Blizzard has made magic happen again: It sold 3.3 million copies of World of Warcraft’s Legion expansion by its first full day of launch, tying the records set previously by Cataclysm and Warlords of Draenor and impressing some of its tough-love critics. The real question is how long can it keep the magic — and the players?
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
World of Warcraft Legion sells 3.3M copies, hits highest concurrency since Cataclysm - What do you do when you have sworn off bragging about your playerbase size and subscription numbers? You brag about expansion copies sold and concurrency. And Blizzard has done just that…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Thoughts on Guild Wars 2’s Ring of Fire episode reveal - [AL:GW2]We've been promised a whole list of newness for Episode 2 of Guild Wars 2's latest Living World season, which will be with us by the end of the month, so…
DragonCon 2016: Mark Jacobs on trolls, subscriptions, and Camelot Unchained - There's so much to see and do at DragonCon that you can't possibly fit it all in. With actors, authors, game developers, cosplayers, and fans in panels, costume contests, balls,…
WoW Factor: Assessing WoW after two weeks of Legion - All right, so it's actually closer to a week and a half. I'm torn between an eye-rolling "it's only been a week and a half" and a sort of disbelieving…
Elder Scrolls Online launches gold edition, dueling guide - The Elder Scrolls Online's gold edition formally launches today for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The $59.99 repackage of the game includes most of its paid DLC, a palomino horse…
DragonCon 2016: Mark Jacobs on Camelot Unchained’s abilities and RvR realm rewards - If you've been following anything about Camelot Unchained, then you get the idea that Mark Jacobs has set out to make something different than what is currently in the MMO…
A deep-dive into MMORPG housing: RIFT vs. WildStar - If you took a casual poll of the MMO community and asked which game's player housing system was the best and most robust, chances are that you would end up…
Massively Overthinking: What’s the worst MMORPG for duos? - Massively OP reader Styopa recently wrote in to us to propose that we write about the best MMORPGs for duoing. I was all set to do it... until I realized…
Riders of Icarus shows off the Lair of Ienos, live in today’s patch - Deep within his lair off of Parna's Coast, the demon Ienos is chilling and lamenting how few people come over to his home. He has all sorts of cool familiars,…
TERA adds new underwear to the cash shop, you don’t want to see it at work - [AL:TERA]Are you at work right now? If so, you probably shouldn't be reading this site anyway, your boss would be mad. But your boss will be really mad if you're…
CCP plans subscriber rewards ahead of EVE Online’s F2P conversion - [AL:EVE]If you are an EVE Online subber who's been feeling a bit "what's in it for me" about the free-to-play switchover happening this autumn, well, here's what's in it for you:…
Dark and Light is coming to Steam early access this fall - Could Dark and Light stage one of the more surprising comebacks in MMO history? At least a curious eye or two is on the sandbox title as it prepares to…
Otherland moves out of early access and into commercial release - It's a grand day for the genre-hopping Otherland. The MMO has officially moved out of early access and released as a free-to-play title after a very short open beta period. The…
Perfect Ten: Comparing Druids across MMORPGs - If I asked you what a Mage is in an MMORPG, what would you say? Some cloth-wearing gal who lugs around a long staff and flings fireballs (or other elemental chunks) at…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s bonus chapter wins because of story - [AL:TOR]As threatened, the Shroud is back and like you’ve never seen him before. Seriously, you’ve never seen the Shroud like this. Star Wars: The Old Republic released its bonus chapter…
Check out Elder Scrolls Online’s PlayStation 4 Pro trailer - When Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 Pro yesterday, you might have thought, no big deal -- either because you already own a PS4Â or aren't going to get one regardless of…
The Elder Scrolls Online preps One Tamriel update for October 5 - At PAX last week, ZeniMax announced that the massive One Tamriel update had landed on the Elder Scrolls Online PTS, so launch date couldn't have been far behind. In fact,…
Former ArenaNet Game Director Colin Johanson lands at Amazon Game Studios - [AL:GW2]In a move that will shock no one, Amazon Game Studios has apparently hired former ArenaNet director Colin Johanson in an unspecified role. That or someone's hacked his Linkedin to…
Sci-fi sandbox Dual Universe’s Kickstarter has launched, seeks half a million dollars - As promised, the folks at Novaquark have launched the Kickstarter for Dual Universe this morning. They seek $557,818Â to bring what they are calling "the most innovative sci-fi MMO game of…
Smed plans Indiegogo, Twitch stream for pixel-art OARPG Hero’s Song - Back in January, former SOE/Daybreak boss John Smedley revealed the details of his new company, Pixelmage Games, and its first title, a PvE-focused, sandboxy, pixel-art, open-world OARPG called Hero's Song.…
World of Fishing angles for new players with today’s Steam F2P launch - World of Fishing is live on Steam today as a free-to-play MMO. (There's optional DLC for sale at just over 7 bucks right now.) This is a weird planet we…
Guild Wars 2 launches Ring of Fire-themed episode September 20 - [AL:GW2]Well, it's not Cantha or Elona, but it's almost as good: Guild Wars 2's next seasonal episode will be set in the Ring of Fire island chain that served as…
Webzen is closing down ELOA and ASTA in October - About a year ago, Webzen announced that it was bringing Asta: The War of Tears and Winds over after the game had been shut down in Korea. People were skeptical…
World of Warcraft: Legion companion app is now available - Want to manage your World of Warcraft class order hall missions but don't have the time or access to log into the game? Now you can handle all of this…
Community manager: Turbine plans to bring Ravenloft to Dungeons & Dragons Online - There are a whole lot of different settings that have been explored over time in the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons, but Dungeons & Dragons Online has had a…
Comparing American and Japanese Pokemon Go culture - My previous article on the culture of Japan's Pokemon Go scene was written before I'd experienced much of the American one to keep my explanations as unbiased as possible. Although I…
ARK: Survival Evolved dev apologizes for saying expansion critics are ‘too cheap to pony up $20’ - If you were one of the folks who were surprised that ARK: Survival Evolved's Studio Wildcard would charge for the Scorched Earth expansion DLC when ARK isn't out of early…
EVE Evolved: The consequences of a free-to-play EVE - [AL:EVE]This week we heard the unexpected news that EVE Online will be going partially free-to-play when the next expansion lands in November. Like many games that have added free-to-play options over…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
You can finally get your very own pink hippogryph in WoW
What to do now that you’re 110 in Legion
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.
