Activision-Blizzard and NCsoft both posted financial results this week, sending MMORPG communities into their usual rounds of speculation and admonition. Blizzard claimed nonspecific “growth” for World of Warcraft, while NCsoft saw end-of-the-year bumps for Guild Wars 2 and WildStar that didn’t quite meet everyone’s hopes and dreams.
Meanwhile, it’s been a week of festivity here on the site, as we celebrated Valentine’s Day with an MMO event roundup and our first birthday as an independent website with a birthday podcast and special edition Sword & Bored comic.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Activision-Blizzard Q4 2015: WoW sees ‘growth,’ Legion still on track for summer - Activision-Blizzard has posted its Q4 2015 financial report, touting record digital revenues up 20% year over year, thanks in part to game exports to Chinese audiences, but revenues were down quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. CEO Bobby Kotick says…
WoW Factor: Being positive vs. being honest in games criticism - Today's column is about the time I tackled my father and stormed out of the house. It is also about World of Warcraft. It covers a lot of ground, that's my point. I'm not going to…
Interview: The Repopulation’s lead dev on its new engine and survival spin-off Fragmented - Following Above & Beyond Technologies' January announcement that it was solving The Repopulation's HeroEngine crisis by getting the heck away from HeroEngine, we spoke to studio rep JC Smith all about the MMO's impending move to…
EVE Online player buys nearly $7,000 worth of skill injectors - EVE Online's passive skill training system lets players slowly accumulate skill points over time, and until recently there was no way to actively skip ahead of that the curve. With the recent introduction of Skill Extractors, players can…
Perfect Ten: MMO problems we don’t really have these days - The weird thing about our perception of time is that we don't always realize just how much things are changing around us unless we take the effort to notice or have one of those jarring experiences…
NCsoft Q4 2015: Sales surge for Guild Wars 2, bump for WildStar - NCsoft's fourth quarter 2015 financial report is in. The Korean gaming giant reports that its quarter-over-quarter sales, operating profit, and net income are all up, 21%, 48%, and 38%, respectively. Year-over-year, however, the quarterly numbers aren't so…
How Shroud of the Avatar is making a fortune on the housing market - For a game that isn't even released so far, Shroud of the Avatar is making serious bank on player housing. From entry-level plots that start at $100 to enormous $12,000 castles, it's clear that Portalarium is…
Massively OP’s guide to MMO podcasts - Podcasts are certainly splendid means of feeding one's MMO interests and keeping in touch with the news and community. It's always great to hear others speaking with passion and interest about the same games that you…
ArcheAge bans raiding guild for Leviathan exploit - [AL:Arche]One raiding guild in ArcheAge is feeling the heavy hand of studio justice this weekend, as Trion Worlds has levied the boom against over 50 players who utilized an exploit in order to take down a previously…
MMO Mechanics: Eight annoying MMORPG mechanics that grind my gears - The inspiration behind this edition of MMO Mechanics is a recent conversation I had with my housemates about the column and the inner workings of our favourite games in general: It took a turn toward hilarious…
Chaos Theory: In The Secret World, membership has its benefits - By now, you've probably heard me mention a time or three that The Secret World overhauled its membership benefits and loyalty rewards. As a TSW fan, I was very excited to see these changes heading our…
Lord of the Rings Online immortalized on game show Jeopardy - MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online was the subject of a Jeopardy College Championships question last night. https://twitter.com/lotro/status/698168523722350593 Apparently the first contestant to ring in has actually been studying in college instead of playing video games.…
Gunslinger Stratos Reloaded to sunset less than two months after its launch - Call it Gunslinger Stratos Unloaded. Square Enix's colorful action title Gunslinger Stratos Reloaded officially launched in Japan six days ago, and yet it's already been marked for extermination. The studio announced that it will be shutting…
Final Fantasy XIV offers up a trailer for patch 3.2 - [AL:FFXIV]Players of Final Fantasy XIV have 11 more days until patch 3.2 comes smashing onto the live game. That means more Alexander, two new dungeons, more of the main scenario, new tomestones and associated gear... all…
Interview: John Smedley on Hero’s Song crowdfunding and the future - Following the abrupt cancellation of the Kickstarter for Pixelmage Games' sandboxy OARPG Hero's Song, we chatted with studio CEO and MMORPG veteran John Smedley about the campaign, crowdfunding, and the way forward for the game. He's even addressed…
Warcraft film audience might get WoW free as a bonus - If you've been following the news of this summer's Warcraft movie and thought that this would be the best opportunity ever for some serious cross-promotion with World of Warcraft, trust us, you're not alone. Blizzard would…
Daybreak begins new Landmark building competition - As promised earlier this week, Daybreak is kicking off its latest Landmarks of Landmark competition tomorrow, inviting players to submit custom claims as, well, landmarks that may be permanently installed in the game. Writes Emily "Domino"…
Choose My Adventure: Blade & Soul’s school of hard knocks (and mysterious, potentially deadly curses) - Hello friends, and welcome to week two of the February series of Choose My Adventure. For those of you who are just tuning in, this month I'm diving headlong into the mystical martial-arts adventure of NCSoft's…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR Knights of the Fallen Empire Chapter 10 impressions - I can't lie: The fact that BioWare took nearly seven hours longer to launch the next chapter of Star Wars: The Old Republic than it had promised tainted my impression of what was to come. I…
Star Citizen clarifies the persistent universe and Squadron 42 split - Are you wondering about how the split between Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will affect your purchase of the game? The short answer is "it probably won't at all." Existing backers are still getting both; it's…
RIFT will soon let you buy any of its 8,100 artifacts for credits - Whether you call them shinies or sparklies, artifacts are a fun little diversion in RIFT that can pay off with special toys, mounts, and pets when sets are completed. When RIFT adds these collectibles to the…
Gigantic studio Motiga suffers another round of layoffs - Motiga has announced another round of layoffs for the staff working on MOBA Gigantic. "Our financial situation is such that we are unable to continue supporting the entirety of the studio at this time," Chris Chung…
WildStar’s new game director Chad Moore on the state of the game - Chad Moore is moving up the ranks in Carbine Studios; after a long tenure as the lore expert, Moore is now the director behind WildStar. What does that mean? Well, that's all to be found in…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Latest WoW: Legion alpha build unveils six new specs
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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.
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