I hope this past week is the worst we have to see this year: Not only did Daybreak cancel EverQuest Next, but WildStar saw a massive layoff, shut down its China launch plans, and fielded rumors suggesting a sunset is imminent.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Daybreak has canceled EverQuest Next, Landmark is launching ‘this spring’ - Daybreak has officially canceled EverQuest Next. President Russell Shanks just broke the news on the official site this afternoon: To Our Daybreak Community, I’m writing today to let you know that, after much review and consideration,…
Hearthstone’s next expansion is Whispers of the Old Gods - [AL:Hearth]The next Hearthstone expansion will drive you mad. It's all about madness. It turns out that all of the rumors whispered in dark places are true, and the next expansion is Whispers of the Old Gods,…
Perfect Ten: What your MMO racial pick says about you - In real life, we can't (usually) pick our race; we kind of get assigned one at birth, thanks to our parents, and we go on from there. So there's a special kind appeal to the character…
Desert Nomad: How to win friends and influence NPCs in Black Desert - Welcome back, fellow Desert Nomads. I don't know about y'all, but since last week's column (and the official launch of Black Desert), I've spent almost every last iota of my spare time immersing myself in the…
The Division smashes Ubisoft sales records - Are you doing your part to combat chaos and restore civilization by playing The Division? If so, then you've contributed to the record books, as Ubisoft announced yesterday that this week's launch has already broken two…
Black Desert attempts to ‘suppress’ gold selling market - "Due to the increased 'goldseller' population, we are beginning to put systems in place to suppress their market." These words come from the Black Desert Online team, which this morning deployed a patch that includes a couple…
WildStar suffers major round of layoffs - [update]Update: WildStar has allegedly suffered a massive round of layoffs as part of a "reorganization"; some sources suggest as many as 60 70 people may have been laid off from Carbine today. The update is at…
Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls Online’s Thieves Guild DLC is that ex you keep coming back to - Dang it, Elder Scrolls Online, just when I’m about to give up on you again, you pull me back in. I really didn’t mind your previous DLC, Orsinium, but for the most part it didn’t have…
World of Warcraft CM Zarhym leaves Blizzard - Long-time World of Warcraft Community Manager Jonathan Brown has left Blizzard, according to a brief notice on his Twitter account. There was no explanation given about his departure. Brown, better known as Zarhym, came on board…
Crowfall shows off the Ranger in action - The Ranger of Crowfall has been making the rounds lately as the resident orange-haired green-clad lady shooting arrows at targets. That part is... yeah, that's a little generic. But there's more to the Ranger than just…
Funcom shares more Conan Exiles details in a community Q&A - If you're eager for more information about Conan Exiles, you missed out on your chance to take an active hand in the game's recent community Q&A session on Facebook. Of course, the bright side is that…
Massively Overthinking: The state of WildStar - This week's Massively Overthinking focuses entirely on WildStar, out of whose devs we've been trying to get answers -- never mind reassurance about the game -- for many months. But Carbine just isn't up for interviews, and after the…
Happy fifth birthday, RIFT - RIFT's fifth anniversary celebration kicked off this week in honor of the MMORPG's fifth anniversary, and if you're a current player, you'll be able to participate in leaderboards for multiple gameplay types over the next month. Prizes…
EverQuesting: Landmark’s big claim news - Holy moly, it happened! As you might surmise by the not-so-subtle surprise in my voice, we've finally got a chunk of Landmark news. It's been a long while. The silence that has been surrounding both this…
Star Wars: The Old Republic developers expound on Eternal Championship and companion delays - [AL:TOR]Another month has arrived, another story chapter has gone live for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and another producer's livestream has happened. You can watch the full archived stream below, but if you can't watch the…
ArcheAge is seriously cracking down on cheaters - [AL:Arche]Heads up, ArcheAge cheaters: Your days are numbered. "For the past months, our team has been hard at work at creating better methods to accurately and quickly detect players who have been playing unfairly," Trion Community…
Black Desert impressions from around the MMO blogosphere - When a new game comes out, you can play it cautious by waiting for reviews or you can roll the dice and take your chances by leaping in right as the doors open. While it's certainly…
Pantheon to debut on Twitch this Friday - You've read about Pantheon, you've followed the various crowdfunding campaigns, and you've devoured every second of its trailers. Now it's time to see the game in action. This Friday, the Visionary Realms team is going to…
Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts on hobbies, patch sizes, and bacon farming - Don't lie: You know you want to know what Chris Roberts likes to do in his spare time when he isn't manning the Star Citizen creation machine. The answer? He plays tennis, watches soccer, and partakes…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Slothasor and the Guild Wars 2 AMA breakdown - [AL:GW2]It's been a bit of a whirlwind week for ArenaNet, especially with a jam-packed Reddit AMA that contained the announcement that Colin Johanson has opted to leave the company for a new opportunity that allows him…
The SEC has charged Rhode Island corps over alleged 38 Studios fraud - It's been several years since 38 Studios collapsed in a pile of debt without an MMO to show for all of it, but the legal train has not yet finished rolling. The Securities and Exchange Commission…
Black Desert is increasing its server capacity - If you're having a hard time logging into or playing Black Desert Online, then take heart: The team is working on increasing server capacity in the near future. While the launched game has had a better…
The Division is datamined out with a bit more Brooklyn than expected - The Division is almost here full-time, all the way live, and so forth. Don't want to wait until tomorrow, though? You can just jump in and see everything in the game right now. Perhaps not everything,…
Rumor: Overwatch is releasing on May 24th [Confirmed] - Rumor confirmed! See below. Overwatch could be releasing a lot sooner than you think, if a web ad is to be believed. An ad for the shooter game popped up on IGN recently that pointed to…
Guild Wars 2 is not going back to biweekly updates: ‘When we’re shipping every two weeks, we just have to ship’ - There's no way that the Guild Wars 2 AMA on Reddit could possibly top the big bombshell about Colin Johanson's departure that started the entire thread. Still, there was plenty of information for now-game director Mike…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 54: Something fishy is afoot
The Stream Team: Playing Paladins and giving away beta codes
The Stream Team: Angling for ARK’s anglerfish
The Stream Team: The makings of a Black Desert merchant
The Stream Team: Letting the Landmark (and EverQuest Next) rage out
The Stream Team: Friday frolicking in HEX
The Stream Team: EverQuest II’s Brewday is back!
The Stream Team: A hare-raising good time (and giveaway) in HEX
The Stream Team: A first look into Trinium Wars’ Early Access
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Vanilla Diablo 3 may be going free to play
WoW Legion alpha patch brings artifact traits,tmog achievement, baby deer
Class halls and WoW: Legion roleplay
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.
