This week, Blizzard shot itself in the foot and then waited a few days and shot itself in the other foot just to make sure we knew exactly what to think about it.
On Friday, we covered the news that Daybreak had suffered still more layoffs, confirmed on Saturday along with news that the company will indeed be spinning out its multiple teams into different studios. We also published a lengthy investigative report on a major Guild Wars 2 hack incident that led to court drama in the EU. It wasn’t the best week for MMOs, in other words.
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
Blizzard finally addresses Hong Kong esports fiasco, reducing bans and reinstating prize money - All week, we've been covering the absolute chaos surrounding the punishment of pro Hearthstone esports player Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung, whom Blizzard banned along with two Taiwanese commentators earlier this…
Daybreak confirms yesterday’s layoffs and ‘realignment of the company into separate franchise teams’ - Yesterday, we reported on the sad news that MMORPG company Daybreak Games had suffered yet another round of layoffs. As developers began weighing in on Twitter and Reddit with their…
Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet chased the 2016 Gaile Gray account hacker all the way to Germany – and lost - Back in 2016, MassivelyOP covered an odd story about the Guild Wars franchise and a hack that seemingly involved the account of then-ArenaNet employee Gaile Gray. As we reported at…
Blizzard bans Hearthstone esports player and fires casters over pro-Hong Kong protest - I suppose it was just a matter of time before the current Chinese political mess spilled over into gaming, but it's done so now: A successful pro Hearthstone player has…
Players, pros, and politicians join in protest over Blizzard’s censorship of Hong Kong Hearthstone pro - The furor over Blizzard's ban of a Hong Kong Hearthstone pro player and apparent firing of two Taiwanese commentators has only increased since its widespread coverage yesterday. As we've covered…
It looks like Daybreak’s been hit with yet another round of layoffs - Former H1Z1 Technical Director and PlanetSide Arena dev Josh "Autenil" Kriegshauser posted a tweet this evening suggesting that Daybreak has once again undergone layoffs. "Sorry to hear about the layoffs…
Blizzard dev says there’s no internal comms over Hong Kong fiasco: ‘It’s pulling our teams apart at the seams’ - Blizzard has yet to publicly respond to the widespread outrage over its decision to ban professional Hearthstone player Blitzchung following his statement of support for protests occurring in Hong Kong. This…
WoW Factor: The shabby ethics of Blizzard’s ‘Hong Kong liberation’ ban - Hooo boy, this was not an article I really expected to write this week. So, by now everyone's surely seen the news that Blizzard banned a professional Hearthstone player for…
Analysts fret over Blizzard’s prospects following wildly unpopular ban of Hong Kong Hearthstone esports star - Anger over the "international incident" sparked by Blizzard's ban of a Hong Kong Hearthstone pro player and apparent firing of two Taiwanese commentators over vocal support for home rule in…
League of Legends tells casters and pro players to avoid ‘sensitive issues’ at the World Champs - So Riot's not having a good week with the whole China thing either. While the League of Legends studio was able to successfully fend off rumors earlier this week suggesting…
Shroud of the Avatar finally admits the Kickstarter book is not happening, offers in-game items instead - Yesterday, we covered the bizarre but perhaps expected news that Portalarium has transferred Shroud of the Avatar and other assets to Catnip Games, which is the new studio of Chris…
Blizzard won’t punish the US college Hearthstone players who protested in support of Blitzchung – so they quit - On Wednesday, we reported that a Hearthstone collegiate team from American University in Washington, D.C., had staged a brief protest in support of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong pro…
Shroud of the Avatar changes hands as Portalarium transfers assets to Catnip Games - Hey you know when's a good time to drop potentially bad news? Underneath somebody else's even bigger bad news. Apparently, today it's going to be the revelation that Portalarium has…
Mark Kern didn’t just quit WoW Classic: He accused his old Firefall studio of Chinese corruption - Earlier this week, we reported that former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern had very publicly posted that he was quitting WoW over Blizzard's handling of the still-festering Blitzchung…
A World of Warcraft LGBT guild has been forced to change its name - Given the fact that this week has been shining a harsh spotlight on Blizzard's enormous mistake over a Hong Kong Hearthstone player, you would think that at the very least there…
ArcheAge Unchained’s test server throws its doors open to you – yes, you - Are you ready for next week's launch of ArcheAge's new buy-to-play server, or are you still on the fence about the whole deal? What may help you to make an…
The Game Archaeologist: Funcom’s long-abandoned Midgard MMO - There used to be a time that Funcom was deeply into the MMORPG business, bringing us titles such as Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World. While the…
Ship of Heroes shows off the hospital for the character creation beta - The character creation beta for Ship of Heroes is coming quickly, set to arrive on November 1st. But you won't be limited to just creating your character and then doing nothing,…
Astellia Online is opening up a fresh EU server today - Wondering how Astellia Online's doing population-wise since its launch? Apparently well enough, as Barunson is prepping to open another server. "Since the official launch of Astellia, we have continued to…
Interview: Star Citizen’s Sean Tracy on the gameplay features of alpha 3.7, live today - Today marks another big installment for the alpha of Star Citizen. The 3.7 update should now be live for everyone as you read this, bringing along a variety of updates…
Ship of Heroes’ character creation tool donor beta is set for November 1 - Just an hour ago, we joked that City of Titans and Ship of Heroes were just about to have a big ol' showdown as the two City of Heroes-inspired MMOs…
Desert Oasis: A guide to some of Black Desert’s world bosses and their weapons - You know what I want to be when I grow up? A boss. Not the kind that starts a business living in a car and builds it into a successful…
Funcom roundup: Secret World Legends’ Samhain, Moons of Madness’ launch, and Tencent - Funcom is up to some stuff this week! For starters, Secret World Legends is patching in Samhain today. One of the better Halloween events in MMO land will this year…
Global Chat: The Hearthstone Hong Kongstraversy - Everyone has an opinion when it comes to the controversy swirling about Blizzard's heavy-handed censorship of a Hearthstone professional gamer and his statements on Hong Kong. Heck, even our own…
Legends of Aria is overhauling its PvP system once again - Remember this past summer when Citadel Studios announced that it was finally launching Legends of Aria on Steam with a huge overhaul patch that would shake up the game's ruleset,…
PC preorders for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online have now begun - We interrupt this week's raging dumpster fire to point you to last fall's dumpster fire! Yes, Rockstar Games has officially opened preorders for the PC version of Red Dead Redemption…
Perfect Ten: Kickstarter MMOs that raised the most money - The rise of crowdfunding in the mid-2010s swept a large wave of MMORPGs our way that might never have happened otherwise. For a while there, we were seeing new project…
Tamriel Infinium: Which province will The Elder Scrolls Online explore in 2020? - As the Season of the Dragon begins to wrap up for The Elder Scrolls Online, community speculation has begun to turn to what 2020 may hold for our beloved game.…
Leaderboard: Are you planning to buy a PlayStation 5? - Yep, you knew PlayStation 5 was happening. Now you know when: Sony president and CEO Jim Ryan confirmed today that it'll be here for the holiday 2020 buying frenzy, so…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Dragonhold DLC launches October 21 on PC, but the prologue questline is live now - [AL:ESO]We are barreling on to Elder Scrolls Online's last big DLC of 2019, Dragonhold, and as of today, we have an official date for it: October 21st for PC and…
Choose My Adventure: Figuring out the crazy train of Torchlight Frontiers’ Railmaster - So it turns out that the CMA readership would really like to see me run around with a murder train following me. This week's Torchlight Frontiers adventure is all about…
World of Warcraft previews patch 8.3, Visions of N’Zoth, and plans Dire Maul for WoW Classic October 15 - Hard on the heels of World of Warcraft patch 8.2.5 comes the reveal of patch 8.3, Visions of N'Zoth, the next (and likely final) major content update for Battle for Azeroth. And…
Wisdom of Nym: The space remaining in Final Fantasy XIV - If we get more than two more expansions in Final Fantasy XIV, we're going to be moving into some interesting territory: Players are at level 80 now, and there's not a…
Fight or Kite: Impressions of Ashes of Creation Apocalypse, a solid fantasy battle royale nobody is playing - A mere fortnight ago, the team behind Ashes of Creation took its MMO combat testing ground known as Apocalypse and opened the doors on Steam as a fully free-to-play title…
WoW Classic continues un-layering layered servers, video examines WoW Classic’s meaningfulness - Blizzard continues to shut down layering across various realms in World of Warcraft: Classic, with another batch having deactivated the intentionally temporary measure to bring all characters on to a…
Massively Uplifting: From weddings to memorials, gamers celebrate life in AQ3D, GW2, BDO, LOTRO, WoW, and more - It's an alphabet soup of good (MMO) vibes this month! While many may have returned to the school of hard knocks this fall, plenty of MMO gamers have been participating…
Lord of the Rings Online is adding crafting material bags to the collector’s editions of Minas Morgul - Maybe getting some cosmetics or character level boosts aren't enticing enough to get you to drop up to $130 on a collector's edition of Lord of the Rings Online's Minas…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 241: The MMO industry reshuffles its deck
The Stream Team: Taking another crack at hatching PixARK dino eggs
The Stream Team: Sneaky, stabby shenanigans in Neverwinter
The Stream Team: It’s Mogloween time in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Talking RuneFest shop while meandering RuneScape
The Stream Team: Dousing Silk’s spider marriage delusions in Path of Exile
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.
