Rather than delay an upcoming content drop altogether, the Guild Wars 2 team has made the call to launch the next episode of its Icebrood Saga arc without any voice acting for the time being.
It’s a decision that, like many, comes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus. While the development team itself is able to work remotely to maintain the online game and create new Guild Wars 2 content, voice actors involved with the project aren’t yet able to safely make the trek to the recording studio.
“Because the recording studio staff and voice actors who help bring Guild Wars 2 to life are also abiding by shelter-in-place guidance to keep the virus from spreading, we’ve chosen to release the upcoming third episode of The Icebrood Saga without voice acting,” writes the Guild Wars 2 team.
“This was a difficult decision to make, but we want to keep releasing content updates for the community to enjoy on a regular schedule. When it’s safe, we’ll create a high-quality studio recording so we can update the episode with voiced lines.”
Other studios have ran into similar problems in recent months, with some like Square Enix opting to instead delay content do to complications with voice acting, external QA, and many of the other moving parts involved in shipping new content.