PC gamers may get their hands on the full version of Guild Wars 2 at the beginning of the summer. A flyer from a retailer suggests that the MMO will launch at the end of June.
The ad from Fry's Electronics (via Kotaku) mentions a June 28th release date. Interestingly, it also says that the Collector's Edition will only be available for pre-order until May 30th. If this ad is accurate, that means that you've only got two weeks to decide whether to splurge on the $149.99 CE.
You should always be suspicious of release dates revealed by anyone other than the actual company making the game. Retailers often provide ballpark estimates without mentioning that they're guessing. Remember all of those retailers claiming that Diablo 3 would arrive in April?.
June 28th is a Thursday, which would be a weird day to release a game. Generally games launch on Tuesdays in North America and on Fridays in Europe. It's not impossible to release a game on Thursday, mind you, but it's really uncommon.
The fact that this date isn't simply on a website or scribbled on an in-store sign makes it seem more legit. However, even though this ad looks nice, that doesn't mean it's more credible than other sources. Human error is always a possibility.
Regardless, NCsoft isn't ready to spill the beans yet. Here's what they told Kotaku with regards to the ad: "We have not released an official launch date within 2012 as feedback from our closed and open marketing betas will help us determine an exact release date. We will release Guild Wars 2 when it is ready."
