ArenaNet system designer, Jon Peters, announced via Reddit that Guild Wars 2 will officially enter closed beta testing on Friday, 16th December.
We will officially enter Closed Beta Testing this Friday. It will be marked with an increase in our pool of testers. To clarify, this phase of testing is still under NDA and is not open to the public.
Based on the feedback we get from our current Closed Beta Testing, we will determine the next phases of our beta program in which we will open beta access to more people.
Arena Net has updated their official FAQ with some exciting information about closed alpha and beta tests and the current progress of the game:
We began closed beta in December of 2011. The feedback from these tests will determine when we will do public beta tests and ship the game. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it.