MMO Week in Review: Merrily migrating to Morrowind (February 5, 2017)

February 5, 2017 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!

This week, you guys. Not only did Asheron’s Call and its sequel sunset, but Guild Wars 2 announced its next living story episode, Conan Exiles launched into early access, and The Elder Scrolls Online revealed that OMG we’re going to Morrowind in its June chapter! Any one of these might have commanded a whole Week in Review, but clearly this was a special week.

Here at home, we’ve been busy with our brand-new comment system (which is working but not done yet) — if you need help, make sure to check out the FAQ!

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

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Elder Scrolls Online announces full-fledged Morrowind expansion for June 6 - [AL:ESO]The rumors were true: The Elder Scrolls Online is getting a massive Morrowind content blast on June 6th, just in time for TES III: Morrowind's 15th anniversary. Strictly speaking, ZeniMax…

Guild Wars 2: Head of the Snake living world episode coming February 7th, plus new trailer and Heart of Thorns sale - [AL:GW2]Next week is shaping up to be a big one for multiple MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 included: ArenaNet has made good on Mike O'Brien's tease for the fourth episode of Living…

Conan Exiles drops PingPerfect as server count approaches 7700 - Conan Exiles' early access might be a little too popular for its own good. Funcom announced today that while there are now around 7700 servers -- 7500 of which are…

Massively OP comment system switchover FAQ - 02/03/2017 - We have now completed the first big step of switching over to our brand-new comment system. It's all still under construction, but it does more or less work. If you…

Conan Exiles has formally launched early access with mixed reviews and new trailer - Funcom's Conan Exiles formally launched overnight, sending early access purchasers into the antique but brutal world of Conan the Barbarian. Despite some confusion over the official server list, which has been…

Disney’s Club Penguin to close down in March to make way for its sequel - After an 11-and-a-half year run, Disney's Club Penguin is preparing to close its doors. Don't cry too hard; the move is one of those strange good news, bad news situations.…

The Soapbox: The sorry state of ARK Survival Evolved - When ARK: Survival Evolved came on the scene in June 2015, it was met with enthusiasm (dinosaurs!) as well as some skepticism (Early Access). But Studio WildCard quickly won over…

Perfect World has laid off under 30 employees, ‘no impact’ on MMOs - [update]This has been confirmed. See the end of this post for the statement.[/update] We've had multiple reports this week that PWE has laid off an unknown number of employees from its…

Recapping the Asheron’s Call sunsets - Just before Christmas, we learned the sad news that Turbine would not be transferring Asheron's Call and its revivified sequel to Standing Stone as part of its Daybreak deal. No,…

Valve is under anti-trust investigation in Europe - The European Commission has launched multiple investigations today "to assess if certain online sales practices prevent, in breach of EU antitrust rules, consumers from enjoying cross-border choice and being able…

Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime ‘troubled’ by latest US immigration policies - On Monday, we covered some of the MMORPG companies speaking out against new immigration policy that opponents of the current US administration have dubbed a "Muslim ban." Add to that…

LOTRO Legendarium: 10 things we know about the Mordor expansion - [AL:LOTRO]We are one month into 2017, and already the MMO genre is brimming with anticipation over several upcoming expansions. One of those has no name -- yet -- but is…

RIFT changes achievement assist policy, promises to ‘bring back quality’ in 2017 - [AL:Rift]Due to a spike in customer service tickets asking for help with RIFT's achievements, Trion Worlds is changing its policy in how it will handle such requests. In a post…

Shots are still being fired in the Oculus/ZeniMax lawsuit - All right. The Oculus/ZeniMax lawsuit ended, ZeniMax was awarded $500 million in Oculus money by the courts, and while the plaintiffs got less than what they had initially asked for,…

Massively Overthinking: Breaking your immersions in MMORPGs - Veteran MOP reader and tipster Nordavind is going to break your immersions. Just kidding. He does have a question for us all on that topic, however: "After the discussion about…

Perfect Ten: MMO NPC lives from best to worst - The lives of NPCs are unpleasant within MMOs. Imagine coming into existence knowing that you are forever doomed to perform one singular function, one thing that you have to do…

Black Desert’s Dark Knight journeys westward in March - The Dark Knight is coming westward, Black Desert fans -- maybe sooner than you thought. March, in fact! "The Dark Knight is the next character class that players will be…

Conan Exiles hits 40K concurrent players - Despite mixed reviews and technical shenanigans, Conan Exiles is enjoying a heady first week of early access. Funcom reports that the survival sandbox has already seen up to 40,000 concurrent…

ZeniMax partially wins Oculus Rift lawsuit, awarded $500M - It may not be the $4 billion that ZeniMax was hoping for, but the studio still made out well today as a jury awarded it $500 million in damages for missteps…

Life is Feudal aims for late 2017 launch, hires on public relations firm - As Life is Feudal bears down toward its launch window of "late 2017," it has a new ally to help with getting the word out about this medieval sandbox. Bitbox…

Tamriel Infinium: Five things you might have missed in the Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind reveal - [AL:ESO]I really enjoyed watching the Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind announcement with all of our readers. The staff here saw your comments immediately as I was live-blogging some of the highlights.…

Conan Exiles addresses tech issues post launch, laughs at dong obsession - Funcom's brand-new early access survival sandbox Conan Exiles got a patch yesterday aiming to clean up multiple issues in the game, including server sorting and selection, Steam Connect tools, disconnects,…

BioWare is working on an online action-adventure game - SWTOR studio BioWare is working on yet another new game, and it's at least partly an online one, Electronic Arts confirmed in its 3FQ 2017 investor call yesterday. "And at…

A Virginia gamer was shot and killed playing Pokemon Go last week - According to Chesapeake, Virginia, news, a 60-year-old resident was shot and killed by a security guard while playing Pokemon Go last week. The victim, Jiansheng Chen, who reportedly played the game to…

We’re liveblogging today’s Elder Scrolls Online announcement – join us! - [AL:ESO]On Sunday, one smoky, ash-filled video of volcanic rock sent the fans of Elder Scrolls Online screaming in excitement and questioning what it could all possibly mean. Fortunately, the super-sleuths…

Ten life lessons I learned from the Asheron’s Call series - As Asheron's Call 1 & 2 are going offline shortly, I thought I might give it a final send-off with a list of things I learned from the series. Maybe it's…

MMORPG developers, GDC organizers speak out against US ‘Muslim ban’ - You might want to keep politics out of gaming, but politics has a way of forcing itself in the door no matter what. Multiple MMO developers and video game convention organizers have…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

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Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the little bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.