World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands pre-patch launched successfully this week, with some squishing and some bugs and some downtime and some meandering through the new newbie zone. Torchlight III also pulled of its not-an-MMO launch, then we learned Atlas Reactor is getting a resurrection of sorts and Gameforge is taking over TERA NA.
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
World of Warcraft launches the Shadowlands pre-patch today - As of today, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is over, because the Shadowlands pre-patch for the game has finally released! And there was much rejoicing. This means that the level squish…
Explaining Genshin Impact’s impact: The reinvention of gachapon - Yes, I know Genshin Impact isn't an MMORPG. It's not even an MMO; it's just regular old multiplayer. But when its first four days sees 17 million players and $50M…
Taking a look at World of Warcraft’s new starter experience, Exile’s Reach - While we are still in a holding pattern to know the launch date of Shadowlands, the good news is that you don't have to wait a single moment to try…
Albion Online’s forum database was breached, exposing user passwords and emails - If you're a user of the Albion Online forums in any capacity, then you're going to want to take heed of an alert shared in a thread posted this Saturday.…
Atlas Reactor’s revival is actually a story-driven co-op game that was part of original prototyping - Gamigo surprised a lot of gamers this week when a number of confirmed Twitter accounts started stirring the pot for a return of Atlas Reactor, the turn-based strategic team PvP…
The End is a Viking-themed multiplayer survival action RPG from Legends of Aria’s Citadel Studios - Citadel Studios, best known around these parts as the folks behind sandbox MMORPG Legends of Aria, has pulled back the curtain on a new multiplayer game it's developing known as…
We finally know who’s taking over TERA’s NA PC version: It’s Gameforge - [AL:TERA]Two days ago, we wrote with some consternation over the fact that we knew when En Masse's TERA servers would be closing down and even when currency would transfer to…
PWE and Echtra Games’ Torchlight III has officially launched - [AL:TL3]It's not an MMO now, but it's finally live: Torchlight III has officially launched today. Originally pitched as a free-to-play MMORPG called Torchlight Frontiers by Echtra Games and PWE way back…
Explaining Genshin Impact’s impact: Is it actually worth your time? - In Explaining Genshin Impact’s impact: The reinvention of gachapon, I went into the nitty-gritty of the gacha system and how it's actually pretty easy to digest for the larger market.…
EverQuest announces its 27th expansion, Claws of Veeshan - Perhaps EverQuest fans were a little concerned that Daybreak might not be able to put out its yearly expansion, what with COVID and all. Rest easy, fair Norrathans, because Claws…
ArcheAge Unchained offers free trial as Reddit melts down over pay-to-win - So let's just get this out of the way upfront: ArcheAge Unchained's rollout a year ago did not go as well as Gamigo was hoping. It's changed its business model…
StarCraft II officially ends development as Blizzard ‘thinks about what’s next’ - Earlier this year, MOP's Tyler noted that StarCraft II had quietly become Blizzard's best-managed game, with updates and events rolling out even a decade after its release. And that's a…
Vague Patch Notes: Managing the MMO message – and when to piss off your fans - Remember at the beginning of this year when Mark Jacobs managed to basically enrage everyone with his announcement of another game his company was working on using the fundamentals laid down…
WoW Factor: The World of Warcraft leveling experiences ranked, part one - Now that the pre-patch is here, you can level through any World of Warcraft expansion you'd like in the order your heart desires! But that, of course, brings the question of…
Derek Smart’s MMO shooter Line of Defense shows a brief sign of life after two years of radio silence - You know him as the self-professed "internet warlord" and Star Citizen critic, but we have to remember that Derek Smart is also someone who is trying to make a game…
Full-loot PvP MMORPG Profane postpones end-of-year testing, now counts 43 staff - At the top of 2020, we covered a new MMO called Profane, one that sparked a lot of discussion over its full-loot, open PvP sandbox style of design. Since then,…
Skyforge is now available on Geforce Now from Nvidia - The developers behind Skyforge have heard of exclusivity to specific platforms and they seem to think it's nonsense, because the game is everywhere. PC players, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 - all…
Presidential nominee Joe Biden has his own Animal Crossing: New Horizons island - As a US presidential hopeful, you want to make sure you have your message spread to as many corners of the country as possible. This is likely the reason why…
Massively Overthinking: What one MMO mechanic or system would you like to banish to the ends of the earth? - Back in September, one of our dear readers Aldristavan sent in a fun question for the Massively OP Podcast: What's one outdated MMO mechanic that just needs to go? Justin…
RuneScape officially arrives to Steam with achievements and unique goodies for subscribers - The time has come for Steam users to experience RuneScape for themselves. As of yesterday, the game has officially arrived to the platform in both its free-to-play and subscriber varieties,…
Eight-year-old Pirate101 is essentially in maintenance mode with no new content planned for the next year - We've got some unfortunate but not unexpected news from Pirate101 this week, as KingsIsle has admitted that its content drought will continue for the foreseeable future. "In the September 2019…
Pantheon restructures to allow ‘more rapid development,’ will start next alpha phase this month - Acknowledging that there has been "a great deal of confusion" around the current state of Pantheon, Visionary Realms posted a new producer's letter to explain the history of the MMORPG's…
‘Welcome back Freelancers’: It looks like Gamigo might be reviving Atlas Reactor - The date is June 28th, 2019. It's the crack of dawn. And Gamigo has just sunsetted Atlas Reactor, one of the multiple Trion Worlds games that Gamigo picked up when…
Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet appears to be suffering another round of layoffs - It looks as though ArenaNet is suffering a fresh round of layoffs, as Jennifer Scheurle, a lead designer on one of the Guild Wars 2 company's other in-development games, announced…
Some Assembly Required: How clever gamers solved Dual Universe’s massive puzzle event in record time - If you are a fan of sandboxes and virtual worlds - and you are reading Some Assembly Required, so you probably are - then you are likely looking for more…
Perfect Ten: 10 notable MMO developers that shut their doors - When En Masse Entertainment announced that it would be closing its doors this fall, we here at Massively OP came to the realization that there really haven't been as many…
Surprise! Gamigo’s MMO RIFT is testing out a new zone area - Ever since the transfer of RIFT from Trion Worlds to Gamigo, players have experienced a content drought that's only been addressed with drips and dribbles of patches ever since. But…
Judge ensures Epic’s Unreal Engine remains on Apple’s iOS while warning of ‘serious ramifications’ for consoles - While we still have a long way to go before the Epic Apple feud begins its bench trial, there's been a couple of notable moves by Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers…
Guild Wars 2’s Shadow of the Mad King Halloween 2020 is officially live - Shadow of the Mad King is back in Guild Wars 2 for the Halloween season of this hell year, and if you're really fast, you'll beat me to the candy…
Choose My Adventure: Remnant From the Ashes is the action shooter MMO I didn’t know I wanted - I miss out on a lot of games. It happens. It’s bound to happen. There are likely countless numbers of titles that escape my notice, and that’s fine. But I…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Tips and tricks for Guild Wars 2’s roller beetle racing - I’m not a big racing game person. Sure, I played my fair share of Mario Kart 64 back in the day, but beyond that, I’m just not that into that…
Rumor: The next Final Fantasy XIV expansion is titled Forspoken - It's that time once more, when Final Fantasy XIV fans have scoured trademark registrations to discover the title of the next FFXIV expansion! After all, we all know it's happening and it's…
Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.35 is out today with a community pilot program - It's time to take the fight to the Garlean Empire in a very small way on the Bozjan Southern Front in Final Fantasy XIV. Yes, it's patch day once again, and…
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Fables of the Feywild’s bundles includes a $130 edition - With Dungeons and Dragons Online's next expansion tentatively scheduled for November 4th, Standing Stone Games is urging players to get ready for Fables of the Feywild by placing their pre-orders…
Not So Massively: Reflections on Blizzard, one year after the Hong Kong fiasco - Almost exactly a year ago, I declared that the Blizzard I loved is dead, in reaction to the Blitzchung/Hearthstone/Hong Kong fiasco. Twelve months later, that story has largely faded into…
Wisdom of Nym: The first preview of Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.4 - Here we go, here we go, here we go again. The hype cycle for patch 5.3 felt like it lasted too long, probably because of the actual rest of the…
Chris Roberts talks up Star Citizen and Squadron 42’s future, likening development to the Apollo project - As part of the ongoing eight year birthday of Star Citizen's launch (of alpha development), Chris Roberts tapped out a lengthy letter to the community in which he talked about…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 292: Burning down the Amazon gameforest
The Stream Team: Mad scientists and more Mogloween in AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Nights of Naberus usher Halloween into Warframe
The Stream Team: Can’t resist Dungeons and Dragons Online’s Promise of Fire
The Stream Team: Celebrate Pirate101’s 8th birthday with free gifts!
The Stream Team: A handful of droids on SWTOR’s Hoth
The Stream Team: Going to Glint’s lair in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Rescuing the pack to find Fennorian in Elder Scrolls Online’s Greymoor
The Stream Team: A supply run from the sky with Conan Exiles Isle of Siptah’s surges
The Stream Team: A first look at Torchlight III
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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