Guild Wars 2 captured hearts and minds this week with the rollout of Bound by Blood, the first part of the game’s new season-like “saga.” While it’s just another explorable map for some players, for franchise vets it’s a chance to revisit nostalgia-laden scenery with an all-new storyline. And more importantly, motorbike derbies. Priorities, people.
Meanwhile, Gamigo delayed ArcheAge Unchained, PlanetSide Arena hit early access, Astellia Online rolled into its headstart, and World of Warcraft is prepping to launch its 8.2.5 patch 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
First impressions of Guild Wars 2’s Icebrood Saga prelude, Bound by Blood, now live - It was just two short weeks ago that ArenaNet invited its fans to Seattle for the announcement of the continuation of Guild Wars 2's living world story, entitled Icebrood Saga.…
Gamigo just delayed ArcheAge Unchained – and Shadows Revealed – to October 15 - On its afternoon livestream today, Gamigo announced that it's delaying the release of ArcheAge Unchained to October 15th. It was originally scheduled for September 30th. Unchained is a buy-to-play "legacy"…
PlanetSide Arena has officially launched into early access – here’s the new trailer - Delays are in the past: "Massive" battle royale PlanetSide Arena is officially hitting early access today, rolling into what Daybreak is calling the "first phase" of its test. As we've been…
Astellia Online is launching into its first headstart tonight – are you playing? - If you picked up the Legendary Pack for Astellia Online, then launch day is tonight for you, as the headstart begins at 8 p.m. EDT. Owners of other packs will…
The Game Archaeologist: The day Dungeons and Dragons Online dropped the free-to-play bomb - By 2009, the MMORPG genre had firmly established a norm for its business model. For over a decade, a monthly subscription -- usually $15 per month -- was the only…
World of Warcraft releases patch 8.2.5 on September 24th - Well, the betting pool for the patch day for World of Warcraft's 8.2.5 has now closed, and people who had "next week" have won! Those people who picked "two weeks"…
The Stream Team: Ambling into Astellia Online’s head start - If you like getting ahead, and you like Astellia Online, then today was made for you. The new MMO begins the first of its head starts now, and Massively OP's…
Steam users in France should be allowed to resell their games according to French court ruling - The Union fédérale des consommateurs (Federal Union of Consumers or UFC Que Choisir), a French consumer group, has been pursuing litigation against Valve over several clauses in the Steam Subscriber…
PlanetSide Arena shores up early access bugs as Steam reviews hit ‘mixed’ - Credit where credit's due, the folks at PlanetSide Arena appear to be on top of their game in terms of keeping major issues with the large-scale battle royale shooter at…
WoW (Classic) Factor: The journal of Nieve Vinther – third entry - The past two weeks have been... frustrating. This frustration is not solely down to the fact that my steps inevitably brought me close to the home of my parents despite my…
Massively Overthinking: Is the age of the $15 subscription coming to an end? - Massively OP's own Justin Olivetti penned a blog post this week in which he muses on the lifespan of the $15 MMO sub fee, arguing that it's continued to increase…
Leaderboard: Astellia Online vs Archeage Unchained - I keep seeing these "should I play Astellia Online or ArcheAge Unchained" threads pop up across Reddit, and at first, I thought it was a silly comparison, but on reflection,…
Vague Patch Notes: Do video games really need trade shows anymore? - The past few years have seen some really big seismic shifts in the game industry. In the time that I've been working here alone, we've gone from an environment in…
Someone in RuneScape spent $62K on microtrans according to UK Parliament report - Remember last year when we polled our readers on how much money they'd spent on their Steam accounts? Most people seemed to track under a few thousand dollars, which really…
Lord of the Rings Online begins testing the new Stout-Axe Dwarves - Ever since we got word that a new Dwarf racial variant was on the way to Lord of the Rings Online, we've been curious what these Stout-Axe Dwarves were going…
Cube World’s closed beta begins September 23 – go get your Steam keys - When Picroma's Wolfram von Funck resurfaced earlier this month to announce that 2013 voxelbox Cube World was not only back in development but hitting Steam with a beta, I was…
Ashes of Creation sends its Apocalypse battle royale to early access next week - Now calling it a "prequel" to the MMORPG itself, Intrepid Studios announced today that Ashes of Creation's Apocalypse battle royale title will hit early access on September 24th with persistent…
City of Heroes Homecoming is now banning accounts for… real-money trading - If you thought you could get away with a bit of gold-selling or gold-buying on the side while participating in City of Heroes' rogue server community, think again, as apparently…
Perfect Ten: Why Fallen Earth was a flawed gem of an MMO - Even though I half-expected it for a while now, the news of Fallen Earth's demise earlier this month made my heart sink. Way back in 2010 when I started at…
Blizzard clarifies the policy on World of Warcraft exploits following the dungeon exploit in Classic - We know that Blizzard intends to punish players who exploited a bug to cause endless dungeon respawns in World of Warcraft: Classic. But as happens whenever the company announces plans to…
Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 just lost another great dev in Bill Freist - Not a week ago, we reported on the loss of two developers from Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet, a lead game designer and a lead writer. Now it appears another…
Blade & Soul’s Storm of Arrows update is now live – here’s the trailer! - The patch notes for today's update to Blade & Soul are online, and it's forecasting a rain storm. The kind you can't really bring an umbrella for unless that umbrella…
Elite Dangerous’ new tutorial and new shop currency are live today - My own experience with getting started in Elite: Dangerous went pretty smoothly, but I contend that the tutorials I went through could have been a bit better. With today's update,…
World of Warcraft posts its patch notes for 8.2.5, somehow not titled the Rise of Bees - New models for Worgen and Goblins! New Party Sync features! The end of the War Campaign! And lest we forget, bees! Yes, World of Warcraft has graced the world with the…
Anthem launches Cataclysm’s final week, abandons Acts structure for future updates - Today marks the final week for the Cataclysm event in Anthem, so if you've among the few who have been playing along, you're entering the home stretch. This week, players…
E3 2020 wants more consumers, more celebrities, and to pay major media outlets to ‘control the message’ - E3 is looking to be a completely different show in 2020 if the plan slides distributed today mean anything. Pitch slides and details shared by GameDaily.biz have organizers looking to…
Choose My Adventure: Accidentally naked adventures in Legends of Aria - It would probably stand to reason that my rise in confidence in Legends of Aria would take a hit this week. But mercifully, I'm so full of cold medicine that…
Gamer involved in swatting murder gets 15 months in prison and a two-year gaming ban - This past August, we followed up on efforts in Wichita, Kansas, to stop swatting after one such Call of Duty-related "prank" saw 28-year-old Andrew Finch killed by police in 2017.…
Guild Wars 2 money-making video for the ‘middle class’ prompts calls for economy transparency - As we stand on the brink of Guild Wars 2's fifth living story season - I mean, Saga - players are nervous for the launch tomorrow and how it'll all…
Not So Massively: How unrealistic expectations hobbled Heroes of the Storm - I find myself in the odd position of feeling compelled to both defend and criticize Heroes of the Storm. The game's taken a huge PR hit over the last year,…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s patch 5.1 is on its way after the first live letter - We had a good string there of proper translations, didn't we? It was really nice to be able to tune in and just get information, but not so this time.…
EVE Online officially ends its nullsec blackout today - The nullsec communications blackout in EVE Online came with plenty of warning for players, but it was still a surreal experience for veterans when the communication channels just... went away. But…
ArcheAge drops Shadows Revealed graphics video in time for fifth birthday celebrations - ArcheAge is turning five years old in the west today, so Gamigo's just released a tantalizingly pretty video for folks who are curious just how the the game's graphics will…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 238: Ten years of free-to-play
Battle Bards Episode 153: Elder Scrolls Online Summerset
The Stream Team: Ambling into Astellia Online’s head start
The Stream Team: Following the Dungeons and Dragons Online newbie campaign trail
The Stream Team: Catching Corellia and Korriban datacons in SWTOR
The Stream Team: World of Warships turns 4
The Stream Team: Jumping into ArcheAge’s fifth anniversary
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.
