Announced today by ArenaNet, developer of the wildly-popular franchise Guild Wars, the studio’s latest game Guild Wars Nightfall will make its debut in a massive event open to anyone and everyone who would like to play. The event will take place September 22, 2006, beginning at 07:01pm GMT and running through September 25, 2006 at 6:59am GMT

The Guild Wars Nightfall World Preview Event will feature previews of the new environments, new missions and new battle arenas. The event will allow players to create Nightfall-specific characters from the six core professions as well as the two new Nightfall™ professions, the Dervish and the Paragon, and to try out new Nightfall skills. The entire Istani province of the new realm Elona will be open for player exploration, and players will be able to view the first Nightfall in-game cinematics. In addition, two new arenas will make their debut, the Sunspear Arena and Churranu Island.

As an added bonus, key magazines in each European territory will include an access key for an exclusive, in-game Gray Giant miniature. The Gray Giant will be useable during the World Preview Event, and then may be reactivated with a Guild Wars Nightfall account upon release. To find out which magazine will carry the item, please visit http://eu.guildwars.com for details.

The Guild Wars live events are world-renowned, drawing players in unprecedented numbers logging millions of game play hours. The Guild Wars Nightfall World Preview Event is expected to exceed prior Guild Wars beta records as eager fans await their first taste of one of the year’s most-anticipated games, and ArenaNet is preparing to handle the influx of participants on its servers.

Guild Wars, an instant bestseller worldwide upon its release in April 2005, and Guild Wars Factions, the number one game in both North America and Europe earlier this year, are global online roleplaying games. Guild Wars Nightfall continues the tradition of inviting players to immerse themselves in an epic storyline centered in a vibrant fantasy setting. Eager fans can get the Guild Wars Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack in stores on September 15, and the Guild Wars Nightfall Standard Edition and Guild Wars Nightfall Collector’s Edition on October 27, 2006.