This week in the world of MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2’s latest episode, Jormag Rising, rolled out to hungry players, albeit without voice acting just yet thanks to the pandemic. Meanwhile, DCUO, Black Desert, and PlanetSide 2 got meaty updates; the LOTRO downtime saga was more or less resolved; ArcheAge and Phantasy Star Online 2 announced future plans; Star Citizen fans raised a stink over Squadron 42; New World stress-tested under NDA; and we got a peek at Warframe’s Heart of Deimos at digital TennoCon 2020.
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
TennoCon 2020: Warframe’s infested open world Heart of Deimos launches August 25th on all platforms - To the moon, Tenno! A Mars moon, to be exact. If that was your guess for Warframe's Heart of Deimos expansion, you got it. But did you guess "rideable infested…
TennoCon 2020: Warframe art panel showcases new frames and infested everything - While the biggest reveal isn't until later tonight, that doesn't mean Warframe players aren't being treated to tons of tasty tidbits at TennoCon 2020. The art panel was bursting with…
WoW Factor: Ah, yes, the chest of mystery in World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands - Am I the only one who feels like there's actually been a bit less news about Shadowlands ever since it opened up beta testing? Or maybe I just haven't been…
LOTRO and DDO offer apologies and gifts for two weeks of troubles - Two weeks ago, Lord of the Rings Online players were treated to "cascading" issues across the game servers that led to multiple days of downtime, lag, and the disabling of…
Diablo Immortal offers a slightly gussied-up ‘new’ trailer - Shh, don't worry. We won't spoil your deepest, darkest secret -- you know, the one about how you're actually still kind of interested in Diablo Immortal, even though it's the…
Flameseeker Chronicles: First Impressions of Guild Wars 2’s Jormag Rising, live today - Just two short months ago, Guild Wars 2 introduced us to the Drizzlewood Coast, flashpoint of the civil war between the Charr United Legions and Bangar Ruinbringer's Dominion forces. Over…
Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming to Steam on August 5 - Remember the Phantasy Star Online 2 launch fiasco with the Windows store? Of course you do. It was terrible. And it led to a lot of people saying, with varying…
LOTRO and DDO hand out additional compensation for VIP accounts - As both Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online gradually resume normal operation following nearly two weeks of server instability, Standing Stone Games is trying to make…
The Game Archaeologist: Clone Wars Adventures, the Star Wars MMO everyone kinda forgot - Whenever the topic -- the argument -- of Star Wars MMOs arises, the debate is usually between the merits of the sandboxy Star Wars Galaxies and the themeparky Star Wars:…
Legends of Aria just announced The Shifting Sands, its fourth season of content - Just a few weeks after leaving early access and finally formally launching, Legends of Aria is already moving on to its next content phase. Season 4: The Shifting Sands is…
Rumor: Halo Infinite leak suggests a free-to-play multiplayer experience - So, who had Halo goes free-to-play on the summer 2020 bingo card? OK, not really, but a leak circulating on the internet today suggests that Halo Infinite will be some…
The Survivalist: Astroneer’s worst mistake was using Nitrado servers - Wonder rant powers, activate! It's been a long while since I have been pushed to the point of activating rant mode. I can be chill and forgiving about quite a bit.…
Amazon’s Crucible delays next beta phase - For hopeful fans of Amazon's Crucible, it has not been the most comforting of summers. At the end of June, the studio announced that it would be taking the title…
DC Universe Online’s Wonderverse is now available, with its new raid, mission, and alert - As promised, DC Universe Online's Wonderverse episode rolled out after hefty patching last evening. Daybreak's Dimensional Ink Games has delivered a Wonder Woman-centric storyline, or maybe we should say Wonder…
New World’s first ‘density’ stress test begins today at 5 p.m. EDT - MMO gamers are gearing up for stress testing in Amazon's New World today and into the weekend. As we previously posted, today's event kicks off at 5 p.m. EDT. Alpha…
TERA announces ‘team-based battle mode’ called TERA Battle Arena, launching in 2020 - So here's a press release I wasn't expecting to get in my inbox today: En Masse MMORPG TERA is apparently rolling out a "team-based battle mode" called TERA Battle Arena…
First impressions of Dauntless’ new sword and revamped Ramsgate, live today - The old Ramsgate is dead and gone. Destroyed by some sort of cataclysmic event, and with only the mysterious orb from the Umbral Deeps to thank for anyone making it…
First impressions: Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout is a battle royale game for people who hate battle royale games - Is anyone here familiar with Wipeout? It was an obstacle course game show where contestants had to avoid some pretty plush yet hard-hitting goofy obstacles in an elimination format. It…
The Guild Wars 2 community is debating whether precursors belong in lockboxes - Guild Wars 2 players are busy on Reddit this week debating whether precursors should be even tangentially in the Black Lion chest loot table following a game update that added…
ArcheAge announces The Ipnysh Sanctuary, coming August 13 [Updated] - ArcheAge is getting another content update in the form of Garden of the Gods: The Ipnysh Sanctuary next month on August 13th. Gamigo's press says players can "score some generous…
Riot Games canceled its League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia after massive backlash - The League of Legends esports community was set on fire and then partially doused this week thanks to a decision - now rescinded - by Riot Games to partner with…
Warhammer Online rogue server Return of Reckoning is getting Twitch drops, no kidding - I can't think of a whole lot of rogue servers or player-run emulators that make the leap to Twitch drops, but Return of Reckoning, the player-run Warhammer Online megalith, is…
PlanetSide 2 releases its massive Escalation update to PS4 today, promises future PC update parity - Nearly eight months' worth of PC updates for PlanetSide 2 will finally arrive to PlayStation 4 players today with the Escalation update in what is being touted as the multiplayer…
The Soapbox: Powercreep in MMOs sucks – so how do we solve it? - We all love multiplayer, persistent world online games, don’t we? Players stay for the familiarity, nostalgia, and potential for years of enjoyment. Studios love the playerbase stickiness, ability to build…
Perfect Ten: Ten MMOs I was very wrong about - Here's a not-actually-very-secret bit of honesty about the industry that I have been working in for about a decade now: I am not actually right all of the time. I…
This week’s Black Desert update is Cursed, literally, as the Netflix collab begins - Cursed by Netflix transmedia synergy, that is! Yes, as promised, the Netflix fantasy series Cursed has a big crossover with the Black Desert franchise rolling out this week. When it…
Valiance Online posts two-minute gameplay video ahead of open beta - The other day when I heard that Valiance Online was going to hold a one-week open beta event in August, I rushed to my calendar and put that as a…
Squadron 42 news delay is chalked up to developing a new roadmap and a video that wasn’t up to standard - Earlier in the week we reported on a Reddit post that wondered aloud what was happening with Squadron 42's development. CIG has now officially responded on the forums with some…
Star Citizen fans call on CIG to post an update on Squadron 42 development progress - A post on the Star Citizen subreddit has been growing in traction in recent days, putting into perspective an abject lack of substantial progress reports on Squadron 42's development. The…
Fight or Kite: Return of the PvP in Star Wars The Old Republic - With the launch of SWTOR on Steam this week (and totally, completely, not a beautiful coincidence), I finally reclaimed my account and rejoined the battle for the galaxy! A quick…
EVE Echoes ties down a launch date of August 13, shares answers from another AMA - EVE Echoes has been eyeballing August as its launch month for some time now but never really bothered to nail down a calendar date until this past Saturday, where the…
Wisdom of Nym: Everything we learned in Final Fantasy XIV’s 5.3 live letter - It's not exactly a secret to people who follow my presence on various feeds that I'm not doing great right now emotionally, but the prospect of Final Fantasy XIV's patch…
Concept art pieces for the Anthem reboot show off new locations and classically-styled pirates - All we've heard about the upcoming reboot to multiplayer robo-suit shooter Anthem is that it's going to take some time to get done. Since then, the Twitter account of BioWare…
Star Wars The Old Republic got a shot in the arm thanks to its Steam launch - It would seem that the decision to launch on Steam was a good one for Star Wars The Old Republic as the 2011 MMORPG's community has generally seen a significant…
Jukebox Heroes: The ultimate guide to MMORPG music - It's been a long, strange, and wonderful journey to explore MMORPG music with you here in Jukebox Heroes. And while I am anticipating many years to come of future soundtrack…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
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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