This week, Daybreak announced plans to sunset Landmark in just over six weeks from now, marking 2017’s first casualty and causing fans to mourn both the game and the studio, which last year shook the genre by canceling EverQuest Next unreleased and in February will have closed down more MMORPGs than most companies have ever dreamed of making.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Landmark is shutting down on February 21 - Sad news for fans of Landmark who were happy to see it have its own life after the closure of EverQuest Next; Daybreak has announced that the Landmark servers will…
Dave Georgeson offers players encouragement on Landmark shutdown - Former Landmark lead Dave Georgeson took to Twitter on Friday with a note of encouragement for fans of the soon-to-be shuttered MMO: "To those reading about the [Landmark]Â shutdown. Your dreams…
Leaderboard: Which Daybreak MMO is most vulnerable in 2017? - In February 2015, following the SOE/Daybreak transition and ensuing mass layoffs, we polled our readers on the security of the rest of the studio's games. Almost half of you voted that…
The Daily Grind: Are you concerned for Daybreak’s other MMORPGs? - Last night's startling news that Daybreak plans to sunset Landmark abruptly in February (while forbidding player emulators) sent the MMORPG community into... I'll call it "resigned and weary outrage." At…
Massively OP’s 2016 awards debrief and annual recap - As we did in 2014 and 2015, today I'm going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2016. We gave out 19 formal awards…
The MMOs we lost in 2016 - If you thought we lost a lot of MMOs in 2014 and 2015, wait until you see 2016's list. It's easy to shrug off some of these, like the non-MMORPGs,…
Final Fantasy XIV posts its trailer for patch 3.5 - [AL:FFXIV]The last patch of this expansion cycle for Final Fantasy XIV goes live on January 17th, and as usually happens, we've got a brand-new trailer to go along with it.…
Firefall: The dead game that won’t die - 2016 was not Firefall's year. I'm not sure which year was its year, honestly, what with the e-sports bus fiasco and suspension of PvP and former CEO Mark Kern hoopla and "pre-launch reorganization" in…
In Conan Exiles, ‘home is where you keep the hearts of your enemies’ - January's the month: Conan Exiles hits early access on the 31st as Funcom's latest Conan-franchise game, this one an unabashed survival sandbox with a bit of MMORPG flair. (Xbox One…
Chaos Theory: The Secret World says sayonara to 2016 - Have you ever had a year that you looked back on and all you could really say was, Hey, I made it through. I've had years like that, when many…
Rumor: NCsoft might be working on Aion 2 - So NCsoft is working on another MMORPG. This in and of itself isn't terribly surprising, since this is how the company makes money. You might not even think it's all…
Rumor: Elder Scrolls Online players datamine map of Morrowind’s Vvardenfell, hint at DLC - Speak quickly, Outlander, or go away! Fancy a trip back to nostalgia town? Elder Scrolls Online Redditors have datamined what appears to be a map of Vvardenfell, the massive volcanic…
Perfect Ten: The best MMORPG updates and expansions of 2016 (that aren’t Legion) - Sometimes you have to exclude something from a list. I could, for example, praise World of Warcraft: Legion for being a really good expansion yet again... but I already did…
Hi-Rez Expo 2017: Newly announced SMITE Rivals turns the gods into cross-platform collectible cards - They say good things come in threes, and with today's anticipated new game announcement at Hi-Rez Expo 2017, the studio has three SMITE titles filled with ancient god goodness. The…
Origins of Malu proclaims ‘we are not dead,’ downgrades from an MMORPG - Last April, we reported that the indie MMO Origins of Malu was suspending development as it sought investors to help fund the project. Since then, there has been movement on…
New Nostalrius PvP server goes live this weekend - Just when you thought you were going to get through the new year without a single mention of Nostalrius, January 2017 kicks you in the face and hauls the World…
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR predictions for 2017 - [AL:TOR]Here we are again. Star Wars: The Old Republic survived another year despite those who predicted five years ago that it would shut down in less than a year. Although…
A Guild Wars 2 player has discovered the game’s gold cap - How much money can you hold at any given time in Guild Wars 2? You might be the type of player who struggles to hang on to 10 gold without…
Choose My Adventure: Preparing to re-enter Lord of the Rings Online - [AL:LOTRO]The votes are in, and the next four weeks will be spent in Lord of the Rings Online! This one quite genuinely surprised me, not because I think the game…
WildStar’s next major update opens up new progression past the level cap - If you've been playing WildStar for a while, your character is probably at level 50. It's quite possible you have multiple characters at level 50, even. Next month, you'll be…
The Elder Scrolls Online releases Homestead patch notes, briefly delays PTS rollout - So let's start with the bad news: If you simply couldn't wait to test The Elder Scrolls Online's Homestead patch, well, you'll have to wait. As of Tuesday night, the…
Rumor: Moonlight Blade is heading for the west - Remember Moonlight Blade? It's all right if you don't, we won't judge you. After all, the game isn't out over here and has no announced plans to be released over…
The most popular MMORPG conversations of 2016 - Last week, we posted a rundown of the most popular MMORPG articles of 2016, calculated strictly by the number of pageviews they got. Today, we're going to take a look at the…
Tolkien Prof offers free LOTRO course starting today - [AL:LOTRO]Ever wanted someone knowledgeable about Lord of the Rings to explain the books and give you a hands-on tour of Middle-earth? Then you're in luck, for the Tolkien Professor, Corey…
WoW Factor: A wishlist for 2017 in World of Warcraft - This year has been a pile of garbage and I'll be glad it's over. It's not that I'm convinced 2017 will be any better than 2016, mind you; it's just…
Why and how Warhammer Online failed - It might be hard to remember at this point, but back in 2008 there was a fever-pitch excitement for Mythic's Warhammer Online. The RvR MMO was poised to be not…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 98: New year roundtable
The most popular Massively OP podcasts of 2016
Battle Bards Episode 89: Nightfall
The best Massively OP streams of 2016
The Stream Team: Final try at EverQuest II’s icy Frostfell race
The Stream Team: More Marvel Heroes holiday madness
The Stream Team: Happy HEX holidays
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Patch 7.1.5 is coming to WoW on January 10
Are WoW’s patches coming too quickly?
World of Warcraft 2016 story in review
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.
