It was leaked a few days ago, but now we’ve got official confirmation: The core Guild Wars 2 game is now free-to-play. ArenaNet President Mike O’Brien took the stage at PAX Prime Saturday morning to make the announcement, and you can go to the Guild Wars 2 site right now to read a letter from him as well as download the game and jump in immediately.

Some restrictions do apply, of course, to help protect current and future players from the spam and wave of gold-sellers that usually come with a F2P game. As O’Brien said:
OUR GOAL IS TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY AND PROTECT OUR CURRENT PLAYERS WHILE STILL MAKING IT EASY TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS INTO THE GAME.

THE GAME EXPERIENCE STAYS THE SAME, WE’RE JUST OPENING IT UP TO MORE PLAYERS. WE CAN ACTUALLY DO THIS BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN BUY-TO-PLAY [AND] BELIEVE THAT WHEN PLAYERS COME INTO THE GAME, THAT THEY’LL LOVE GUILD WARS 2 AND BUY HEART OF THORNS

Free Guild Wars 2 accounts:

Start with fewer character and bag slots
Cannot use map-wide chat
Can only start a new whisper conversation every 30 seconds
Can’t mail random stuff to other players
Can’t buy gems with gold
Have level restrictions on where they can go in the world: 10 to leave starter zones, 35 to visit Lion’s Arch, 60 to join World vs. World
You can see a full list of the differences between free and paid accounts here. The Gem Store will remain unchanged, and players can “upgrade” to a full game, with no restrictions, by purchasing Heart of Thorns, which launches Oct. 23 and has a revamped website that also went live today.

All right, so now that it’s official, what do you think? If you hadn’t tried GW2 before, are you going to jump in now?