Guild Wars 2's Legendary Weapon Development Suspended, Mike O'Brien Explains Why

Two days ago, interim Game Director Mike O'Brien announced that, following the release of Chuka and Champawat, legendary weapon development would be suspended and the team working on them would be moved to development of Living World content. "As game director I have to make tough trade-offs," O'Brien said in the announcement, "One thing I believe is that we have to focus on the core game first before taking on additional responsibilities."

He later explains in a follow-up post that he believes this is the right move due to the "recent drought of content," a problem that he attributes to spreading the team too thin. The full quote is as follows.

I said three weeks ago I’d focus on sustainability and quality. I want to reiterate the part about sustainability. Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but how about the recent drought of content? That kind of thing happens when we spread ourselves too thin, and when we let the content development pipeline empty out so we can fight fires. What I think we actually owe you is sustainable, predictable, high-quality content. I’m making a decision that’s painful in the short-term so we can position ourselves to deliver that.

O'Brien reiterates a sentiment several times over the course of his involvement in the thread: "I will work to make you happy, and I’ll do it by making you happy with what we ship, not with what we promise to ship." He is sure that, despite the fact that players are mad about the legendary weapons, that his decisions will ultimately make the playerbase happy. It remains to be seen if this is in fact the case.