In the middle of Force Master week, NCsoft announced that Blade & Soul will be making its formal North American and European debut on January 19th, just in time to keep everyone company through the post-holiday doldrums.
Meanwhile, NCsoft subsidiary ArenaNet went live with Guild Wars 2’s raiding system, sat for an interview with our own Tina Lauro, and navigated raid drama from its testing guilds.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions!
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Funcom to announce three new games in 2016 - Watch out world:Â Funcom is cranking up its game factory for 2016. In the studio's Q3 2015 report, Funcom said that it would be announcing the creation of three new titles --Â one "large" and two small --…
Here’s what John Smedley’s been up to lately - What has former SOE and Daybreak head honcho John Smedley been doing since his departure from the latter? Well, putting together a development team, from the looks of his Periscope feed. Smedley gives viewers a brief…
Guild Wars 2’s introduction of raids is followed shortly by the introduction of raid drama - Guild Wars 2 introduced the first wing of its new raids to players yesterday. To make these new raids as good as they could possibly be, ArenaNet recruited high-end guilds full of raiders dedicated to achievements…
Elder Scrolls Online’s veteran ranks are going bye bye - Elder Scrolls Online creative director Rich Lambert made a post on the game's official forum recently that should lead to much rejoicing. Unless you like eternal grinding, of course. Lambert says that the much-reviled veteran rank…
BioWare nerfs SWTOR companions hard, asks for feedback [Updated] - [AL:TOR]MMO players have always known the danger of a class or feature being overpowered, as it can draw the attention of developers and invite a nerf beatdown. Star Wars: The Old Republic gamers are learning this…
Camelot Unchained reveals gloomy Spirit Mages and glam faces - Friday evening, Camelot Unchained revealed its eighth class triplet, the dark and sinister Spirit Mages: The Slaughterwolf (Vikings): Summons and commands a pack of pissed-off spirit wolves. The Morrigan (Tuatha Dé Danaan): Summons and commands spectral…
Black Desert is now available for pre-order - After an accidental peek at its store page earlier this month, Black Desert now has the full, correct, and permanent page up for pre-orders. The pre-order packages for the fantasy sandbox run from $30 to $100. These…
Face the Lord’s Labyrinth in Path of Exile’s next expansion: Ascendancy - [AL:POE]Earlier this month, Grinding Gear Games teased Path of Exile players with an announcement of an upcoming expansion announcement. Well folks, today's the day! I sat down with Producer Chris Wilson to learn the juicy details about…
MMO Burnout: Star Wars Battlefront - I'm kind of in love with Star Wars: Battlefront. I shouldn't be, really, because underneath the glitz and gloss, it's a pretty pedestrian multiplayer shooter. Electronic Arts tapped Battlefield maker DICE to clone its tentpole franchise…
Ever, Jane is now in closed beta - Ever, Jane, the Jane Austen online RPG with the prominent comma in its title, is now in closed beta. So says a tweet on the game's official Twitter feed. It also mentions that a new website…
World of Warcraft dramatizes the level 100 boost process - Like the last expansion, World of Warcraft's upcoming Legion expansion will let players skip the tedious process of leveling up through old content and just focus on the new content if they'd like. So what does…
World of Warcraft celebrates 11 years of operation - Whether your opinions on World of Warcraft are positive or negative, you can't deny that reaching 11 years of operation is quite the accomplishment. The game is celebrating the achievement with presents for the players, as…
Smedley’s new game won’t have microtransactions - John Smedley's Twitter account continues to provide interesting food for thought related to his next project as well as the industry in general. The former SOE and Daybreak chief is apparently not a fan of the…
Here’s how Star Citizen ship repair and maintenance works - One of the things that sets Star Citizen apart from the game industry at large is a virtual world design that provides players with options other than fighting. One such option is spaceship wrenching, which works in conjunction with…
Perfect Ten: MMOs you forgot existed (but are still running) - No MMO can be in the spotlight eternally. Even some of the biggest names out there -- your World of Warcrafts, your Guild Wars 2s, your Star Stables -- wax and wane in the amount of…
The Park will be Funcom’s first console release in nearly 10 years - Was Funcom’s Secret World-inspired single-player experiment successful? It would seem so as The Park will now be released on console, the first non-PC release for the studio in nearly 10 years. Funcom noted that The Park…
Wisdom of Nym: The first impressions of Final Fantasy XIV patch 3.1 - [AL:FFXIV]Part of me feels really ungrateful for being upset that it took five months instead of the usual three to get Final Fantasy XIV's next big patch. It's even more like four and a half, which…
Tree of Savior will boast 53 classes at launch - Were you impressed at Camelot Unchained's promise of goal of creating 30 classes? Well prepare to feed your inner altoholic even further with Tree of Savior, as the upcoming Korean import will field a whopping 53…
Civil War multiplayer shooter War of Rights has been Kickstarted successfully - Civil War reenactment fans rejoice! War of Rights, the multiplayer shooter set in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, has reached its Kickstarter funding goal and then some. The game was asking for $107,000 but raked in…
Dragon’s Prophet has shut down - It's always sad when a game shuts down. Dragon's Prophet never managed to quite find its audience in the American marketplace, and it has shut down in North America as of Monday. The game continues to…
Crowfall posts demographic results from backer survey - Who the heck is funding Crowfall? The game is obviously funded, but who is spending money on it? Is it you? The results of the backer survey posted by the development team doesn't list names, but…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Getting up close and personal with ARK’s Giganotosaurus
The Stream Team: Get a gift for PlanetSide 2’s anniversary
The Stream Team: Win a Wizard101 Polarian Explorer’s Bundle
The Stream Team: Adopting ArcheAge’s pawesome pets
The Stream Team: An EverQuest II XP extravaganza
The Stream Team: Seeking 60 on Storm in Marvel Heroes
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW Legion Demon Hunter abilities and talents datamined
Reagents are no longer needed to swap talents in WoW Legion
Inflatable Thunderfury and more coming for WoW’s 11th anniversary
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 Monday’s Not So Massively for MOBA and multiplayer news, 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.
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