Call it the con effect: Both World of Warcraft’s 7.3 Argus patch and Destiny 2’s PC beta rolled out this week, but it seems like a month ago thanks to being sandwiched between Gamescom and PAX West — the latter of which we’ll be reporting more on this week, so stay tuned! In the meantime, read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions and what we’ve brought back from the con so far.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Funcom celebrates ‘most profitable half-year’ in studio’s history and changes logo - [AL:SWL]Pop the cork and down some champagne, because Funcom is on a roll. In today's Q2 2017 investors report, the studio crowed that it just finished "the most profitable half-year…
Trion Worlds’ Scott Hartsman rebuffs financial panic rumor - A business-oriented piece on Delidded Tech overnight seems to have rustled up Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman in response. Delidded digs into this week's shareholder report from Fidelity’s Contrafund, which…
ARK Survival Evolved launches today; get caught up here with the trailer and roundup! - Try to hold back your shock: Sci-fi-dino-themed survival sandbox ARK Survival Evolved is really, truly, launching today, so put all those delay gripes and eternal early access jokes back in…
World of Warcraft rockets to Argus in patch 7.3 today - At last year's BlizzCon, when Blizzard first announced World of Warcraft fans would someday be trekking to Argus, it seemed so distant to many of us that the narrative that…
Destiny 2’s PC open beta has arrived - [AL:D2]I dunno about you guys, but my guildies were up at literally 4 a.m. talking about buying Destiny 2Â and leaping into the beta, which I'd say bodes well for the…
World of Warcraft tokens reach record prices thanks to Destiny 2 - [AL:D2]Remember back in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, when a shave and a haircut cost you a nickel and a WoW token was selling for about 35,000 gold? Those…
LOTRO Legendarium: Is Mordor too difficult? - [AL:LOTRO]If there's one topic of discussion that I've been hearing a lot in world chat, on the forums, and among my kinship, it's about Lord of the Rings Online: Mordor…
Perfect Ten: The 10 saddest MMORPG stories - Every MMO tells a story through the run of its life. A lot of those stories are pretty happy, too. Ultima Online may not be the most happening place in…
Ashes of Creation previews PAX pre-alpha tutorial, plans ‘alpha zero’ for December - If you can't make the Ashes of Creation demo and panel at this weekend's PAX West, don't fret: You can still check out the game's current state in its new…
ARK Survival Evolved suffers launch-day overcrowding, optimization issues. - How weird is it not to categorize this ARK: Survival Evolved post under alphas and beta? Pretty weird.
PAX West 2017: ARK announces underground Aberration expansion with ziplines and spelunking - With an expansion and official launch released in that order, ARK: Survival Evolved is busy at work on its next expansion. Announced at PAX West this weekend, ARK: Aberration will…
Let’s go moon mining in EVE Online’s newly announced expansion, Lifeblood - [AL:EVE]Happy September, EVE Online. Howsabout an expansion? You got it: CCP has just announced Lifeblood, launching October 24th. "As new technologies for resource acquisition emerge in the form of Upwell…
Secret World Legends devs talk next week’s patch and beyond - [AL:SWL]With some wind at its back thanks to a launch that exceeded studio expectations, Secret World Legends and its development team dare not slow down for fear of losing this…
Destiny 2 delays raid rollout, wants you to fight for the puppies - [AL:D2]There isn't a console player alive who is unaware that Destiny 2 is launching next week. The sequel to Bungie's hit online shooter looks bigger and better than anything seen…
Secret World Legends is bringing back legacy transfers - [AL:SWL]Wait, who said it was OK for it to be September already? Well, while we are here, we might as well enjoy the pumpkin spice revolution and another round of…
PAX West 2017: Dauntless launches closed beta today; here’s the trailer - Happy PAX day, folks! Here's your first big fun announcement: Phoenix Labs' co-op OARPG Dauntless is launching closed beta. Today. In just a few hours. "Phoenix Labs is launching Dauntless,…
Massively Overthinking: Female characters and gender-locked classes in MMOs - One of the reasons I gravitated to and stick by the MMORPG genre in spite of its many ups and downs (oh, so many downs) over the last two decades…
Villagers and Heroes: Starfall is coming on September 27, iOS version confirmed for fall - It's doubtless the fantasy MMO expansion that everyone will be talking about next month. Well, perhaps not, but Villagers and Heroes: Starfall is pretty impressive in its own right. Starfall…
Choose My Adventure: The why behind Shroud of the Avatar - Finding the fun, I'm sorry to say, was a bit on the fleeting side. The problem isn't that Shroud of the Avatar suddenly stopped having any of the redeeming features…
Rumor: Destiny 2’s first DLC will take players to Mercury - [AL:D2]Destiny 2 isn't out yet, but you can best be assured that the developers are planning far beyond that for the game's major updates. Kotaku claims that it has confirmed…
Cloud Pirates is sunsetting at the end of September - Aw, damnit. My.com is giving up on its Allods-themed Cloud Pirates MOBA already. The company doesn't say why, but given the successes of its other titles, we're guessing it's more…
Why you should care that Nintendo’s social network Miiverse sunsets in November - We've known for a while that social network Miiverse would eventually be closing, but Nintendo confirmed the news and the official death date yesterday on its Japanese site. For those…
Tamriel Infinium: ZeniMax’s Rich Lambert on Elder Scrolls Online content development, past and future - [AL:ESO]Morrowind was very likely a great boon for The Elder Scrolls Online. Although ZeniMax Online Studios hasn't released any solid numbers, the staff has over and over proclaimed just how…
Digital Extremes announces retro permadeath MMO ‘Survived By’ - Warframe developer Digital Extremes just announced that it's partnered with Human Head Studios for a new MMO "roguelite" with a pixel-art style. It's called Survived By, and the teams are…
Lawbreakers seems to be doing very poorly on Steam - Lawbreakers seems to be turning into another one of those sad reminders that even renowned game designers have their failures from time to time. The magic touch of Cliff Bleszinski…
Ashes of Creation previews all four classes’ skillsets - With Ashes of Creation preparing for a major presence at PAX West this weekend, the team is bringing with it scads of reveals and demo stations for visitors to experience.…
CCP’s VR sports game Sparc has arrived on PSVR today - Remember CCP's multiplayer VR sports sim Sparc? We first heard about it back in February, and now as planned, the Icelandic studio known best for MMO EVE Online has formally launched the…
Guild Wars 2 devs on how mounts bring the ‘joy of movement’ to Path of Fire - [AL:GW2]If you took part in the first Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire preview weekend, you surely got to play around with the first mount, the zippy, slidey lizard. I…
Wild West Online sets alpha test for September 15 - Following some confusion and misinformation over Wild West Online's testing schedule, we now have official confirmation for when the alpha test will begin: September 15th. The western RPG's early bird…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 133: Gaming Gamescom
Battle Bards Episode 104: Something wicked this way comes
The Stream Team: ARK has launched!
The Stream Team: Catapulting into SMITE’s Corrupted Arena adventure
The Stream Team: Diving deeper into Citadel with the Blue Isle Studios devs
The Stream Team: Guild Wars 2 turns 5!
The Stream Team: Hopping through a HEX graveyard
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Upcoming events in WoW for September
When are you taking your WoW alts to Argus?
WoW Archivist: Icecrown Citadel
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.
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