So E3 happened this week, and while it was one of the weaker E3s in recent memory for MMORPGs specifically, it still had plenty on offer: The Elder Scrolls Online dominated with its One Tamriel and housing announcement, Dual Universe clarified its sandbox PvP nature, and Sea of Thieves continued to tease its MMO features. There’s a bit more to come as well — stay tuned for embargo drops!
But the week ended on a sad note too, as Friday night Daybreak announced its intention to sunset PlanetSide 1 and Legends of Norrath.
Read on for the very best of the MMOs at E3 as well as this week’s MMO news and opinions.
E3 ROUNDUP
E3 2016: Chatting E3 demos and MMO research with Red Fox Insights’ Jake Parmley
Wisdom of Nym: The implications of Final Fantasy XIV’s E3 content
E3 2016: Taking a look at Bitcoin-inspired MOTCG Deckbound
E3 2016: Black Desert on PvP, sieges, and lessons learned
E3 2016: Previewing Elite Dangerous VR
E3 2016: Master X Master might be the most MMO-like MOBA around
MMO Week in Review: All the MMOs at E3 2016 (June 19, 2016)
E3 2016: War Thunder’s VR mode and Crossout’s demo
MMO Mechanics: Zonation and scaling mechanics in MMORPGs
E3 2016: Sea of Thieves is much more than pirate ship PvP (and might just be an MMO)
E3 2016: Hands-on with Nexon’s LawBreakers
E3 2016: Final Fantasy XIV discusses the Deep Dungeon, Xbox One, and the future
E3 2016: A look at Blade & Soul’s new class, the Soul Fighter
Massively Overthinking: The best and worst MMORPGs of E3 2016
E3 2016: Perfect World’s Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, and Livelock
E3 2016: Check out The Elder Scrolls Online’s big presentation
Tamriel Infinium: The pros and cons of Elder Scrolls Online’s ‘One Tamriel’ level-syncing
E3 2016: Sci-fi MMORPG Dual Universe is FFA PvP for builders
E3 2016: Elder Scrolls Online’s player housing is coming in early 2017
E3 2016: Warframe’s Lunaro is a high-tech quidditch bloodbath
E3 2016: LawBreakers is holding a test this weekend and makes plans for early access
E3 2016: Watch Elder Scrolls Legends’ intro cinematic
E3 2016: State of Decay 2 is coming next year with co-op multiplayer
E3 2016: The Division releases Underground DLC trailer
E3 2016: MMORPG sandbox Dual Universe’s alpha gameplay trailer
E3 2016: Sea of Thieves releases cinematic and gameplay trailers
E3 2016: ARK: Survival Evolved will soon let you play and mate as a prehistoric creature
PSA: The E3 Humble Bundle is full of online gaming goodness
E3 2016: Elder Scrolls Online accumulates 7M players, announces game-wide auto-scaling
PAX East 2016: Brad McQuaid on Pantheon’s startup, development focus, and old-school nature
PAX East 2016: Hands-on with Perfect World’s Livelock
PAX East 2016: Warframe reveals fairy warframe concept, sports mode
PAX Prime 2015: Devilian reveals founder packs
PAX Prime 2015: Trion tries turn-based strategy with Atlas Reactor
E3 2015: Life is Feudal isn’t just another gankbox
E3 2015: Cory Jones discusses HEX, lawsuits, and cake
The Stream Team: Shooting Squirrel Girl to 60 in Marvel Heroes
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Camelot Unchained is opening a second studio in Seattle - Camelot Unchained is opening a new studio in Seattle. On Twitch this afternoon, CSE studio founder Mark Jacobs told viewers that the second studio will expand the team an additional…
Daybreak to sunset PlanetSide 1 and Legends of Norrath - It's Friday night, and you know what that means: another big announcement from Daybreak. The studio announced this evening that it will be sunsetting the Legends of Norrath card game…
World of Warcraft: Legion’s expansion cycle will be longer with more patches - Remember all of those times that Blizzard said that it was going to speed up the rate at which it produced World of Warcraft expansions? Well, to the surprise of absolutely…
Marvel Heroes will introduce level scaling this month - Gazillion announced today that level scaling is finally on the way for Marvel Heroes. "Dynamic Combat Level scales the difficulty of the game, based on the difference between your level…
Tamriel Infinium: The pros and cons of Elder Scrolls Online’s ‘One Tamriel’ level-syncing - Despite being a two-year-old game, The Elder Scrolls Online has made a good showing at E3, which really shouldn't have surprised me -- but it did. According to ZeniMax marketing, the…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s third raid wing - [AL:GW2]Forsaken Thicket is set to get much larger and... lanier... today: I was given the opportunity to test out the third wing of Guild Wars 2's first raid so I could share my…
Desert Nomad: Massively OP’s guide to Black Desert’s siege warfare - Hello friends, and welcome back to Desert Nomad. This week is a pretty big one for Black Desert, as I’m sure you’re all aware. At some point this week, the…
Black Desert nerfs ghillie suit, preps revamped skill system, and kicks off soccer event - Times, they are a-changin' in Black Desert Online. The fantasy sandbox received a major patch on Friday that had a far-reaching impact across the game. The update is too large…
World of Warcraft: Legion’s pre-expansion patch hits the test server - While World of Warcraft players will have to wait until the very end of August to dive into the new expansion, a major event and update is coming before that…
Firefall is coming to PlayStation 4 and mobile platforms - We won't lie: We've been a little concerned for the future of Firefall over the past year. But if the dev team has anything to say about it, the game…
Destiny maybe, possibly, could be some day coming to the PC - Console-only online games. Doesn't that rustle your jimmies, PC players? For those of us who can't afford or choose not to add an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 to our…
EverQuesting: First impressions of Landmark’s launch - So it finally happened. Really and for truly! Landmark launched into the realm of released games. I can officially remove the alpha/beta tag off this column. But other than that,…
Guild Wars 2 leak teases living story season three content - An Italian video games site appears to have leaked information about Guild Wars 2's living story season three in a new interview with ArenaNet. Though the original article is now gone,…
LOTRO tester previews Throne of the Dread Terror raid - [AL:LOTRO]Turbine is showing renewed enthusiasm for group content in Lord of the Rings Online, and as we learned earlier this spring, that includes a brand-new raid, Throne of the Dread…
Landmark’s post-launch patch tackles high-priority bugs - If you know anything about launch weeks, it's that patches should be expected as the dev team tries to keep its head above the rising tide of players and bugs.…
Guild Wars 2 players host LGBT pride march on June 26 - Sometimes there just aren't enough pride parades in your area. Sometimes you don't feel safe being out in your local community. Heck, maybe you just don't like having to stand…
Guild Wars 2 debates deleting the Desert borderlands map, discusses raid boss fight - Guild Wars 2's fourth and final developer video on the Stronghold of the Faithful features ArenaNet Game Designer Jason Reynolds discussing the design of the boss fight with the Keep…
Overwatch expects the new competitive play to change after release - Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan took to the forums yesterday to share some of the plans for the game's continued development. Primarily on the table, of course, is the competitive…
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs for mature audiences only - As with mainstream movies, it seems that the MMORPG industry has settled comfortably into the PG-13 zone for its approach and themes. Sure, there's a bit of blood, skin, and…
Check out the Ninja Awakening for the Korean version of Black Desert Online - The Korean version of Black Desert Online is going to issue a wake-up call to Ninjas very soon. It's the next class to get an Awakening, and the trailer shows…
TERA’s 2016 plans include the largest BAM ever; game to sunset in China - [AL:TERA]One of TERA's tentpole features is its crazy insane fights against plus-sized mobs, which it calls "big-ass monsters" (BAMs). Well if you think you've seen it all when it comes…
Guild Wars 2 is giving female Charr and Asura precursor breast armor - While it's been safe to assume for most MMOs that a female character of any race would have a bosom, Guild Wars 2 challenged that norm by presenting both Charr…
The Secret World’s new video puts the Museum of the Occult on exhibition - If our exclusive preview of The Secret World's Museum of the Occult last week has you pumped for more, then good news -- Funcom's got more. The studio has just…
ArcheAge announces Ascension 3.0 update for late 2016 - [AL:Arche]As with many other MMO imports from Asia, ArcheAge often gives its community a heads-up as to what's coming down the pike thanks to earlier releases in Korea that eventually…
Funcom is sunsetting LEGO Minifigures Online in September - This won't come as a surprise, but it'll still make you sad: Funcom is shutting down LEGO Minifigures Online this fall. The studio made it official last week. "It is…
Overwatch surpasses 10 million players - Blizzard just announced via Twitter that Overwatch has surpassed 10 million players -- that's 10 million boxes sold, at least half of them to my guild. Send help; I've lost…
How World of Warcraft raiders are helping the community get epic moose mounts - Here's your feel-good gaming story for the day: When Blizzard gated a prestige mount behind World of Warcraft's toughest raid, the community responded with a surprising initiative designed to help…
Landmark bombs on Steam while WildStar fans deliver positivity - It was probably inevitable that Landmark's official launch on Friday afternoon -- against the Warcraft movie and pre-E3 hoopla and following basically zero PR and a bizarre Daybreak forum announcement…
Warcraft film hits a roundly disappointing $24.4 million opening in the US - It might seem a bit baffling that the Warcraft film was released in China well before it was released in the United States (which is sort of the origin point…
Editorial: The Warcraft film is absolutely awful - A film does not have to be good to be entertaining. I hold that as a pretty firm truth. Snakes on a Plane, for example, is not a good film;…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
The Warcraft movie and streamlined lore
Five lessons in teamwork from Overwatch
Watch Blizzard Watch play through the Legion beta demonic invasion
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.
