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 2018!
February saw the launch of housing The Elder Scrolls Online’s Homestead patch – a quality addition to a game that once declared MMO housing too hard to implement – and continued teasing Morrowind, both of which drove the game to a new high of 8.5M registered players.
Meanwhile, SOE/Daybreak’s former John Smedley, fresh off the death of Hero’s Song, set up shop with a new studio under the Amazon Games umbrella – with all the same people.
And Funcom declared it had recouped all its costs on Conan Exiles and would reboot The Secret World (while letting its other MMORPGs slide).
Read on for the whole list!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF FEBRUARY 2017
ZeniMax partially wins Oculus Rift lawsuit, awarded $500M
Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime ‘troubled’ by latest US immigration policies
Valve is under anti-trust investigation in Europe
Perfect World has laid off under 30 employees, ‘no impact’ on MMOs
Recapping the Asheron’s Call sunsets
RIFT changes achievement assist policy, promises to ‘bring back quality’ in 2017
Redside, a fifth City of Heroes spiritual successor, takes the field
Elder Scrolls Online’s Homestead expansion is live on PC
WoW Tokens explode in price thanks to Blizzard’s announcement
NCsoft 4Q 2016: Record sales, WildStar’s fate, Lineage Eternal launch
Video games have a bad year on Kickstarter
Conan Exiles has already sold 320K copies, ‘all costs recouped’
World of Warcraft devs on droughts, team size, and lessons learned
Square-Enix saw MMO profits from FFXIV and FFXI dip in 2016
Ashes of Creation demos new dungeon video, won’t ‘sacrifice aesthetics for performance’
Guild Wars 2 AMA: DPS meters, PAX East, raiding, and insider trading
Mekria Online cancels its $110K Kickstarter
Activision-Blizzard Q4 2016: Record quarter for Blizzard thanks to World of Warcraft and Overwatch
Valve is working on three VR titles, feeling effects of travel ban
Valve sunsets Steam Greenlight, proposes dev submission fees to ‘decrease the noise’
Black Desert’s western launch helped Kakao’s games division have a great 2016
What in the world happened to TUG?
Elder Scrolls Online now boasts 8.5M players
EVE Online releases Guardian’s Gala update, gives glimpse into its glorious future
You need to see Elite Dangerous’ new character creator, ‘Holo-Me’
Amazon Game Studios gave John Smedley a new online game team to run
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen recaps the state of the game, defends the class matrix
Guild Wars 2 Art Director Daniel Dociu is leaving ArenaNet
Blizzard: WoW Tokens are ‘harmless’ and ‘make people happier’
The trouble with master writs in Elder Scrolls Online
Smed’s new Amazon studio is basically Pixelmage Games
Emily ‘Domino’ Taylor departs Daybreak and the EverQuest franchise
Neverwinter’s Cloaked Ascendancy expansion has just gone live
Anarchy Online finally arrives on Steam with $90 level boost option
The Elysium WoW emulator community is in total meltdown
Devs and players say farewell to Landmark and the last remnants of EverQuest Next
Check out these gorgeous New World screenshots
The Stream Team: The Exiled’s Early Access launch
Sparc is CCP’s new non-EVE VR sports simulator, due out 2017
Funcom is ‘relaunching’ The Secret World in 2017, but it’s maintenance mode for Anarchy Online and Age of Conan
EVE Online saw big bump in players and profits in 2016
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF FEBRUARY 2017
Choose My Adventure: Wrapping up in Lord of the Rings Online
Tamriel Infinium: Five things you might have missed in the Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind reveal
Perfect Ten: MMO NPC lives from best to worst
Massively Overthinking: Breaking your immersions in MMORPGs
The Soapbox: The sorry state of ARK Survival Evolved
LOTRO Legendarium: 10 things we know about the Mordor expansion
EVE Evolved: Would EVE Online make a good survival game?
Working As Intended: Two decades of Elder Scrolls housing
Wisdom of Nym: Looking at alts in Final Fantasy XIV
Choose My Adventure: LOTRO in hindsight, WildStar ahead
Flameseeker Chronicles: First impressions of Guild Wars 2’s The Head of the Snake
Tamriel Infinium: Four reasons Elder Scrolls Online’s Homestead tops other MMO housing
Perfect Ten: Ranking MMORPG combat pets, from best to worst
Massively Overthinking: Unholy MMORPG hybrids
The Daily Grind: Which no-housing MMORPG needs housing the most?
EverQuesting: Ten things to do in Landmark before it’s gone
WoW Factor: Examining World of Warcraft’s 7.2 update
Global Chat: Get over the lockbox debate already
Five reasons behind the failure of Hero’s Song
Massively OP’s guide to Valentine’s Day around the MMORPG verse
Preview: Path of Exile reveals The Fall of Oriath
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s latest raid might be a too little too late
Choose My Adventure: Reconsidering WildStar, from pre-launch to now
Guild Chat: Pro tips for incentivising active MMO guild membership
Perfect Ten: Terminology the MMORPG genre needs
Massively Overthinking: Are MMOs designed for ‘low-skill gamers’?
The Daily Grind: Have you ever boycotted an MMORPG?
Lost Continent: ArcheAge Revelation’s fresh start servers aren’t doing newbies any favors
LOTRO Legendarium: Checking out LOTRO’s housing improvements
The Daily Grind: What do you think about slavery as a concept in MMORPGs?
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s The Head of the Snake
Leaderboard: If you solo in MMORPGs, why?
Elder Scrolls Online: Setting up the Morrowind story
Elder Scrolls Online: Deep-diving Morrowind’s new Warden class
Elder Scrolls Online: Deep-diving Morrowind’s PvP battlegrounds
Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind: Warden, story, PvP, & gameplay trailer
Choose My Adventure: Starting fresh in WildStar
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs that help you get your spaceship on
Massively Overthinking: Is the MMORPG genre taking a much-needed breather?
WoW Factor: Where do we go after WoW Legion?
The Soapbox: Pokemon Go Generation 2 still isn’t a real MMO
The Game Archaeologist: Earth and Beyond
MMO Mechanics: 2017’s take on the sandbox MMO
The Daily Grind: Is an MMO still an MMO if it lacks chat?
Hands-on: Digging deep into Crowfall’s pre-alpha crafting systems
ALL 2017 MONTH-IN-REVIEW POSTS TO-DATE
MMO Year in Review: Landmark is wiped off the map (January 2017)
MMO Year in Review: A home of your own in Elder Scrolls Online’s Tamriel (February 2017)
MMO Year in Review: City of Heroes necromancy in Master X Master (March 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Ship of Heroes abandons Kickstarter (April 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Ashes of Creation vs. Wild West Online (May 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Morrowind, Stormblood, and Secret World Legends (June 2017)
MMO Year in Review: July was the high mark of the year for MMORPGs (July 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Johnny Depp + Secret World = profit? (August 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Expansion 2 for Guild Wars 2 (September 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Lockboxes, CCP, and Destiny 2 (October 2017)
MMO Year in Review: WoW Classic and the doom of Marvel Heroes (November 2017)
MMO Year in Review: Star Citizen’s alpha 3.0 finally arrives (December 2017)
