It’s the end of an era for MMO players this week, as Gamigo bought Trion Worlds. Technically, it appears it bought Trion’s assets, specifically the MMORPGs, as a reported 175+ employees were laid off with only 25 left behind to… well, it’s hard to see how 25 people could do much more than serve as a transition team for six MMORPGs, and it’s still not entirely clear what will be happening to all of those games long-term, particularly ArcheAge.
But truly, this week had so many big stories and features that only something as big as Trion’s sunset could push them from the lede: We saw the announcement of progression servers for LOTRO, the launch of the troubled Red Dead Redemption 2, the return of Hellgate London, the rollout of Aion’s NGE, the formal launch of Bless Online, beta for Fallout 76, and a major win for the preservation of dead MMORPGs. And Halloween is this week!
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Trion Worlds has been sold to Gamigo, and yes, there have been more layoffs - File this one under "huge things that rudely happened while we were all in the middle of recording the podcast": Trion Worlds has apparently been sold to Gamigo. Here's the official…
EVE Evolved: Hands-on with EVE Online FPS Project Nova - Cast your mind back to 2011 and you'll probably remember the insane hype that was building for DUST 514, CCP Games' ambitious console MMOFPS which promised some incredible realtime integration…
The Video Game Museum offers a home to Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, and WildStar - It's the longest of all long shots, but WildStar could be kept alive -- and in a museum, as Indiana Jones intended. And not just the soon-to-be canceled MMO, but…
Wings Over Atreia: Awakened Legacy is Aion’s NGE gut punch - Woah! WOA is back! It's only fitting: Wings Over Atreia debuted when Aion launched as a new game, and now it is back for the launch of a new Aion.…
MassivelyOP previews the winter wonders of Warframe’s Fortuna expansion - [AL:WarF]Hey MJ, want to come play in the Fortuna snow? When Digital Extremes invited me to come get as closer look at the snowy goodness of Warframe’s upcoming Fortuna expansion,…
WoW Factor: We’re all farming Nature Resistance gear now - First and foremost, I'd like to note that I am writing these columns consecutively and immediately, so all I can do is hope that when I write this it is…
Lord of the Rings Online announces ‘legendary’ progression server - With all of the expansions and zones added to Lord of the Rings Online over the last 11 years, it's hard to remember a time when the MMO entire consisted…
Hellgate: London is coming back yet again on Steam - Yes, it's happening again. It never stops happening. Hellgate: London is getting yet another lease on life, which at this point may mean enough leases on life to legally qualify…
LOTRO Legendarium: Wistmead surprises and progression servers - What a week this has been! Originally I was all gung-ho to talk about nothing else than all of the new Halloween content that Lord of the Rings Online has…
The Elder Scrolls Online is just too large to get to Nintendo Switch - We're sorry, fans of The Elder Scrolls Online who would like to play the game on the Nintendo Switch. As with many other games, the title is not coming to…
Lord of the Rings Online tackles Q&A on progression server, plans November release - Lord of the Rings Online's surprise announcement of an incoming progression server certainly stirred up interest and debate this week. While it's intriguing, a lot of players were left wondering…
US Library of Congress grants DMCA exception for preserving online games - It's a win for the good guys, at least if you figure the good guys are on the side of preserving video game and MMO history, and we do: The…
World of Warcraft is sending surveys to unsubscribed players for feedback - It's hard to be certain that this is unprecedented, but it's certainly unusual for World of Warcraft. A former player has posted on Reddit about a survey received from Blizzard…
Massively Overthinking: Is there too much negativity in the MMO genre? - MassivelyOP reader Threespeed posed us an interesting question for this week's Overthinking that I thought was particularly appropriate given the Trion Worlds situation. "Everyone has a right to their opinion,…
Hyperspace Beacon: Obtaining the Masterwork armor in SWTOR Update 5.10 - I'm torn on this new armor achievement system in Star Wars: The Old Republic. On the one hand, everyone can get the armor eventually. On the other hand, there appear…
You can now buy ships right from a showroom floor in Star Citizen’s alpha - Heads-up to Star Citizen testers and watchers: A new patch to the 3.3 alpha rolled out yesterday, most notably adding functionality to Teach's Ship Shop, which basically allows characters to…
Red Dead Redemption 2 has officially launched, and now the wait for multiplayer begins - You might not remember it now that you're probably boot-deep in cow poop and cowboy blood, but Red Dead Redemption 2 suffered multiple setbacks as well as large delays along…
BlizzCon 2018 announces headlining bands: Train, Lindsey Stirling, and HODOR - Blizzard's just announced this morning the headlining band for this year's BlizzCon, and it's a tiny bit of a puzzler, as it's actually three music groups, constituting what Blizzard is…
Rumor: Black Desert’s Xbox One open beta begins November 8 - [AL:BDO]Betcha forgot all about the fact that Black Desert was still slated for a console port! Welp, it's still happening, and in fact, it's apparently ramping up. Players across multiple…
DC Universe Online announces Atlantis episode, launching November 8 - It's time for players to take an adventure under the sea in DC Universe Online with the game's next episode. Who doesn't want to go to Atlantis? Just say you…
Black Desert drops Archer class trailer ahead of TwitchCon 2018 - [AL:BDO]The Archer may not be dropping with the Drieghan expansion, but it is very much on the way to Black Desert. Ahead of TwitchCon this week, Pearl Abyss has released…
XL GAMES says it’s working to ‘ensure that there is no harm done’ to ArcheAge players after Trion buyout - One of the many concerns bubbling up out of the Gamigo buyout of Trion Worlds this week is just what's going to happen to ArcheAge. As MMORPG players will recall, Trion…
Leaderboard: Are you giving Bless Online a second chance? - Bless Online officially launched, went free-to-play, left beta, and left early access all in one fell swoop yesterday, bringing to an end - or maybe just a middle - the…
Perfect Ten: The 10 types of skill in MMOs - Everyone has a very strong opinion about player skill in MMOs. This is understandable. Furthermore, I've met a lot of different people with different opinions about what "skill" actually means.…
MassivelyOP’s guide to MMO Halloween 2018 - Whether or not you consider yourself too old to put on that Hulk or Sparkle Twilight costume and prance ("HULK PRANCE") around the neighborhood for free candy, MMOs make it…
Daybreak confirms that ex-H1Z1 sandbox Just Survive is still sunsetting tomorrow - It looks like Just Survive's sunset is really happening. Back in August, Daybreak announced that it was sunsetting the sandboxier zombie survival half of the game once known just as…
Bless Online has officially launched out of early access open beta as a free-to-play MMORPG - It's been nothing but a whirlwind for Neowiz's Bless Online these last few years. After an aborted attempt to get the gorgeous Korean MMORPG in western hands through Aeria/Gamigo, Neowiz…
Gamigo formally announces the Trion Worlds buyout that manifested yesterday - Yesterday's surprise news that MMO company Trion Worlds had been sold to Gamigo was then all but confirmed by Trion's Linda "Brasse" Carlson, who announced her departure on the RIFT forums,…
Fallout 76 hits beta today as Bethesda tempers expectations with caution for ‘spectacular issues’ - To commemorate Fallout 76's momentous transition into beta testing, the folks at Bethesda Game Studios have published an open letter to their community, in which they ruminate on the doubts,…
World of Warcraft Classic will log you off after a set amount of time for the demo, even at home - We hope you weren't planning marathon play sessions for World of Warcraft Classic if you pick up the virtual ticket demo. Not because you won't have anything to do; we're…
Wisdom of Nym: Evaluating Final Fantasy XIV’s job gauges - The biggest problem with job gauges in Final Fantasy XIV was always conceptual because there were two jobs built from the ground up to have gauges and 13 that had…
An EVE Online player used his Homeland Security contacts to save EVE Vegas 2018 - In what sounds like the plot of a movie, this weekend's EVE Vegas 2018 event in Las Vegas almost fell apart at the last minute only to be saved by…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 192: Tricks and treats
Massively OP Podcast Episode 193: EVE Vegas special
Battle Bards Episode 131: Path of Exile
The Stream Team: Just how cute is Halloween in MapleStory 2?
The Stream Team: ARK, where even poop dresses up for Halloween
The Stream Team: Warframe’s space ninja Halloween
The Stream Team: Guild Wars 2 Halloween with the MOP ladies plus one
The Stream Team: The Witching Hour revelry in DC Universe Online
The Stream Team: A look at Aion: Awakened Legacy
The Stream Team: Mogloween mayhem in AQ3D’s Mystcroft
The Stream Team: When Just Survive doesn’t
The Stream Team: Happy 5th birthday Path of Exile
The Stream Team: A very voxel Shadow’s Eve in Trove
The Stream Team: Scaring up an Elder Scrolls Online Halloween
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
• Finally, World of Warcraft actually lets you make a real choice in a PTR quest
• New Azmodan pet guarantees Diablo fans are at least getting something from BlizzCon
• It looks like Hunters will be able to tame big, gross Blood Beasts in patch 8.1
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 bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
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