Happy holidays everyone! This week we were blown away with the announcement that Turbine is splitting off a new indie studio, Standing Stone, to take over development of Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online, both to be published by none other than Daybreak. We were also saddened — angry, even — over the news that Asheron’s Call and its sequel will be sunsetted instead of turned over to the players as once promised. The good news for LOTRO at least is that the team has secured the Lord of the Rings license without issue and is considering revamping its oft-mocked character models next year.
We’ve also been dishing out a bunch more awards — best holiday, best crafting, best popcorn MMO, biggest disappointment, best PvP, biggest blunder, and best housing — with the big five still to come. Plus we kicked off our blooper awards and yearly recap, and Justin sang you all to sleep with some MMO holiday tunes.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Turbine spins LOTRO and DDO teams out to new studio, using Daybreak as publisher - Welp, didn't see this one coming. Turbine has just announced that it's spinning off the Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online teams into a new studio…
Asheron’s Call and its sequel will sunset as part of the Turbine/Standing Stone split - I'm sorry to report that Turbine announced today that it will be sunsetting Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 as part of the transition revealed yesterday that will see Turbine's…
Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the best value at the start of 2017 - About a year ago, I listed off the best free-to-play titles on the market. To the surprise of no one, including me, that turned out to be a contentious topic.…
The Soapbox: Asheron’s Call is dead, and Turbine killed it - You'd think recent news about Asheron's Call 1 and AC2 would be easy to swallow. After all, we'd already been warned that Turbine was becoming a mobile company. We lived through the end…
Star Citizen launches 2.6 Star Marine, announces Amazon Lumberyard partnership - It's always nice to be able to report good news about Star Citizen, as one of our readers noted when sending us this tip, and we agree, so here goes, just…
Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival Tokyo 2016: Red Mage, swimming, and Stormblood’s June 20 launch date - [AL:FFXIV]It's the holiday season here in the US, but in Japan it's just another weekend. Only it's not just another weekend; it's the weekend of the second of three fan…
Massively Overthinking: Our 2017 MMORPG predictions - With 2016 drawing to a close and 2017 rushing up to meet us, the Massively OP team has regrouped for another round of bold and goofy predictions for the year ahead.…
Jukebox Heroes: MMO music for the holidays - I absolutely adore Christmas music -- in moderation and in season. I keep to strict personal rules not to listen to it before Black Friday or after New Year's Eve,…
The Game Archaeologist: Wing Commander Online and Privateer Online - In late 2012, former Wing Commander developer-slash-movie director Chris Roberts emerged from a decade of obscurity to ask for help to fund his vision of a massive, engaging space sim…
Jukebox Heroes: The 2016 Online VGM Awards - With all of the award madness going on at Massively OP this month, it's the perfect time to unveil the 2016 Online VGM Awards! It's been a great year of…
The most popular Massively OP MMO articles of 2016 - One of my favorite things to do every year is break down the top articles on the site for our readers. You might think you already know what the biggest stories…
Aussie courts have fined Valve $2.16M US over its refund policies - Recall that back in November, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) demanded a $2.16 million US ($3 million AUD) fine from Valve following three years of court entanglements, during…
Ashes of Creation demos caravans and villages in beautifully creepy Christmas video - Indie outfit Intrepid Studios has an atmospheric new video out for its fledgling Ashes of Creation MMORPG -- well, not so fledgling after all, as is obvious from the flyover…
ArcheAge catches, smooshes APEX bug - [AL:Arche]Trion has confirmed reports of a recent APEX duping bug in ArcheAge, but there's apparently no need to panic -- it's already been squished and punishments doled out accordingly. "Yep,…
Age of Conan composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen to helm Conan Exiles soundtrack - Funcom's getting the crew back together for Conan Exiles! Well, part of the crew: The studio announced today that it's roped in Age of Conan composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen to…
Chaos Theory: The kink in Secret World’s Krampusnacht - The Secret World, I'm shaking my head at you. I mean, I wasn't expecting anything really for the Krampusnacht holiday. But this? Remember back when I stated that I would…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Matt Firor promises ‘amazing new things’ in 2017 - ZeniMax's Matt Firor has penned an address to Elder Scrolls Online players to cap off the year. While most of it's a recap of 2016 -- multiple DLC, One Tamriel,…
ArcheAge suffers continuing server issues, rolls out Winter Maiden festival - [AL:Arche]Another day, another update to the ArcheAge mess -- anyone with me in just feeling really sorry for Trion having to deal with this through Christmas? Last night, Senior Community…
Standing Stone says LOTRO license renewal is a ‘non-issue’ - [AL:LOTRO]One gets the feeling that the Lord of the Rings Online devs are more than a little tired of hearing questions concerning the IP license for the fantasy MMO. Now…
League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter Online top digital sales charts for November - [AL:LOL]The latest edition of Superdata's digital games market research is out for November 2016, and while there are no great surprises here, it's always interesting to see which titles cling…
Four-year-old War Thunder launches out of open beta - [AL:WarT]I know what you're thinking -- didn't War Thunder launch, like, four years ago? I know we just sang happy birthday back in October. Welcome to the after-effects of the age of…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s 2016 Report Card - It's that time of year again where we reflect on the year gone by and consider Star Wars: The Old Republic as a whole. Pretty much since the game launched…
Choose My Adventure: Wrapping up The Elder Scrolls Online in Orsinium - All good things must come to an end, and in this case, my adventures in The Elder Scrolls Online are ending in Orsinium. I've done some stealing, I've done some…
Black Desert’s Witch and Wizard awaken today - The Witch and Wizard awaken today in Black Desert this morning, and they'd like some coffee please. Not only will your spellslinger be more of a badass, but you can roll a…
Overwatch introduces its first canon queer character with a holiday comic - Everyone knows the pain of struggling desperately to get that one last gift for someone you care about. Even if you're Overwatch's super-speedster Tracer, as demonstrated in a new official…
Interview: BioWare devs reflect on five years of creating Star Wars: The Old Republic - [AL:TOR]I know that sometimes it's hard to remember exactly what you were doing five years ago. I know that I had been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic for a couple…
LOTRO is considering revamping its character models in 2017 - [AL:LOTRO]One of the most common complaints about Lord of the Rings Online is the style and animation of its character models. This might not be so much of a problem…
Happy birthday, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and thanks for the trailer - [AL:TOR]Star Wars: The Old Republic is celebrating its fifth birthday this week, and to celebrate, Producer Ben Irving has penned a new dev blog thanking... you. In fact, BioWare has used…
Revelation Online’s second closed beta has begun - [AL:Rev]The holiday season approaches, dear readers. Some of you are already off of work or school. There is no release, no salvation, no way to save yourself from this inexorable…
RUST dev after three years of early access: ‘If you’re bored of the game then just stop playing it’ - While RUST has amused us plenty this year, thanks to the character gender via Steam ID thing and the hobo simulator (and don't forget penis size last year!), hardcore players are…
Smed says Hero’s Song is ‘working through some things’ - We've had several tips this week from players concerned about Hero's Song. One, for example, suggested that several employees had left Pixelmage Games and noted that the testing and community…
The new Nostalrius emulator suffered six DDOS attacks on launch day - Apparently some folks are taking the relaunch of the Nostalrius servers very badly: Team Elysium, the group behind the newest World of Warcraft emulator, say that on launch day, it…
Dark and Light’s early access has been delayed into 2017 - Since it's already December 19th, you probably already figured that the Dark and Light resurrection wasn't going to make that original "late 2016" target after missing fall and November too, so…
Cold Iron’s Craig Zinkievich on funding, the genre, and the MMO nature of the game - Earlier this month, we got a curious press release from a new gaming studio called Cold Iron. I might have skipped over it but for the fact that it was…
Aeria rebuts Bless North America cancellation rumors - We deal with a lot of rumors here, and while we generally filter out the entirely implausible ones, usually there are a lot of rumors that might be true until…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 96: Rogue Two
Battle Bards Episode 88: Revelation Online
The Stream Team: Win a key to join us in Life is Feudal’s first MMO beta
The Stream Team: Living it up in Elder Scrolls Online’s New Life Festival
The Stream Team: There’s a new emperor in SWTOR town
The Stream Team: Starting SWTOR’s KOTFE expansion
The Stream Team: Come play Revelation Online’s closed beta with us
The Stream Team: Getting into Path of Exile’s breaches
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
WoW Archivist: The allure of classic-era WoW
Does WoW need to take a breath?
WoW 7.1.5 micro-holiday dates announced
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.
