Meanwhile, millions of people showed up to watch Fortnite’s first in-game concert, Fallout 76 sunk to new lows, Anthem kicked off its public demo, PlanetSide Arena began closed beta, and Guild Wars 2 compensated the innocent players it punished back in 2018 after a player used the GDPR to prove the company’s error.
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
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers launches July 2 with Gunbreaker job and playable Viera - We still don't know where we're going for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. The keynote from the stage at the Paris Fan Festival didn't tell us that. But we do know…
FFXIV Fan Festival Paris 2019: Liveblog of the opening keynote - It's four in the morning here on the East Coast. We've got a live stream loaded. We've got some big revelations to see. Yes, it's the opening keynote of Final…
Guild Wars 2 compensates those suspended unjustly in 2018 spyware cheater purge thanks to victim’s GDPR sleuthing - Last April, the Guild Wars 2 community was shaken by the news that over 1500 players had been suspended from the game after ArenaNet silently patched in (and then patched…
Anthem outlines future plans and preps more server capacity ahead of tomorrow’s public demo - So who's ready for round two of Anthem? BioWare is! The studio's Chad Robertson has penned a new dev blog prepping the playerbase for how the public demo is going…
Fallout 76 is now a gift with controller purchase in Germany as duping crackdown hits legit crafters. I am so tired. - Last week, we ran a poll on Fallout 76 that picked up on rumors that stores across the globe, from the UK to Australia to even Poland, are pulling and…
Perfect Ten: MMO arguments we need to put down - You know what I hate? No, not just botting. No, not people with more cash to spend on game development than sense about whether it's wise to do so. No,…
Vague Patch Notes: How to recognize MMO lies from quite a long way away - One of the most consistently weird elements of covering MMOs is that there's a very simple and yet incredibly odd metric of knowing if a company is doing well. The…
Rewatch the massive Marshmello concert held in Fortnite yesterday - Remember our Daily Grind about in-game concerts on Friday? It wasn't based on a hypothetical; it was inspired by the plan to put on a Marshmello concert in Fortnite, which…
The Game Archaeologist: Dungeon Runners - Where do you rest on the spectrum of humor? If you find yourself giggling and snorting at dumb jokes, groan-worthy puns, and satire so unsubtle as to be featured in…
Elder Scrolls Online is handing out extra race-change and name-change tokens with balancing update - If you were one of the Elder Scrolls Online players a bit concerned over the game's upcoming race/class combo balance, take heart: ZeniMax has heard your cries and has now…
Storyboard: Can you diverge from lore in MMORPG roleplaying? - All right, this is new for me because most of my titles do not contain dirty lies right in the question used to kick off the column. But that question…
Ubisoft apologizes for boorish shutdown reference as Division 2 looks ahead to private beta - Back in October, Ubisoft made the bold claim that it was actively avoiding becoming "openly political in [its] games," specifically referring to The Division 2. As Ubisoft Massive COO Alf…
That ancient ArcheAge consumer lawsuit against Trion reveals possible rebrand - Over the last couple of years, we've been covering a player-led lawsuit against Trion Worlds. Back in 2015, three gamers alleged that Trion violated consumer laws, falsely advertised a 10%…
Massively Overthinking: The boring MMO development between bookends of hype - If you watch MMOs being developed for long enough, one truth becomes evident: It's kinda boring. I started thinking a bit about this last week when a reader named Bel…
Shroud of the Avatar’s Release 62 brings housing improvements and back-slot gear changes - The folks at Portalarium want everyone in Shroud of the Avatar to experience the joys of home ownership, which is why one of the major changes coming with today's Release…
Exclusive: Survival MMO Population Zero deep-dives its unique perk system - Population Zero caught out attention at the tail end of last year when developer Enplex announced the survival MMO was hitting pre-alpha and opening up founder packs. As we wrote…
Airborne swine become World of Warcraft’s latest sparklepony sale - If you ever caught yourself saying, "Spend money on World of Warcraft's cash shop? When pigs fly, mister," then your day has come. To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Blizzard…
Legends of Aria players grumble over perceived pay-to-win items in new cash shop - Yesterday, Legends of Aria players were startled to see the new cash-shop in the early access version of the game. Upsetting players even more was what was in the shop.…
Bethesda scrambles to deploy Fallout 76 hotfix in the wake of its botched patch debacle - The last patch for Fallout 76 didn't go so well, to say the least, as it reintroduced a whole slew of previously fixed bugs -- including, notably, the ability to…
EVE Online releases brand-new 2019 trailer with plenty of eyecandy - Sci-fi MMORPG EVE Online is coming up on its 16th anniversary this summer, though this will be its first under its new owners at Pearl Abyss. And what better way…
Elder Scrolls Online players run extensive tests to highlight character race disparities - Do you ever worry that you chose poorly when it came to picking an MMO race? For some Elder Scrolls Online players, this fear is compounded by actual research showing…
Fallout 76’s patch reintroduced old bugs on top of nerfs, leading players to demand ‘change in leadership’ - Yesterday's Fallout 76 patch nerfed demo perks and capped carry weight, among other basic balancing tweaks, but apparently, it did much more. As VG247 noted, the Fallout sub is awash…
The Daily Grind: Do you play MMOs for ambient sociability? - In my gaming time, I switch back and forth between MMOs and solo games (often adventure or RPGs) quite often. When I'm in the latter, I always feel that something…
Jagex reassures players that it’s business as usual for RuneScape as possible sale looms - Last week, we covered the disturbing news that RuneScape developer Jagex was being put up for sale by the Chinese holding company that purchased it back in 2016. The reason,…
EA cuts sale of FIFA currency in Belgium in ongoing lootbox legal conflict - Remember back in 2018 when Belgium cracked down on gambleboxes in video games, zeroing in on Overwatch, FIFA 18, and CSGO and ordering them to come into compliance with its…
Choose My Adventure: Where Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen meet - I'm going to attempt to connect apples and oranges here. In my final days with Elite Dangerous for CMA, I have actually managed to connect a few mental bridges between…
Leaderboard: Where do you stand on the Epic Games Store (and proposed boycott)? - It's a day that ends in Y, so of course there's trouble on Reddit. The PC gaming sub today has a massive thread with 15,000 upvotes and climbing asking fellow…
Anthem recaps lessons learned from VIP demo in preparation for next weekend’s public demo - As you may have heard, Anthem's VIP demo this past weekend was a bit turbulent, to say the least. Shocking, we know. BioWare's Head of Live Service Chad Robertson already…
Leaderboard: What’s the greatest MMO soundtrack of all time? - In collaboration with Justin's Jukebox Heroes column, we're taking stock of our readers' opinions on the best MMO soundtracks of all time in today's Leaderboard. The top 10 will be…
The Survivalist: Outpost Zero improvements have really increased its fun factor - Sitting back and loosely following the development of an early access game, then hopping in here and there to check out a score of updates in person, definitely seems to…
Camelot Unchained’s latest battlefield test included nearly 3000 players and bots, surpassing Kickstarter promise - Camelot Unchained's beta has gotten a bit wider this week with the addition of more backers into the testing phase. It's still beta one; it's just that beta two donors…
2013 voxelbox Cube World is apparently back in development, again-again - Last week, in the comments of our podcast ranting on early access, reader TomTurtle brought up the fate of Cube World. The blocky, sandboxy MineCraft-like from Picroma was a big deal when it…
There’s another investor suit mounting against Activision, this one alleging fraud in Bungie split - The controversy over the sudden split between Destiny 2 developer Bungie and longtime publishing partner Activision continues with the announcement that "global investor rights law firm" Rosen Law claims it…
Anthem addresses ‘rocky’ demo launch, server capacity, ongoing issues, and compensation - If for some reason you thought the Anthem VIP demo was going to go smoothly this weekend, first I have to welcome you to video game fandom because you must…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 206: This is our Anthem
Battle Bards Episode 137: League of Legends’ hero themes
The Stream Team: Star Trek Online turns nine!
The Stream Team: Secret World Legends djinn and monkey business
The Stream Team: Saving Swims-at-Night in The Elder Scrolls: Legends
The Stream Team: Buildings galore in Boundless
The Stream Team: Let’s talk EverQuest II and the new fan convention
The Stream Team: ‘Who Needs You’ asks Guardians of the Galaxy: A Tellale Series’ episode 4
The Stream Team: Jail time in Path of Exile
The Stream Team: Arriving in AQ3D’s Ashfall again
AND FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BLIZZARD WATCH
• Kul Tiran and Zandalari allied races in WoW 8.1.5
• Hati returns in WoW 8.1.5 with a hat and so much more
• How do you make gold these days 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 bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
