E3 2018: Elder Scrolls Online announces Wolfhunter and Murkmire DLC (oh yeah, and Elder Scrolls VI is coming!) - [AL:ESO]At Bethesda's E3 presentation this evening, ZeniMax's Matt Firor announced that The Elder Scrolls Online's next DLC is called Wolfhunter, complete with werewolf theme. And even later this year, we can…
E3 2018: ‘Fallout 76 is entirely online’ - You've seen the teaser. You've heard the rumors. You've watched the E3 trailer. And now it's time to find out, exactly, what Fallout 76 is. On Sunday night, Bethesda took…
Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter World team up for a bizarre collaboration - [AL:FFXIV]Fancy some Monster Hunter in your Final Fantasy XIV? How about a bona fide Monster Hunter World collab? That's what you're getting, according to Square Enix's E3 presser today. It sounds as…
E3 2018: Star Citizen’s ‘alpha 3.2 teaser’ trailer is gorgeous, and it’s not alpha 3.2 - During last night's PC Gaming Show at E3, Cloud Imperium showed a nifty video of Star Citizen that has the community abuzz. Considered out of context, it's an in-engine video…
E3 2018: Defiance 2050 reboot launches on PC and console July 10th - We've got an official launch date for the new Defiance, folks: Trion announced this morning that Defiance 2050 will hit all three major platforms on July 10th, pursuant to an…
E3 2018: Mavericks is battle royale on a massively multiplayer scale - Battle royale is all the rage these days, but as we've been covering over the last few months, the SpatialOS-based Mavericks is aiming to bring a new approach to the…
E3 2018: Skull and Bones fleshes out its gameplay with the Hunting Grounds - Player choice and random map elements are the key to the meat of Skull and Bones' replayability said Ubisoft at this week's E3 2018. The studio made a concerted effort…
E3 2018: hands-on with The Division 2 – a major upgrade over the original game - At this year's E3, Ubisoft creative director Julian Gerighty said team behind The Division 2 tried to learn "everything" from The Division to help make the sequel better. As he reminded me, the…
E3 2018: Nintendo thinks lockboxes are unfairly maligned, help ‘drive engagement’ - You know how sometimes, when nosy press asks you a question with no good answer, you're better off shutting up? And when they don't ask you about a tricky subject,…
E3 2018: Hands-on with Super Smash Bros Ultimate - With all the online talk about Nintendo this year, it feels only fitting to give Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Ultimate a little time. We've talked recently about the unbundling of MMOs and…
Massively OP Podcast Episode 185: PAX West crud - Larry, Justin, and Bree talk PAX West, Elder Scrolls Online, Rend, Dauntless, Torchlight Frontiers, Blades, Neverwinter, Anthem, Star Citizen, Runes of Magic, Wizard101, FFXIV, PlanetSide 2, SWTOR, WoW, and Star…
Check out the BlizzCon attendee swag before you catch the pre-show kickoff - Like Christmas, BlizzCon is arriving earlier every year. Yes, the actual convention doesn't start until late October, but there's a pre-show kickoff event taking place today, during which you can…
BlizzCon reveals the first digital freebie and prepares for more pre-show build-a-panel fun - Begun, the BlizzCon has. Sort of. Yesterday's video reveal of what promises to be the first of several virtual freebies from the Virtual Ticket (an Overwatch skin dressing Sombra up…
WoW Classic will be playable at BlizzCon – and also with a virtual ticket - Hey remember how on yesterday's podcast we were speculating on what big news World of Warcraft might have for BlizzCon, now that Blizzard's already dropped its big Tides of Vengeance bomb?…
BlizzCon 2018: Blizzard reveals key panels for Diablo, WoW Classic - We're just a month away from BlizzCon now, and as it's the biggest last gaming con of the year that we focus on, we're as excited as you that Blizzard…
Leaderboard: Are you buying a BlizzCon virtual ticket this year, and is WoW Classic the reason? - Oof, some people really, really do not like jokes about BlizzCon, as I found out Sunday when my throwaway headline about paying Blizzard 50 bucks to let us alpha test…
Blizzard is apparently taking measures to foster diversity and inclusion at BlizzCon 2018 - Diversity and inclusion have been hot topics in the gaming industry for some time now, and it's one that Blizzard plans to put front-and-center at BlizzCon 2018. In an article…
BlizzCon 2018: Blizzard posts Viewing Party Kit for those stuck at home, and we are so hungry now - If you thought the price hike for the BlizzCon virtual ticket was too high at $50 this year, especially with less swag than usual, then maybe you're just not thinking…
Blizzard will announce ‘Diablo-related news’ at BlizzCon, but it’s not what you want to hear - Lately there's been a whole lot of speculation surrounding Diablo, with rumors flying left and right about what may be in store for the future of Blizzard's venerable demon-killing franchise.…
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…
BlizzCon tix holders can download (but not play) WoW Classic’s demo right now - BlizzCon won't be here until late next week, but ticket holders can get a jump on the two-day convention by downloading the hotly anticipated World of Warcraft Classic demo right…
Overwatch is not announcing a new map at this year’s BlizzCon - In a new developer update video posted yesterday, Overwatch Game Director Jeff "Jeff from the Overwatch team" Kaplan talks about some of the new content coming up for Blizzard's popular…
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…
Overwatch PTR changes suggest there may be a new hero inbound - Although Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan confirmed earlier this week that Blizzard will not be unveiling a new map at this year's BlizzCon, the latest PTR build of the game…
Blizzard buffs security, sets WoW expectations ahead of this weekend’s BlizzCon 2018 - We're just a few days away from this year's BlizzCon, which will be taking place this weekend in Anaheim, California, and in preparation for the event, Blizzard Community Manager Ythisens…
World of Warcraft is 14 years old this month – where were you when it launched? - How old were you when World of Warcraft launched in 2004? Now add 14 to that. Do ya feel super old yet? Where were you when it launched? Blizzard is…
The Daily Grind: Do you even have any expectations left for BlizzCon? - So. Today's the first day of BlizzCon. Normally, we take the opportunity to ask our community about their expectations and predictions for BlizzCon. But, uh. At this point, do you…
BlizzCon 2018: Get yourself ready with BlizzCon Bingo - Yes, it's time for another BlizzCon, and as always that means a lot of panels, a lot of nonsense, and... well, let's face it, a lot of repetition. Sure, every…
BlizzCon 2018: Opening ceremonies liveblog - It's that time again, dear readers, a time of listening to staff members from Blizzard talk about the company on stage at the newest annual BlizzCon! And because everyone seems…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft Classic is releasing next summer - We all knew that World of Warcraft Classic -- the legacy server that will take players back to the vanilla version of the MMO -- would be playable at BlizzCon…
BlizzCon 2018: Heroes of the Storm trailers and recap - During the BlizzCon opening ceremonies today, Heroes of the Storm got more love than usual with a giant cinematic trailer for the game Blizzard refers to as its "love letter…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft gets a new charity pet and a new cinematic - The opening ceremonies are over, and we didn't get a whole lot of news about World of Warcraft just yet, but we did get some. There's also a new charity pet…
BlizzCon 2018: Hearthstone trolls players with Rastakhan’s Rumble expansion - Hope you don't mind some serious Trolling because Blizzard is tusking us with a new Hearthstone expansion that's all about the savage jungle race. Rastakhan’s Rumble is heading our way in…
BlizzCon 2018: Diablo Immortal is a ‘mobile massively multiplayer online action–role-playing game’ - Hey, Diablo III. Happy Switch launch day. Happy Diablo Immortal day! (So much for that animated series rumor?) As announced during the BlizzCon opening ceremony, the Diablo franchise is getting a…
BlizzCon 2018: Warcraft III: Reforged is a remaster and update of the classic game due in 2019 - Fighting Infernals, chopping lumber with Ghouls, managing your Wisps and uprooting Ancients... all familiar to any veterans of Warcraft III. But this year's BlizzCon announced that you'll be able to…
BlizzCon 2018: Overwatch’s new anti-hero Ashe is super into doing crimes and voiced by Jennifer Hale - I happen to live with a relatively serious Overwatch player, and let me tell you, he was not remotely concerned about the fact that Blizzard flat out said it wasn't…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft reveals the classes for Kul Tirans and Zandalari Trolls - Yes, it looks like this got turned on a little earlier than World of Warcraft had expected. We'll probably hear more about this in a few moments in the next…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft – What’s Next liveblog - So what is next for World of Warcraft? Based on the current reception of the game's expansion, my personal prediction is another few months of trying to salvage things, a…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft details Tides of Vengeance and Rise of Azshara - Blizzard just wrapped up its World of Warcraft What's Next panel, and believe it or not, it wasn't a total dud. While we already knew quite a bit of what…
BlizzCon 2018: Diablo fans go into full-fledged meltdown mode over Immortal - It's hard to imagine a more perfect storm of nerdrage than the one that Blizzard concocted at BlizzCon this Friday. Sorely neglected Diablo fans who looked forward to a major,…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft Classic liveblog - So. World of Warcraft Classic. Did you think you wanted it, but it turns out you don't? Did you think you want it and are finding out now that you…
BlizzCon 2018: World of Warcraft Q&A liveblog - Here's the problem with World of Warcraft Q&A sessions every time we have BlizzCon, which is now just one bad idea away from happening twice per year regardless of how…
BlizzCon 2018: Blizzard defends Diablo Immortal, hints at more Diablo projects on the way - "I'd like to thank April Fools Guy for setting off what's sure to be two solid weeks of hand-wringing over the time/place etiquette of criticism in video games." This was…
BlizzCon 2018: Diablo Immortal lore, zone, class, and Q&A recap - Blizzard's Wyatt Cheng and Matthew Burger took the stage for the Diablo Immortal Q&A panel at BlizzCon tonight, clearly aware of the drama swirling around the internet in regard to…
MMO Week in Review: The most ‘immortal’ thing about Diablo is fan rage - BlizzCon dominated the weekend, and Diablo dominated BlizzCon, though not exactly for the reasons we might have hoped for: Blizzard ham-handedly announced Diablo Immortal, a mobile-only MMOARPG, to a crowd…
The Daily Grind: What’s the longest you’ve ever played a WoW expansion? - During BlizzCon this weekend, Eliot and I were chatting about an article series he's working on different periods in MMORPG history. I mentioned 2009 as being an iconic year because…
BlizzCon 2018: What the heck happened? - Every year, I cover BlizzCon for Massively Overpowered. This is not new information; you've all seen my liveblogs running every year for quite some time. And the reception of any…
Netease talks up Diablo Immortal to Chinese fans and onlookers - While American fans at this weekend's BlizzCon went into full-on meltdown mode, NetEase was also telling Chinese fans about the upcoming Diablo Immortal. It turns out that yes, Netease is…
Hearthstone hands out free card packs to celebrate 100 million users - [AL:Hearth]Hearthstone's BlizzCon presence was pretty middle-of-the-road: Blizzard managed not to outright offend anyone, at least, even if some players are a bit grumpy about the cadence. The whole presentation might've…
Blizzard denies claims that Diablo 4’s reveal was meant to punctuate BlizzCon as ActiBlizz stock plummets - So here's some fuel on the raging dumpster fire that is the Diablo scene right now: Kotaku has sources claiming that Blizzard did indeed intend to reveal Diablo 4 at BlizzCon…
Blizzard talks Overwatch’s Echo character, big-screen ambitions, and crossplay potential - Most of the buzz coming out of BlizzCon's Overwatch reveals centered on the new playable bad-girl Ashe, who is totally not just McCree but a girl. Eurogamer's interview with Blizzard's…
World of Warcraft’s Alex Afrasiabi on the possibility of faction unification - During BlizzCon 2018, the folks at Blizzard Watch chatted up World of Warcraft Senior Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi to discuss what lies in store for players in the future of Battle…
Warcraft III: Reforged will support original’s custom games, allow crossplay between both versions - One of the biggest announcements out of BlizzCon 2018 for old-school RTS fans was certainly the news of Warcraft III: Reforged, a from-the-ground-up remake of Blizzard's esteemed fantasy RTS title.…
Massively OP Podcast Episode 195: April fools at BlizzCon - Justin and Bree cover the BlizzCon mess, Diablo Immortal, WoW Classic, WoW's content plans, Torchlight Frontiers, Shroud of the Avatar, Old School RuneScape, and LOTRO's legendary server, with a mailbag…
Blizzard corrects itself on new World of Warcraft race/class combos - Hope you weren't planning on making a Zandalari Warlock in World of Warcraft, bub, because it ain't gonna happen. Blizzard admitted to a little faux pas by saying that it…
Overwatch’s new character Ashe sparks discussion on the roster’s diversity - There's been plenty of excitement over the announcement of new Overwatch character Ashe at BlizzCon 2018, but the new arrival has also sparked a bit of controversy around the subject…
Smilegate MMORPG Lost Ark finally, finally starts Korean beta testing - You know that we've been anticipating, slavering, and hoping for Lost Ark for so long that when the Korean beta kicks off, it's a cause for major celebration. This fantastic-looking…
World of Warcraft Classic demo extended through the weekend - BlizzCon 2018 may be over, but virtual ticket holders have still been digging into the World of Warcraft Classic demo. Although the demo was originally scheduled to end today, Blizzard…
Activision-Blizzard Q3 2018: Activision Blizzard revenue dips, WoW Battle for Azeroth did well - It's probably a good thing for Activision Blizzard that its third quarter financials cut off at the end of September, given that its stock took quite a tumble following its…
The Daily Grind: Are you hostile to mobile MMORPGs? - Happy Friday. Let's talk mobile. MMORPG players in particular run along a certain demographic that does not align well with mobile. Oh, sure, we have phones, Wyatt Cheng. I do. I…
WoW Factor: The dumb World of Warcraft stuff from BlizzCon - It's easy to just think of this year's BlizzCon as having dumb stuff on display for Diablo, but let's be real here - there were enough missteps to go around, right…
Analysts say Diablo Immortal will bring financial success despite fan outrage - Arguably the biggest thing to come out of BlizzCon 2018 was the sheer amount of unadulterated rage solicited by the announcement of Blizzard's upcoming mobile title Diablo Immortal. In fact,…
Shoot, shoot, shoot, bullet, bullet, gun! Ashe – and B.O.B. – are live in Overwatch - As I type this article, my husband's in Overwatch playing Ashe. In fact, he's in an arcade mode where literally everyone is playing Ashe, which is pretty funny from my…
Leaderboard: Is a ‘WoW Immortal’ a very real possibility? - During this week's podcast, Justin made a joke about the potential for a "WoW Immortal" that... doesn't seem like such a joke, especially given Allen Adham's comments about working on…
Vague Patch Notes: When World of Warcraft breaks off your friendship - I spent a bunch of time post-BlizzCon thinking about why World of Warcraft personally bothered me. Not why its design pitfalls bothered me; that's easy to understand, and frankly, it's…
WoW Factor: The smart World of Warcraft stuff from BlizzCon - Let's get something out of the way first and foremost. I am not going to count Warcraft III: Reforged as a smart thing for World of Warcraft, even though it…
Hearthstone explores the lore and Loa of Rastakhan’s Rumble in latest hearthside chat - At this year's BlizzCon, we got our first look at the upcoming Hearthstone expansion, Rastakhan's Rumble, which centers around the Trolls of Azeroth and their mighty Loa. Yesterday, Lead Mission…
FFXIV Fan Festival 2018: Details from the press conference with Naoki Yoshida - In contrast to the high-octane trailer that had opened the day, the final event for the first day of the Final Fantasy XIV fan festival was quiet and subdued. Of course,…
The Daily Grind: Is the movement against LFG just privileging a different type of MMO player? - In the comments of a BlizzCon article a few weeks ago, there was an interesting discussion about content. One commenter argued that it didn't matter whether Blizzard made Mythic+ dungeoning…
Activision draws heat over ignoring accessibility requirements as its stock continues tumbling - It's safe to say that Activision Blizzard took a bit of a drubbing after BlizzCon (you could read all about it on your cell phone, which we're sure you have),…
Even Blizzard was amused by the URL prankster who forwarded Diablo fans to Path of Exile - One of the fun sideshows going on during the whole BlizzCon Diablo Immortal center-ring fiasco was the dude who bought the playdiablo4.com domain and immediately began cheekily forwarding it on…
Blizzard sources dish on Warcraft Go, Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal, China, and Activision’s culture shift - Kotaku has a wild article up today ahead of the holiday with input from nearly a dozen anonymous current and former Blizzard employees spilling tea on Diablo, Warcraft, Titan, and...…
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO news stories of 2018 - With the turn of every new year, I know we are entering unexplored territory in the field of MMO news. No matter what we may predict, it's inevitable that the…
Massively Overthinking: The best and worst MMO developer quotes of 2018 - It's become a tradition on Massively OP to include among our end-of-the-year roundups and editorials and retrospectives a run-down of our favorite - and least favorite - MMO dev quotes…
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMO stories of 2018 - We've got a lot of awards going out over the next couple of weeks about the "best" and "biggest" of this and that. But what we don't give a formal…
WoW Factor: The great Superdata fall-off - The one down side to working ahead is that sometimes your schedule gets nudged around more than expected. I promise that a further look at the changed and underused zones…
Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO surprises of 2018 - Everyone loves surprises, right? Not always. Even good surprises can be a disruption of our comfortable routines, and bad ones can downright ruin a day. Yet surprises keep life interesting…
The most popular MMORPG conversations of 2018 - We can't do an accurate "most popular MMORPG articles of 2018 by pageviews" list as we usually do thanks to skewed data from MOP's extensive tech upgrades this year, but we…
Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime will leave planned advisory role in April - Back in October, Blizzard announced that Mike Morhaime was stepping down as president of the company after 27 years working there. While World of Warcraft Executive Producer J. Allen Brack…
Activision investors are now investigating whether the Bungie split involves securities fraud - Two days ago, Activision and Bungie announced an early split of their long-running partnership, a split that transferred publishing rights for the franchise back to Bungie itself. Bungie was full…
Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures in 2019 - Working in this field has given me something of a sense of how a lot of the industry is going to play out. Take the ongoing early access saga of Atlas,…
The Daily Grind: What do you want out of World of Warcraft’s next expansion? - It's no secret that player engagement with World of Warcraft is down across the board, with even some of its most vocal supporters acknowledging the serious missteps that Blizzard made…
Blizzard devs characterize layoffs as a ‘bloodbath’ as pro-unionization effort calls for Bobby Kotick’s resignation - A day after Activision-Blizzard announced record earnings and began laying off a reported 800 people, we're finally getting a clearer picture of the full impact on the company and its…
Blizzard posts update on WoW Classic, implies it’s still launching this summer - Earlier this week, in discussing other positions we'd like to hire extra writers for later this year, we fell on the topic of World of Warcraft and its WoW Classic…
World of Warcraft: Classic is now planned to get six phases of content over time - As we approach the planned launch of World of Warcraft: Classic, it turns out we're getting a larger number of content updates than were originally announced at last year's BlizzCon. Before…
The Daily Grind: What are you looking forward to the most in WoW Classic? - After all the PR mishaps and layoffs Blizzard's had since last fall's BlizzCon, I wouldn't have been too surprised to see the company delay WoW Classic. But that doesn't appear…
Follow all of Massively OP’s coverage of BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard’s annual fan convention highlighting World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and beyond!
