(Updated) Guild Wars 2's Skimmers Will Be Able To Go Underwater Later This Month

There's a bit of unexpected news for Guild Wars 2 today -- and its reveal might even be unexpected from ArenaNet. Skimmers, the aquatic mount that lets Tyrians cruise over the waves will be able to go under those waves on Aug. 25 -- the eight-year anniversary of the game's early access launch -- as revealed in a video highlight package. Currently, there are no underwater mounts in GW2, so the ability to use skimmers under the sea comes as a welcome relief to players who are tired of having to (slowly) swim everywhere. Judging by the video's title, a new mastery will be required to unlock this feature.

It's worth pointing out that, thus far, five of the six Elder Dragons -- Zhaitan, Mordremoth, Primordus, Kralkatorrik, and Jormag -- have been revealed and have clashed with players. The sixth Elder Dragon is unnamed, but it's known to be an underwater entity whose name starts with an "S" (and has been popularly referred to as "Steve" or "Selbbub," which is "bubbleS" spelled backwards). With an expansion on the horizon, it's highly possible that we'll be confronting it then, and adding this functionality to the skimmer probably goes in line with that.

Now for the weird part: The video is unlisted on YouTube, and it's dated July 29, 2020. So it's been up there for a week and was apparently only just publicized today, which may not have been the plan for ArenaNet. There's nothing about the new feature on the GW2 website, and we haven't received any press releases, though PC Gamer did break the news (with a nod from ArenaNet after the article went live). It could have been an exclusive, which would be something different from ArenaNet, or it could have been an unintentional reveal. If that's the case, and with what happened last week, maybe we should consider making "unintentional reveal Friday" a regular feature on the site.

UPDATE, 8/10: ArenaNet has officially revealed the feature, and even re-upped and made public the video, with today's date attached..