with War in Kryta, then Hearts of the North, and continues with Winds of Change. After the Guild Wars 2 release, ArenaNet formally announced that they "will no longer release any new content". Some of these scrapped Beyond-updates included: the Ebon Vanguards' withdrawal and establishment of Ebonhawke; the Lunatic Court and their attempts to free Mad King Thorn; expanding on the story of Palawa Joko and continue that plot thread, which was left dangling in Nightfall; and the disappearance of Evennia, last seen in Old Ascalon during the Krytan civil war. Guild Wars 2 Announced in March 2007, Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the current Guild Wars series of games. The game is set around 250 years after the events in the original series and contains several new features, consisting of a more persistent world (as opposed to mostly instanced), dynamic questing, a personal branching storyline, and an updated graphics engine. On the morning of August 20, 2009, ArenaNet released the first trailer for Guild Wars 2 on their website. Closed in-house beta testing started in December 2011 and press beta weekend events started being rolled out in March 2012. Beta weekend events began in April 2012 and were open to those who pre-purchased the game, those who received an invite by signing up and those who obtained a beta key from a giveaway. On June 28, 2012, ArenaNet announced that Guild Wars 2 would be released on August 28, 2012; meanwhile, people who pre-purchased the game received a three-day headstart and began playing three days earlier, on August 25, 2012. In its first 2 weeks of sales Guild Wars 2 sold over 2 million copies. After the release of Guild Wars 2 Arenanet initially spent their time fixing issues with the game; such as bugs and connection problems. Once the game had become stable, they set their focus on further improving Guild Wars 2 and evolving the concept of a 'living world', by adding both temporary and permanent content in biweekly updates. Along with these updates were seasonal and holiday events. Guild Wars 2: Living World Seasons 1 and 2 ArenaNet's "Living World" concept was meant to maintain an appearance of a rapidly evolving and continuously changing game world. After the launch of the base game, biweekly patches of varying size and scope brought new content into the game, continuing for nearly two years until the spring