This year, we’re taking a time-machine back through our MMO coverage, month by month, to hit the highlights and frame our journey before we head into 2017.
Both Landmark and WildStar launched on Steam in June of this year, Landmark emerging out of early access for the very first time and WildStar hoping for a second wind on a new platform. Neither one quite got what they wanted.
Meanwhile, the world had a(nother) laugh at the MMO players’ expense thanks to the Warcraft movie, Jack Emmert took up residence at Daybreak’s Austin studio, and CSE opened up a satellite studio in Seattle to speed up work on Camelot Unchained.
Read on for the whole list!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF JUNE 2016
Black Desert’s karma patch has enraged the PvP community
How Elite Dangerous’ Engineers update triggered a player massacre
Neverwinter announces summer PS4 launch and Storm King’s Thunder expansion
Overwatch racks up 7M players, bans 1500 of them
Blade and Soul reveals 2016 content plans, including the Soul Fighter class
The Secret World is losing its lead writer
Marvel Heroes’ third anniversary offers free heroes, team-ups, and more
Chronicles of Elyria’s Kickstarter has successfully funded
Path of Exile’s Prophecy expansions is live today
World of Warcraft’s talent reshuffle is meant to bring ‘more meaningful choice’ to players
Revelation Online is coming westward, taking beta signups
Happy 10th birthday, Wurm Online
Warcraft movie premieres in the US, racks up huge ticket pre-sales
WildStar is finally coming to Steam – on Thursday
Cryptic’s Jack Emmert now heads up DCUO at Daybreak Austin
Nostalrius team believes Blizzard ‘want[s] to have legacy WoW servers’
Funcom releases Conan Exiles gameplay trailer, plans September early access
Superdata: WoW, Lineage, SWTOR, TERA, and Blade & Soul top April P2P online games revenues
ArcheAge makes it (temporarily) safer to regrade gear, drama llamas come out to play
The Division subtracts 30,000 cheaters from its playerbase
Happy Steam launch day, WildStar
Guild Wars 2’s Bobby Stein says raids won’t gate main story progress
Star Citizen’s alpha 2.4 is live on the PTU for all backers with first iteration of persistence
The Stream Team: Landmark launches!
E3 2016: Elder Scrolls Online accumulates 7M players, announces game-wide auto-scaling
Warcraft film hits a roundly disappointing $24.4 million opening in the US
Landmark bombs on Steam while WildStar fans deliver positivity
E3 2016: Sea of Thieves releases cinematic and gameplay trailers
Overwatch surpasses 10 million players
Guild Wars 2 players fume over new lockbox cosmetics
Funcom is sunsetting LEGO Minifigures Online in September
E3 2016: Elder Scrolls Online’s player housing is coming in early 2017
World of Warcraft: Legion’s pre-expansion patch hits the test server
Marvel Heroes will introduce level scaling this month
Camelot Unchained is opening a second studio in Seattle
Daybreak to sunset PlanetSide 1 and Legends of Norrath
Firefly Online’s development status is up in the atmo
Star Citizen passes 1M ships sold, $116M in crowdfunding
Warcraft has become the most successful film adaptation of a video game
Trion’s Scott Hartsman speaks out against G2A: ‘Game creators of all sizes survive on your support’
Star Wars: The Old Republic kicks off the Dark vs. Light Event
Shroud of the Avatar goes persistent on July 28
Lord of the Rings Online explains how it’s building its first raid in nearly three years
EverQuest II is getting two new servers and a $400 guildhall
Valve sued for enabling e-sports gambling with skins
Overwatch, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft top May Superdata charts
Chronicles of Elyria has three prologue experiences in the works, including a MUD
Nostalrius team releases vanilla World of Warcraft survey summary
WildStar is gearing up to sell max-level character boosts
Mark Kern polls players about his spiritual successor to Firefall
Riders of Icarus kicks off head start, has loads of content in the works for open beta and beyond
SWTOR’s GEMINI Deception is live today for subscribers
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF JUNEÂ 2016
Flameseeker Chronicles: Why wave-ban Guild Wars 2 cheaters?
Perfect Ten: How to enjoy the alt lifestyle in MMORPGs
Desert Nomad: Immersion, atmosphere, and roleplaying in Black Desert
EverQuesting: Preparing for Landmark’s launch
The Game Archaeologist: Five eye-opening videos about the MMORPG genre
Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls Online’s Dark Brotherhood DLC is sublime, brother
Choose My Adventure: Priming up for Project Gorgon
Chaos Theory: An exclusive look at The Secret World’s Museum of the Occult opening June 15
Massively Overthinking: 2016’s MMORPG zeitgeist
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs with distinct visual styles
The Soapbox: Sharing MMORPGs with my kids
EVE Evolved: Four PvE improvements EVE needs
Editorial: The Warcraft film is absolutely awful
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s third raid wing
Tamriel Infinium: The pros and cons of Elder Scrolls Online’s ‘One Tamriel’ level-syncing
Desert Nomad: Massively OP’s guide to Black Desert’s siege warfare
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs for mature audiences only
Massively Overthinking: The best and worst MMORPGs of E3 2016
EverQuesting: First impressions of Landmark’s launch
E3 2016: Hands-on with Nexon’s LawBreakers
MMO Mechanics: Zonation and scaling mechanics in MMORPGs
E3 2016: Previewing Elite Dangerous VR
Perfect Ten: Complaints about Final Fantasy XIV’s Heavensward, one year later
Chaos Theory: Happy handstands for Funcom’s funding
Jukebox Heroes: MMO victory fanfares
Massively Overthinking: Is every MMORPG with a cash shop pay-to-win?
Ask Mo: Was Star Wars Galaxies really that great?
EVE Evolved: Can EVE be played casually?
Elder Scrolls Online’s Matt Firor on One Tamriel, Cyrodiil PvP, and housing
Flameseeker Chronicles: Re-engaging lost Guild Wars 2 players
EverQuesting: Landmark is offering new races – for a price
Perfect Ten: MMO novel tie-ins
ALL 2016 MONTH-IN-REVIEW POSTS TO-DATE
MMO Year in Review: Blade & Soul reaches western shores (January 2016)
MMO Year in Review: A wild Black Desert approaches (February 2016)
MMO Year in Review: EverQuest Never (March 2016)
MMO Year in Review: WoW’s legacy server snarl (April 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Carebear tears of Elyria (May 2016)
MMO Year in Review: The Landmark and WildStar Steam parade (June 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Pokemon madness (July 2016)
MMO Year in Review: We are Legion (August 2016)
MMO Year in Review: A whole New World (September 2016)
MMO Year in Review: One foot in One Tamriel (October 2016)
MMO Year in Review: New Eden free-for-all (November 2016)
MMO Year in Review: Turbine gave the ring to the eagles (December 2016)
