Disney’s image-preservation machine was in high gear this week over two of its most high-profile IPs and the clownshoes video game companies picked to print money with them. First, the Mouse House shredded its Marvel-based partnership with Gazillion, leading to the sunset of the once-popular MMOARPG Marvel Heroes (planned for early next year). And then there’s the whole Star Wars Battlefront 2 fiasco, where EA has temporarily been stymied in its attempt to suck every last dollar from our wallets, at least until The Last Jedi has broken records.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Disney has canceled Marvel Heroes, Marvel has ended its relationship with Gazillion - We can now confirm this as real, following a statement made by a Marvel representative to Massively OP. We're updating below. According to Kotaku, Disney has canceled Marvel Heroes -…
NCsoft is already sunsetting MOBA Master X Master - NCsoft announced this evening that it will sunset its relatively new MOBA Master X Master, explaining that the game just "wasn’t enough to take on the established juggernauts." "There is…
Perfect Ten: What to expect when you play World of Warcraft Classic - Are you ready to play the most anticipated MMORPG from 2004? It turns out that, yes, many of you are. The frenzy over World of Warcraft Classic is probably nowhere…
LOTRO Legendarium: What the Amazon TV series means for Lord of the Rings Online - [AL:LOTRO]If you haven't been paying attention to the television market over the past few years, you might have missed the fact that we are in the middle of a revolution…
World of Warcraft lead doesn’t want to talk about Classic, but confirms ‘vanilla means vanilla’ - Right out of the gate in the recent World of Warcraft Q&A, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas said that WoW Classic wasn't going to be the focal point of discussion, as…
Player protests are kicking off in Black Desert right now - [AL:BDO]Black Desert players are taking the fight to... OK, to Black Desert, in Black Desert, to protest stuff in Black Desert. Right as this post goes live, in fact. "The Black…
Decade-old multiplayer ARPG Titan Quest drops ‘Ragnarok’ expansion - So here's a happy surprise: THQ Nordic just launched an expansion for Titan Quest, the multiplayer-optional ARPG that's been rattling around on hard drives for over 10 years now. Not…
The Netherlands joins Belgium in investigating lockboxes as games of chance - Earlier this week, we reported on a move by the Belgian Gaming Commission to investigate lockboxes/lootboxes in games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 to determine whether they constitute games of…
Massively Overthinking: Are modern games too cheap? - This week's Massively Overthinking topic is a submission from reader and commenter camelotcrusade, who takes the industry's current fight over monetization in a different direction from lockboxes. "Are modern games…
Star Citizen’s Around the Verse on the tech behind procedural cities - If you lost your mind over Star Citizen's procedural cities reveals at CitizenCon a few weeks ago, you definitely need to tune in to this week's Around the Verse, where…
EA disables all Star Wars Battlefront 2 microtransaction crud – for now - Whenever you see a studio call fans "passionate," it's almost always shorthand for "rioting with pitchforks and torches." Guess what Star Wars Battlefront 2's execs are calling its players this…
Path of Exile’s War for the Atlas expansion opens December 8 - [AL:POE]It may feel as if Path of Exile just came out with its The Fall of Oriath expansion, but that was last August. The time is quickly approaching for the next…
Choose My Adventure: It’s all the same in Secret World Legends - [AL:SWL]I was a bit disappointed to see that last week's poll for Secret World Legends went to the Illuminati. I played the Illuminati my first time through, you see, and…
The Survivalist: ARK Survival Evolved’s sequel tease is an insult to its fans - You know that moment when you just can't take it anymore? I am there, right on the cusp. I know many folks have gotten to their "I can no longer…
Bossland gives up on WoW’s Honorbuddy cheat following Blizzard’s 2017 court victories - If you weren't convinced that Blizzard defeated Bossland in its string of lawsuits already, you will be today. As The Nosy Gamer noticed, Bossland announced today that it's ending sales…
Star Wars Battlefront 2: The AMA, Wall Street, and the Belgian gambling commission - In case you ever wanted to sniff the distinct scent of internet dumpster fire, you probably should've gone to the Star Wars Battlefront II DICE developer AMA on Reddit yesterday…
Crowfall delays soft launch until 2018 - A lot of things have changed for Crowfall over the past year, several of them being pretty darn significant. Decoupling races and classes alone was a pretty big deal. So…
Traditional ‘tier’ sets are not planned for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth - If you've never played World of Warcraft, you may be unfamiliar with the concept if not the visuals of tier sets. Tiered armor is the ultimate class-specific reward from each…
Hyperspace Beacon: Assessing SWTOR one week after the big server merges - [AL:TOR]Many people believe that server merges are innately bad because in games like ArcheAge (or even all the way back to Star Wars Galaxies), they were done completely wrong or…
DC Universe Online patches in Earth-3 adventures today - [AL:DCUO]This morning, the DC Universe Online servers went down to apply the game's next major patch. They may or may not be back up by the time you read this,…
Ride to Black Desert’s Kamasylvia part 2 on your ‘dream’ horse - [AL:BDO]Happy Kamasylvia day! Yep, the second half of the massive Kamasylvia expansion has dropped on Black Desert today, though it's not been without its issues; Kakao has noted both connection…
Former SWTOR dev talks about designing ethical lockboxes - An extensive Twitter thread from former Star Wars: The Old Republic lead systems designer Damion Schubert grappled with the timely and touchy topic of lockboxes and microtransactions from the perspective of one who…
Netmarble mobile MMO Lineage 2 Revolution has officially launched - As the Google Play app on my phone frantically notified me this morning, Lineage 2 Revolution has officially launched itself right on out of open beta and into the wilds…
Yeehaw, Wild West Online’s early access alpha has begun - The Wild West Online early access alpha has officially begun, at least if you shelled out for the higher tiers of founder pack. According to 612 Games' Facebook page, Pioneer…
World of Warcraft Classic CMs talk class balance while the forums melt down - It's a really weird and interesting time to be a World of Warcraft fan. While the announcement of WoW Classic has revitalized discussion about the launch version of the MMO,…
Funcom continues its streak of profits thanks to Secret World Legends - The money scene continues to progress generally well for Funcom, which reported a third consecutive quarter during which it made a tidy sum. Funcom reported raking in $6 million in…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking more of Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire story - [AL:GW2]As promised, Flameseeker Chronicles is back with a continuation of the Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire story deep-dive I've been crafting over the last few weeks. I'll briefly recap you on…
NCsoft Q3 2017: Lineage M drives record profits, Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire isn’t too shabby either - NCsoft had an exceptionally good third financial quarter this year, reaching a record high in sales and operating profit for the company, and it's almost entirely thanks to the mobile…
EA drops the costs of heroes – and reward payouts – in Star Wars: Battlefront II by 75% - Don't be too proud of the barrier to entry you've constructed; the ability to make in-game unlocks incredibly expensive is insignificant next to the power of angry consumers. An update…
RIFT’s fall festival lockboxes rankle players - [AL:Rift]The latest batch of lockboxes in RIFT isn't making friends among the playerbase. The current Autumn Harvest lockboxes seem to contain more exclusive items than in years past, which has…
Divining the details of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite from a Pokemon Go player’s perspective - When we first heard rumors about a Harry Potter version of Pokemon Go, I said I could barely imagine what the game might be like before listing several other IPs that would…
EA claims Star Wars Battlefront II’s business model aims to ‘provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment’ - Some awards, you do not want to win. The Darwin award, for example. Or "worst business model of the year." Or "most downvoted comment of all time on Reddit because…
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth will have no personal boats, no big class overhauls, and no lockboxes - It's hard to imagine that anyone is going to be upset about the idea of no lockboxes in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. Sure, Blizzard makes use of them…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 144: Harry Potter and the Deathly ARG
Battle Bards Episode 109: Club Penguin
The Stream Team: Exploring the wilds and wildlife in Conan Exiles’ great white north
The Stream Team: A look at Secret World Legends’ anima allocation
The Stream Team: Marvel Heroes is really going bye-bye
The Stream Team: Robbing banks and raiding campsites in Wild West Online’s early access launch
The Stream Team: New chapter on a new server in SWTOR’s Knights of the Fallen Empire
The Stream Team: A Trove Club crawl
The Stream Team: Making it to Muspelheim in SMITE’s newest adventure
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Why doesn’t WoW have its own player toxicity strike team?
WoW’s 13th anniversary brings back classic world bosses, unique transmog gear
What does WoW character creation need?
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.
