did confirm the difficulties with the Tabula Rasa project and the lay-offs on the Austin Branch.