The MMO genre celebrated a ton of birthdays this week, including anniversaries for the launches of Black Desert, The Division, RIFT, Wakfu, and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Meanwhile, Funcom announced a new game (not an MMO, though), Elite Dangerous launched its next chapter, Path of Exile’s Bestiary update made it out the door, Soulworker hit open beta, Secret World Legends pushed out its agent network, and Trion stunned everyone with its Defiance 2050 reboot plans.
Read on for the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions.
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Trion reboots Defiance as Defiance 2050, launching on PC and console this summer - Welp, now we know what Trion Worlds has been working on: Defiance is getting a sequel, launching for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 this summer. The MMORPG studio says Defiance…
Guild Wars 2’s next living story episode, A Bug in the System, launches March 6 - [AL:GW2]After just a week's delay, ArenaNet has rolled out the teaser trailer for Guild Wars 2's next living story episode. Dubbed A Bug in the System, the second episode of…
First impressions of ‘wizarding world’ MMOARG Maguss - If it weren't for my promise to write this article, I would have given up on Maguss in less than 15 minutes had I been a consumer. I understand the game's…
Massively OP’s guide to getting into RIFT Prime - [AL:Rift]With the RIFT Prime server going live next week (on Wednesday, to be precise), a lot of renewed interest has sprung up over this seven-year-old MMORPG. While plenty of former…
Chaos Theory: A guide for Secret World Legends’ new agent network - [AL:SWL]Admit it: Ever since your faction handler in Secret World Legends started sending you off on jobs, you've wanted your own underlings to boss around. Am I right? Well thanks…
Elite Dangerous’ Beyond – Chapter One launches today - Commanders, today is your day: Elite Dangerous' Beyond - Chapter One goes live this afternoon after today's lengthy downtime. As we've previously noted, the update is free and rolls out…
Hyperspace Beacon: What was not said in the SWTOR 2018 Roadmap - [AL:TOR]Star Wars: The Old Republic players leaped for joy when Producer Keith Kanneg finally released the winter and spring 2018 roadmap last week. It was good to hear from him after…
Black Desert celebrates two years and three million players in the west - [AL:BDO]Black Desert isn't content to celebrate its second western anniversary with just an in-game event and some free stuff, oh no. Today it's rolled out a brand-new anniversary trailer talking…
Path of Exile’s Bestiary expansion launches today, boasting 3.5M global players - [AL:POE]Path of Exile's 3.2.0 update, Bestiary, goes live on PC this afternoon with Xbox One to follow eventually; patching got underway a few hours ago. As we've previously covered in our…
WoW Factor: Examining the composition of the Alliance - Watching as speculation and mining swirls around the Mag'har as a future allied race, I can't help but start thinking about the bigger picture in World of Warcraft. Because soon…
Interviewing an Asheron’s Call Shard Slayer: On griefing, doxxing, losing mates, and winning MMOs - Last month, I put together an article and pair of videos discussing Asheron's Call's Shard of the Herald event to celebrate the game's first deathiverary. It was a bittersweet experience for…
Academics argue WHO’s ‘gaming disorder’ is arbitrary, criticize lack of evidentiary transparency - Researchers and self-regulatory bodies are continuing their denouncement of the World Health Organization's plan to classify "gaming addiction" as a "gaming disorder." The Entertainment Software Association sent 'round a press…
A Tale in the Desert has launched its eighth Telling since 2003 - Last summer, we included classic sandbox A Tale in the Desert in our Whatever Happened To column as one of those games that had just slipped off our radar. That…
Star Citizen talks ship progress, character customization, and what’s not making the 3.1 alpha - Another week, another episode of Star Citizen's Around the Verse. CIG's Los Angeles branch kicks it off with a check-in and says it's reorganized itself a bit to get stuff…
Sea of Thieves runs another stress test, talks pirate customization (or lack thereof) - Just in case you read that headline and made a mad dash to this first paragraph with the hope of seeing that Rare has changed its mind on making players…
Here’s your first look at newbies playing the Ship of Heroes combat alpha - Ship of Heroes has something to cheer about today as it's just begun its combat alpha, complete with "signature heroes, the Apotheosis City environment, their offensive powers and powersets, enemies,…
The Division celebrates two years and 20 million players with free stuff and events - Let's keep the anniversary articles coming, shall we? Ubisoft is celebrating two years since The Division's launch as well. The company now counts 20 million players (twice the population of…
Massively Overthinking: MMOs belong in a museum! - Let's talk game preservation. We've been covering MADE's attempt to convince the government to tweak its interpretation of the DMCA to basically allow museums, academics, and institutions of learning to…
World of Warcraft emulators forge forward in a post-Classic announcement era - Curious about what's going to happen to all of those World of Warcraft legacy emulators with WoW Classic on the way? It doesn't look like any are feeling that they…
Choose My Adventure: Voting for the start of Warframe - [AL:WarF]The votes are in, and I'm heading to the world of Warframe. Or worlds. I am honestly not altogether clear about how much of the game takes place in space…
Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan explains Brigitte’s design, while Hi-Rez implies she’s a Paladins ripoff - If you're the analytical type, you probably started formulating a playstyle for Overwatch's upcoming hero Brigitte as soon as you read about her abilities yesterday. But you needn't just speculate,…
Cyberpunk 2077 prepares fans for a ‘blockbuster’ franchise - Fans of CD Projekt Red and its games are no doubt starving for any morsel of information about the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. And while the studio has yet to truly…
SuperData says ‘pay-to-play’ MMOs declined again in January 2018 - SuperData published its January recap of the worldwide digital games market this week, and the analytics firm doesn't have much good to say for sub MMOs. "Continuing their decline, the…
Funcom reports that 2017 was the most profitable year in its history - With significantly higher revenue and sales coming in 2017, Funcom announced to its investors that it just came off the most profitable year in the studio's history. The studio made…
H1Z1 has launched after three years of early access with a ‘massive’ patch - If you bought the rumors and teases last week that H1Z1, the artist formerly known as King of the Kill, was about to launch, then congrats: You bought the real…
Defiance 2050 further explains cross-platform play, character carryover, and game mechanics - Still scratching your head a bit about the Defiance 2050 surprise announcement yesterday? We all are. Fortunately, we do have a bit more information about what's going on with the…
Funcom announces Mutant Year Zero, a tactical adventure game - If mutants, post-apocalyptic settings, and turn-based combat sound intriguing, then Funcom's got a pleasant surprise in store for you today with its announcement of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.…
Neverwinter’s Lost City of Omu update is live for PC players; here’s the launch trailer! - [AL:NW]Neverwinter's Lost City of Omu update is live on PC today - yes, PS4 and Xbox One players will have to wait a few more weeks. In the lead-up to…
The Soapbox: Six responses to the ‘gaming is wrong/evil/an addiction’ argument - I recently went on a rant about gaming, but it wasn't directed at gaming. It was in defense of gaming. I am so weary of our pastime getting slammed as…
The ESRB proposes new microtransaction label, while Hawaii’s Chris Lee questions the ESA on lockboxes - The Entertainment Software Rating Board claims it's taking steps to solve the lockbox crisis, in part in response to bills before multiple state governments as well as discussions in (and…
Secret World Legends has made the Agents available for missions - [AL:SWL]Managing other people in Secret World Legends: A life's goal for members of the Illuminati and probably a living hell for the Dragons. (Templars have mixed feelings.) But you'll be…
The Repopulation is working on a new starter island and combat targeting - Let's get caught up on The Repopulation, shall we? Last week, Idea Fabrik recapped what it's been working on in the beleaguered sci-fi sandbox, including data replication issues, desyncing bugs,…
SuperData says VR has ‘nowhere to go but up,’ while HTC VR division sees layoffs and Facebook apologizes for VR shooter demo - SuperData continues to express confidence in the future of virtual reality - however you want to label it. Last week, the analytics firm updated its paid paper on its expectations…
Warcraft movie director says the production experience was ‘traumatic’ - During an interview with SyFy about his upcoming movie, Duncan Jones dishes on his experience directing the 2016 Warcraft film based in the universe popularized by the series that now…
Ashes of Creation previews the Dwarven dungeon Dünheim - Ashes of Creation has a new video out swooping through the halls of the dungeon Dünheim, apparently playable in the game's current alpha zero phase. The accompanying lore diary describes…
Cabal 2 calls it quits in the west - If you have any pressing business left in Cabal 2, don't put it off for too long. ESTsoft announced last week that it will be sunsetting the fantasy MMO sometime…
Soulworker Online’s open beta launches today on Steam - Here it comes! Korean cel-shaded action MMO SoulWorker Online - just SoulWorker now - is launching beta in the west today after its delay from last year. It's an open…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 159: Panda punching
The Stream Team: Watch and win Wild Terra!
The Stream Team: Happy second birthday, Black Desert!
The Stream Team: Collecting all the critters in Path of Exile’s new Bestiary League
The Stream Team: A first look at SoulWorker
The Stream Team: Acquiring a first Secret World Legends’ agent
The Stream Team: RIFT celebrates seven years
The Stream Team: Diving the dev dungeon for DDO’s 12th anniversary
The Stream Team: Celebrating six years of Wakfu
The Stream Team: Peeking back into Planet Nomads
The Stream Team: Doing double XP week on Age of Conan’s Saga of Zath server
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
Battle for Azeroth might have a mission table after all
The mysteries of WoW’s Draenei and Naaru
Reptile forms offer more reasons to roll a Zandalari Druid in WoW
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.
