MMO Week in Review: Funcom’s fate (August 16, 2015)

August 16, 2015 8:00 PM

Were you too busy gaming this week to pay attention to MMO news? Get caught up every Sunday evening with Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!

Funcom fans are a whirlwind of worry this week as the studio announced that it is hunting someone to buy it out. “The Company is actively seeking interested parties for discussions surrounding a possible investment, acquisition, merger, or any other available options,” Funcom’s statement reads. Of particular concern to the modern MMO community is The Secret World, widely considered one of the more unique MMORPGs to have released in the last few years. The game is getting a big update next week. How many more will get it?

Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Exclusive: Guild Wars 2’s Revenant elite spec is the Herald - The Revenant is shaping up to be a unique profession on a Guild Wars 2 roster, with fresh ideas in regards to combat abilities and its place on the battlefield. I was given a sneak peek at the upcoming announcement of…

Hyperspace Beacon: Eight misconceptions about SWTOR’s Knights of the Fallen Empire - The actual information coming from BioWare's camp about Star Wars: The Old Republic's next expansion has thus far been more sparse than fans might have wanted, which unfortunately leads to some wild speculation and misinformation. That's why…

Skyforge’s Crucible of the Gods update is live now - Have you been playing Skyforge and complaining that there's nothing to do? If so, how did you get to that point? The game has barely been out a month now. But if you are somehow in…

Gamescom 2015: Guild Wars 2’s new mastery system details revealed - On the opening day of Gamescom 2015, I crept away from the buzzing hum and dazzling lights of the show floor to sit down with Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer Crystin Cox to discuss Heart of Thorns and the…

Here’s ‘everything you need to know’ about ArcheAge server merges - Trion's latest ArcheAge website update purports to tell us everything we need to know about ArcheAge's upcoming server transfers. Now, my first thought was that everything I need to know about ArcheAge's upcoming server transfers can…

Player housing is coming to Elder Scrolls Online - While it might be a while coming, player housing has been confirmed as an upcoming feature for Elder Scrolls Online. Start picking out your wallpaper and crown molding now, people! In a recent interview, Game Director…

Camelot Unchained’s Jacobs on animations, the game engine, and more - Did you miss Camelot Unchained's evening update last night? I did, but fortunately this isn't radio and we can all go read it together. Mark Jacobs talks about a number of topics from the team's newest…

Otherland enters early access on Steam on August 26th - It was announced years ago, has jumped developers and publishers, and by and large seems like the sort of thing that was never going to come out. But Otherland is indeed coming out on August 26th.…

World of Warcraft helps you prepare for Draenor flight - After no small measure of drama and controversy, flight is finally coming to World of Warcraft's Draenor zones with Patch 6.2.2. However, unlike previous expansions, getting the ability to soar with the eagles will take far…

Project Gorgon might feature cow-only guilds - Project Gorgon's Kickstarter still has 10 days to go, so the devs at Elder Game have published a new set of stretch goals. They include an ancient vampire curse, a new and unique animal form with…

Perfect Ten: Ten MMO futures that never were - One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is Operation Unthinkable. For those of you who don't feel like clicking the link, it was essentially Winston Churchill's plan to start World War…

Today is the last day to play Infinite Crisis - In case you had forgotten, Infinite Crisis is shutting down for good on August 14th. That makes today the last real day to play and enjoy the game before it's gone forever. If you have any…

Perfect World touts Neverwinter’s Strongholds release - Neverwinter's Strongholds update is officially live. It's the seventh expansion for the free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons MMO, and it features customizable guild spaces as well as challenging guild-based battles. Guild members must defend their lands from four…

Here are both versions of Star Citizen’s multicrew and social module reveals - If you missed last week's Star Citizen event at Gamescom, Cloud Imperium has recapped it for you on the game's official website. Included are textual summaries of the social module, Star Marine, and the multicrew demo,…

Gamescom 2015: First hands-on look at Hi-Rez Studios’ Paladins - Hi-Rez Studios pulled quite the ace out of its sleeve during Gamescom with its freshly announced new addition to the shooter market, Paladins. The earliest playable build of the game was quite a crowd pleaser and…

World of Warcraft: Legion’s world invasion will be terrifying - World of Warcraft fans are vacuuming up any and all news regarding the recently announced Legion expansion, so we imagine that they'll be interested in a new Gamescom interview in which the devs address some of…

Hearthstone dominates digital CCG market with $20M monthly sales - [AL:Hearth]As the digital card game market continues to outpace its physical counterpart, Hearthstone is coming out on top as one of the dominant forces in the genre. A recent Superdata report found that the game is…

Player falsely accuses Trion Worlds of censorship - Another day, another cautionary tale in trying to wield lies in the face of a game studio with access to factual records. In this case, it was the recent attempt by a player to accuse Trion…

Bethesda is focused on Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Online - Elder Scrolls Online will be the Elder Scrolls title of record for the next little while, according to Dualshockers. The publication interviewed Bethesda VP of Marketing Pete Hines at last week's Gamescom, and Hines intimated that the…

Gamescom 2015: Blizzard answers more World of Warcraft: Legion questions - Everyone who cares about World of Warcraft wants to know more about Legion, even though the details are likely to remain vague for the next few months. Another interview took place on the Gamescom floor centering…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS