This morning ArenaNet founder and president Mike O’Brien announced in a blog post that Guild Wars 2 will get an open beta in March or April 2012. He said that after the relatively small closed-beta testing they were now ready to hold progressively larger events.

“In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate”, he said.

“Guild Wars 2 has captured the imagination of gamers and media all over the world with its action-oriented combat, its living world full of dynamic events, its highly personalized role-playing experience, and the handcrafted artistry that suffuses every element of the game. Last year, thousands of you joined us at shows and events all over the world to try Guild Wars 2 for yourself.”

He continued: “It’s been an incredible adventure over the past five years, working with our community and our team of dedicated artists, designers, and programmers to realize this vision. This year, the seeds of that work come to fruition. We can’t wait to play the game with you.”

More details on the Open Beta will be released in the near future. For now we embedded a nice ten minute gameplay video to get you in the mood!