Release date and platforms

Guild Wars Afterlife launches on January 13, 2027, on PC, Steam, the Apple App Store and Google Play. From November 5, 2026 that is 69 days away, or just under ten weeks. The date comes from ArenaNet's announcement, which gives it as a single worldwide day rather than a regional rollout, and the Steam store already carries the pre-purchase offer with a stated end date of January 13.

One sentence in the announcement names all four storefronts and one date, so there is no platform-by-platform rollout to track. What differs is the storefront you buy from and what it requires you to own there. Steam's version is explicit — it needs Guild Wars Reforged on Steam. The mobile versions sit alongside Reforged's existing apps.

The date, the countdown, and the offer window

ArenaNet's wording is precise: slated to launch on PC, Steam, Apple App Store, and Google Play on January 13, 2027. The Steam page repeats the same day inside the pre-purchase block, where the promotion is marked as ending January 13.

Those day counts are arithmetic on the official date, not a live timer. Reading this later, subtract from January 13, 2027 yourself rather than trusting a widget.

Four storefronts and what each one asks of you

The platforms are not interchangeable, because the base-game requirement follows the store.

Steam is the one storefront where the requirement is written in plain text: This content requires the base game Guild Wars Reforged on Steam in order to play. If your Reforged account lives somewhere else, the safe move is to buy Afterlife from the same place you own Reforged rather than assume entitlements travel. Nothing in the announcement describes a cross-store entitlement.

Reforged itself is already on phones: its Google Play listing shows 100K+ downloads and an install path that includes Google Play Games on PC. That is the app Afterlife will attach to on Android. The Apple side follows the same pattern, with Afterlife listed for the App Store at launch.

Languages on the store page

The Afterlife store page lists nine languages. Six of them carry full audio; the other three are text and subtitles.

Chinese is not among the nine. If that matters to you, check the store page for your region before buying rather than assuming a later addition.

ArenaNet gives a date, not an hour. Which is normal for a storefront release: Steam, the App Store and Google Play each handle unlock timing on their own schedule, so the practical answer is that January 13, 2027 is the day to check your library rather than a moment to set an alarm for. The pre-purchase promotion is marked as ending on the same date, which is the cleaner deadline to track.

What launch day actually changes

Three things flip on January 13. The price returns from $23.99 to $29.99. The pre-purchase promotion ends, which is the same date the store prints next to the discount. And the DLC unlocks, so the Xotecha content becomes playable rather than sitting in your library.

The costume bonus is the exception to the waiting. ArenaNet's announcement says the Vestments of the Order costume is included today with the pre-purchase, and the Steam package confirms it by listing two items: the DLC and a separate Pre-Purchase Reward entry. That is the only part of Afterlife you can use before launch.

One storefront detail is easy to miss: Steam labels the product as downloadable content while the package itself is sold as a normal purchase with a 20% badge. There is no separate "pre-purchase edition" to choose between — one package, two items inside it, one price. That keeps the buying decision simple, which is rare enough in 2026 to be worth stating.

Checked 2026-11-05 against ArenaNet's announcement (Steam news, 2026-11-03), the Afterlife Steam store page (app 5149500) and the Reforged Google Play listing.