I always joke that MOP is not an uptime monitor, but in July, it sure felt that way, as following the launch of its Arwen and Aragorn wedding content and influx of new players, Lord of the Rings Online struggled mightily with two weeks of serious downtime and outages, all capped off with poor communication.
Meanwhile, New World delayed yet again, Tencent bought up the rest of Funcom, Squadron 42 made excuses, SEGA announced PSO2 New Genesis, Ubisoft’s toxic culture was exposed, Guild Wars 2 launched Jormag Rising, and SWTOR saw big success on Steam.
Read on for the whole list from July of this past year!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF JULY 2020
Camelot Unchained’s new 90-day plan includes weekend servers
New UK parliament report recommends regulation of lockboxes as gambling
Conan Exiles isn’t going to be free for a week on the Epic Games Store after all
Fallout is getting a TV series run by the Westworld folks and homed on Amazon Prime
Obituary: WoW and Hearthstone esports star and Twitch streamer Reckful
World of Warcraft plans to connect multiple low-population realms to higher-population ones over the next few months
Camelot Unchained addresses staffing changes and the latest state of the game
Quantic Foundry surveys say gamers are seeking more relaxing and less intense gaming experiences during COVID-19
Massively Uplifting: Speech therapy, a college class in WoW, and the Ian Holm tribute that crashed LOTRO
Chronicles of Elyria backers have now hired a lawyer to file a class action suit
Pagan Online is sunsetting its multiplayer servers, but the singleplayer campaign will live on
EVE Online’s CCP Games cancels EVE San Diego and all 2021 events over COVID
EA shareholders criticize ‘exorbitant’ executive pay, slam ‘payoffs for layoffs’
Legends of Aria, Kickstarted in 2014 as Shards Online, has officially left early access and launched
Elder Scrolls Online announces Stonethorn, its next DLC, includes two-person mounts in tow
Amazon’s New World delays again – this time to spring 2021
Ubisoft sheds another three high-level execs as a result of the studio’s cultural shakedown
Players in WoW Classic have defeated Onyxia without wearing anything at all
Lost Ark kills the gender lock, adds the Scouter, and preps for global release
Tencent now completely owns Funcom, purveyor of Conan Exiles and Secret World Legends
Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones is supposedly rebooting as a live-service title after years of delays
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is trying to move away from ‘anything that feels like it might be a grind’
Nexon has shut down its California studio, canceling at least one PC title
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has officially moved into its beta testing phase
LOTRO players postpone Weatherstock due to unstable servers
Lord of the Rings Online goes into its sixth day of server outages
Ashes of Creation’s Steven Sharif gives an impromptu talk on the game’s mechanics
LOTRO has now been suffering downtime and tech issues for an entire week
Hello there! Star Wars The Old Republic just officially launched on Steam
More Ubisoft employees recount a culture of sexism that propped up offenders and informed game design decisions
Final Fantasy XIV has cancelled its Japanese Fan Festival scheduled for December
LOTRO and DDO say they’re ‘making progress’ on the nine-day server crisis, but the community isn’t having it
Nexon’s UE4 crossplatform MMO V4 is officially live for PC, Android, and iOS players
SEGA announces Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis for 2021
SuperData June 2020: Valorant had the ‘biggest launch ever for a free-to-play PC title’
Lord of the Rings Online returned to service last night, with fresh outages and lag
An interview with Jagex ahead of the launch of RuneScape’s Desperate Measures
Wurm Online officially arrives to Steam starting today
Gaming television network G4 will apparently return in 2021
The Nintendo ‘gigaleak’ included plans for a Pokemon MMO from 2004
Make My MMO: Oath’s alpha never happened and probably never will
Star Wars The Old Republic got a shot in the arm thanks to its Steam launch
Wurm Online’s Steam surge already prompted devs to open new servers
Star Citizen fans call on CIG to post an update on Squadron 42 development progress
LOTRO and DDO offer apologies and gifts for two weeks of troubles
Squadron 42 news delay is chalked up to developing a new roadmap and a video that wasn’t up to standard
Dragon’s Prophet’s new Steam entry is not a legitimate revival, Runewaker says
Warhammer Online rogue server Return of Reckoning is getting Twitch drops, no kidding
Riot Games canceled its League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia after massive backlash
TERA announces ‘team-based battle mode’ called TERA Battle Arena, launching in 2020
DC Universe Online’s Wonderverse is now available, with its new raid, mission, and alert
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF JULY 2020
Perfect Ten: World of Warcraft’s multicolored elf rainbow
Choose My Adventure: EVE Online wasn’t really all that bad I guess
Vague Patch Notes: Trying to salvage MMOs from bad launches
Massively Overthinking: Can Amazon actually save Crucible?
LOTRO Legendarium: A very Middle-earth wedding
WoW Factor: The missing soulbinds of Shadowlands’ testing
Wisdom of Nym: The two-month delay of Final Fantasy XIV’s next patch
Not So Massively: Gatewalkers has huge potential but isn’t there yet
Flameseeker Chronicles: How Guild Wars 2 keeps meta maps relevant
Choose My Adventure: Dungeons and Dragons Online already does so much right
Perfect Ten: More time traveling adventures in MMOs
Desert Oasis: How should Black Desert handle class balance?
WoW Factor: Dissecting the drips and drabs from the Shadowlands reveal stream
Working As Intended: Decorating MMORPG houses in SWG Legends and beyond
Massively Overthinking: How much should MMOs cost in 2020?
Vague Patch Notes: Don’t alter MMO systems for people who never liked them to begin with
The Game Archaeologist: World War II Online
Fight or Kite: Examining Crowfall’s newbie systems, from God’s Reach to Awakening
Wisdom of Nym: What to do in Final Fantasy XIV during the 5.3 patch delay
The Survivalist: Astroneer adds automation (and it’s awesome)
Previewing Dual Universe’s space PvP, construction, looting, and death
World of Warcraft: Shadows Rising is a solid book stuck in an uncomfortable midspace
Choose My Adventure: Exploring the Caves of Chaos in Dungeons and Dragons Online
Perfect Ten: Classic alt challenges for MMOs
Lawful Neutral: No really, who owns Jagex and RuneScape?
Vague Patch Notes: New World delays to add the game into the game
The Soapbox: Where does WoW need to go beyond Shadowlands?
Into the Super-verse: Seven tips for designing amazing MMO superhero costumes
Warframe of Mind: A history of TennoCon reveals, from The War Within to Heart of Deimos
Wisdom of Nym: What content in Final Fantasy XIV is optional?
Not So Massively: Online ARPGs are the pizza of gaming
Choose My Adventure: Accidentally going to Hell and other Dungeons and Dragons Online misadventures
Perfect Ten: Ten reasons Fallout 76 is good, actually
Vague Patch Notes: No Man’s Sky is the real reboot success story
Desert Oasis: Black Desert’s outlook in the lead-up to Crimson Desert
LOTRO Legendarium: What we have here is a failure to communicate
Wisdom of Nym: Everything we learned in Final Fantasy XIV’s 5.3 live letter
Fight or Kite: Return of the PvP in Star Wars The Old Republic
Choose My Adventure: How Dungeons and Dragons Online became my new favorite MMO
Flameseeker Chronicles: First Impressions of Guild Wars 2’s Jormag Rising, live today
The Soapbox: Powercreep in MMOs sucks – so how do we solve it?
First impressions: Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout is a battle royale game for people who hate battle royale games
First impressions of Dauntless’ new sword and revamped Ramsgate, live today
WoW Factor: Ah, yes, the chest of mystery in World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands
The Survivalist: Astroneer’s worst mistake was using Nitrado servers
ALL 2020 YEAR-IN-REVIEW POSTS SO FAR
MMO Year in Review: A new New World (January 2020)
MMO Year in Review: A ‘colossal’ announcement (February 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Gaming’s pandemic disruption (March 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Elyon’s pivot, Elyria’s fizzling storm (April 2020)
MMO Year in Review: ‘Technical clownshows’ for PSO2 and ESO Greymoor (May 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Solidarity (June 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Lord of the Rings Offline (July 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Business business business (August 2020)
MMO Year in Review: FFXVI, ArcheAge 2, and the Bethsoft buyout (September 2020)
MMO Year in Review: The Shadowlands delay (October 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Shadowlands’ arrival (November 2020)
MMO Year in Review: When Daybreak and Albion got bought out (December 2020)
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