MMO Week in Review: EverQuest Next up, Pathfinder down (September 6, 2015)

September 6, 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!

Paizo announced this week that it had let go all but three members of the Goblinworks studio working on Pathfinder Online, who will endeavor to keep the game going for early enrollment subscribers while the company seeks additional investment funds in the million-dollar range.

In happier news, Daybreak dealt a blow to the vaporware crowd by revealing that EverQuest Next is in the midst of a large internal playtest.

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

WILDSTAR

Free-to-play WildStar ‘Reloaded’ arrives September 29th - No, that isn't a typo in the title: WildStar fully converts to free-to-play on September 29th. Carbine and its crew are calling this significant change to the game's payment model WildStar Reloaded. Carbine isn't just changing how you…

WildStar enters the second phase of free-to-play testing with real money, explains Runecrafting changes - The first stage of testing for WildStar's free-to-play conversion has been a success on the whole. Sure, there have been aspects that veterans didn't like, such as the Sprint changes (which are being altered anyhow, allowing…

Here’s what Carbine is doing to WildStar’s loot this fall - "Lots of things are changing -- lots of things," WildStar Senior Game Designer Evan "Verizal" Graziano says in a new loot deep-dive posted on the official site today. For starters, Verizal says that the upcoming patch…

GUILD WARS 2

PAX Prime 2015: Guild Wars 2’s free-to-play model and publishing takeover - When I spoke to ArenaNet's Colin Johanson about raids in Guild Wars 2 at this year's PAX Prime, President Mike O'Brien was sitting right next to him. Johanson was the frontman for raiding, while O'Brien took a brief moment…

PAX Prime 2015: Guild Wars 2 is never getting a PUG raid finder - Guild Wars 2 set its fanbase on edge this last week on Twitter and at PAX prime. We learned that raids are coming to GW2 with its next expansion, and on Saturday the base Guild Wars 2 game…

Guild Wars 2 overhauls WvW guild objective system - Guilds will have a lot more to do in world vs. world encounters when Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns launches next month. ArenaNet posted a new dev diary stating that the team has overhauled the…

Guild Wars 2 unleashes fresh Mordrem event next week and blogs about raids - ArenaNet just confirmed the rumors it sparked about a Mordrem event coming to Guild Wars 2: From 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on September 10 through 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on September 13, Mordrem will be…

STAR CITIZEN

RSI’s attorney responds to Smart’s Star Citizen demands - The strange saga of Derek Smart's quixotic campaign against Star Citizen continues. The game developer sicced his lawyer on RSI last month, delivering a series of legal demands that include a public audit of the company paid…

Star Citizen gets weekly and monthly reports, free DragonCon trial - If you're attending DragonCon this weekend, you might see various Star Citizen developers chatting up gamers and sharing their perspectives on various dev panels. You might also snag a game code on the show floor, which…

Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts on dedication, delays, and Derek Smart - In a new and very lengthy interview with Polygon, Chris Roberts fields a wide range of questions about the development and delays of Star Citizen. He points out to fans that he's been working on the…

Stick and Rudder: Star Citizen is starting to come together - Last Tuesday I woke in the wee hours of the morning to install Star Citizen's 1.2 patch. I wasn't battling insomnia or anything like that; on the contrary, I set my alarm and made sure to start the mammoth…

Here’s a helpful summary of Star Citizen’s release schedule - The best laid plans of mice and men don't hold a candle to those creating a virtual universe from scratch. The shifting dates and missed development targets of Star Citizen have been of some concern and…

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Marvel Heroes studio Gazillion hit with layoffs [Confirmed] - It's sad news for fans of Marvel Heroes and Super Hero Squad Online as at least one of the teams behind Gazillion's successful titles appears to have gotten a bit smaller. Michael Parks, formerly of the company, tweeted…

A wicked hive of synth and vibrancy: First impressions of Otherland - I first covered Otherland, the Gamigo-turned-Drago MMORPG based on Tad Williams' sci-fi book series by the same name, at E3 2012. The idea of having multiple genres in the same game was cool, as was instanced personal…

Devilian begins alpha testing for Obsidian founders - If you've been eagerly awaiting your chance to get your hands on Devilian even in just a test stage, your wait is over. At least, it's over if you purchased the appropriate level of founder's pack…

ESPN is hiring an e-sports editor - Remember a year or so ago when ESPN CEO John Skipper created a minor stink in the nerdosphere by pooh-poohing e-sports and intimating that the worldwide cheerleader didn't care about the competitive gaming scene? "It's not a…

World of Warcraft welcomes players back to the skies - It's been a good while since World of Warcraft players have been able to fly in high-level zones, but as of today the skies are the limit for Warlords of Draenor pilots. Patch 6.2.2 turns on…

Perfect Ten: The 10 MMO memories we all have - I have been playing MMOs with varying degrees of intensity for the past 12 years. That is really weird to me. It also means that I've had time to develop a robust set of memories, and not…

World of Warships launches September 17th - If you've been waiting until the official release to launch your naval career in World of Warships, mark your calendar: In two weeks, the game goes live. Wargaming has announced that after a successful open beta,…

Trion Worlds shies away from sub-only games, praises Defiance’s console success - RIFT fans with long memories will recall how the game first launched in 2011 as a subscription-only title, staying that way for about a year before going free-to-play. These days Trion Worlds is harboring a library…

ArcheAge elaborates on the game’s post-server merge environment - If the land rush at launch of ArcheAge was the least fun you'd had since you started playing the game, you probably don't want to take part in it again. Unfortunately, that's exactly what you're going…

Elite: Dangerous welcomes pilots to close quarters combat - Players have a new way to experience Elite: Dangerous with the advent of the close quarters combat (CQC) mode. The beta test for the new mode began yesterday and includes several new ships and outfitting for…

This is how Crowfall has evolved over the past 16 weeks - Crowfall's latest video is a 25-minute affair that shows you how the crowdfunded PvP fantasy title has progressed from stacks of Post-It notes, index cards, and little round stickers to a playable virtual world over the…

Mortal Online has landed on Steam - Do you enjoy the concept of Mortal Online but have a long-standing vow to not play any MMOs you cannot purchase and play natively through the Steam client? That's a really weird vow you've got there,…

Atlas Reactor’s alpha signups start today - [AL:Atlas]Trion wasted little time getting its newly announced Atlas Reactor turn-based PvP thing in front of gamers. After revealing the title at PAX last Friday, the company has announced that it is now taking alpha signups.…

Hi-Rez really is working on Tribes: Ascend again - Shelve your snark, Hi-Rez detractors: It looks as if Tribes: Ascend isn't dead after all. Following rumors last week that suggested the studio might be turning its attention back to the long-neglected 2012 entry to the Tribes…

Lord British’s death captured for posterity in Shroud of the Avatar PvP event - Shroud of the Avatar fans recently witnessed a bit of history: the in-game death of Lord British! During a 12-hour livestream event and pledge drive, three folks had the opportunity to face a dev in a…

SWTOR vets form new studio, partner with Nexon - Korean F2P giant Nexon announced today that it has entered into a "strategic partnership" with newly formed QC Games. Nexon America will publish and market the fledgling company's first project, an unannounced multiplayer online action game, according…

Elite: Dangerous names planet after soldier’s late mother - One of Elite: Dangerous' community is grieving this summer after losing his mother in June. Citing his love for the game and his missed opportunity to show his mom some of the sights in the galaxy,…

SWTOR outlines expansion changes to the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior - [AL:TOR]Here's a friendly PSA for Star Wars: The Old Republic players: Don't become so consumed by the big ticket features of the upcoming Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion that you overlook the fact that each of…

Champions Online kicks off anniversary event, explains how to play a supervillain - Yesterday, we noted that Champions Online seemed to have missed out on its anniversary event, which is a bit sad for players of the rather quiet title. Turns out that an anniversary event is here after…

SkySaga’s latest alpha patch adds playable monkeys and a dinosaur zone - Alpha 5 for SkySaga has landed -- and the monkeys have hit the fan. Playable monkey characters are only the surface for this massive game update. The patch for the upcoming sandvox includes more character creation…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS