Three big stories dominated September: Microsoft bought out the entirety of Bethsoft, including ZeniMax Online Studios, Elder Scrolls Online, and Fallout 76; Square-Enix announced Final Fantasy XVI with FFXIV’s Naoki Yoshida on board; and XLGAMES confirmed it was working on ArcheAge 2 with Jake Song once again at the helm.
Meanwhile, we poked around in Nexon’s V4, welcomed Guild Wars 2’s Sunqua Peak fractal, anticipated New World, witnessed the launch of Spellbreak, side-eyed Magic Legends‘ delay to 2021, mused on Ultima Online’s New Legacy, and cheered for the Chronicles of Wagadu Kickstarter.
Read on for the whole list from September of this past year!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF SEPTEMBER 2020
Path of Exile’s Heist expansion lets players infiltrate Rogue Harbor on September 18
Path of Exile’s Heist expansion will launch on Mac with full crossplay
Camelot Unchained promises that ‘a game is starting to emerge’
Kids MMO developer Age of Learning must pay the FTC $10M to settle ‘dark patterns’ complaint
Star Trek Online’s newest promotional ship in a lockbox angers fans for breaking the developers’ own rules
WildStar’s composer creates a brand-new music track for terminally ill player
Spellbreak trades battle royale’s shooting for spellcasting as it officially launches
Craftopia has entered early access on Steam
Google seeks to dismiss Epic’s lawsuit as Epic talks up the Fortnite ‘Metaverse’
Last Oasis addresses its thinning numbers with a promise to continue with development
Guild Wars 2 players built an unofficial addon manager and unofficial upgrade to DX12
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is live today
Kickstarted multiplayer RPG Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff goes into Steam early access
EVE Online raises prices on Steam, plans to expand its Abyssal Deadspace system
For science: New UK study finds that video games improve the mental health, reading, and writing skills of kids
Funcom reveals Conan Exiles Isle of Siptah expansion, offers free Steam weekend and sale for original
World of Warcraft struggles to come up with a Covenant compromise
XLGAMES finally confirms ArcheAge 2, a next-gen large-scale AAA MMORPG
Elder Scrolls Online’s final DLC of the year is now called Markarth, not Darkstorm
Corepunk is aiming for a ‘WoW Classic difficulty level,’ with housing and farming in the works
Ubisoft’s long-delayed Skull and Bones promises new ‘vision’ and a ‘comeback’ next year
Black Desert counts 40M players as its PC version buffs music and adds new Shai instruments
Albion Online player steals an in-game billion’s worth of assets from a guild in a self-described ‘long con’
Amazon is apparently working on a new unnamed sci-fi MMO
Raph Koster argues MMOs are much more than ‘a series of kill and fetch quest pellets’
LOTRO’s next ‘mini-expansion’ content update includes boar mounts and a $100 edition
Tim Sweeney insists Epic Games’ legal battle is meant to stop a monopoly
Chris Roberts says Star Citizen is ‘not a pipe dream’ in spite of taking longer than planned
Camelot Unchained’s Mark Jacobs streams refund payments from inside the City State Entertainment office
Ilysia VR launches Kickstarter, vows to bring back ‘the glory days of MMORPGs’
Conan Exiles’ Isle of Siptah expansion launches today as Funcom celebrates 10M users
Fallout 76 patches in One Wasteland and Season Two with today’s update
PAX Online 2020: Pantheon, Ashes of Creation, Amazon, and Crowfall devs on the future of online games
Apple argues Epic’s lawsuit is ‘part of a marketing campaign’ to ‘reinvigorate interest in Fortnite’
TitanReach starts its Kickstarter with a target goal of $430,000
Whatever happened to the Final Fantasy XI mobile remake?
City of Heroes Homecoming emphasizes player-created content, bars ‘controversial political content’
Final Fantasy XVI is announced with Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV as producer
The US government is now probing Epic and Riot in relation to Tencent’s data security
No Man’s Sky teases ‘the beginning of something new’: New update Origins, launching next week
Path of Exile’s Heist expansion officially launches this afternoon
Krafton spins Bluehole off as an ‘independent subsidiary’ to handle TERA and Elyon
Elder Scrolls Online’s Markarth DLC launches November 2 for PC, November 10 for console
Microsoft just bought ZeniMax, Bethsoft, and Elder Scrolls Online’s ZOS for $7.5B
Epic ends support for Fortnite: Save the World on Mac because Apple won’t sign patch updates
Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts says the game’s economy simulation tech is still a ways off
Blizzard outlines World of Warcraft Shadowlands prepatch changes, announces BlizzConline for February 2021
Interview: Final Fantasy XIV’s Naoki Yoshida on home development, future villains, and the big changes in patch 5.3
Riot Games-backed afrofantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles just went live on Kickstarter
EVE Online players submitted over 41M classifications to fight COVID for CCP’s latest Project Discovery initiative
Lord of the Rings Online begins testing War of the Three Peaks DLC, and yes, boar mounts are high-price bundle perks
MMO Business Roundup: Morhaime is back with Dreamhaven, plus NCsoft’s parking lot and Epic’s Manticore ambitions
No Man’s Sky adds new planets, biomes, creatures, weather, locations, and items in today’s Origins update
World of Warcraft developers discuss endgame loot tables, Chris Metzen acknowledges Warcraft movie sequel rumor
Book of Travels promises gameplay footage this fall, delays early access to Q2 2021
Blade & Soul’s Cosmic Horizon update goes live today — here are the patch notes
Broadsword just announced Ultima Online: New Legacy on its 23rd birthday
Whatever happened to Population Zero?
Occupy White Walls now allows artists to upload their own creations with the Open update — for a fee
‘One of the biggest updates ever’ is coming to Secret World Legends
SSG confirms Lord of the Rings Online’s new Brawler class, presumably for Gundabad
Genshin Impact officially launches for PC, PS4, and mobile devices
EA’s advertisement of FIFA lockboxes in a children’s toy catalogue draws mounting criticism
Diablo IV devs discuss ‘major changes’ for the game’s skill and talent systems
CD Projekt Red goes back on its word regarding Cyberpunk 2077 crunch
PWE is delaying Magic Legends’ launch to spring 2021
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF SEPTEMBER 2020
Flameseeker Chronicles: Breaking down Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons expansion teaser trailer
Not So Massively: Iron Harvest 1920 is a dieselpunk RTS with a surprising amount of heart
Choose My Adventure: The slow-burning, esoteric start of Wurm Online
The Daily Grind: Is the tab-target MMO on the way to becoming extinct?
Perfect Ten: 10 reasons WoW Classic is still fun in 2020
The Soapbox: Feeling the loss of an MMO community
Hands-on with the four Vs of Nexon’s mobile MMO V4
Massively Overthinking: How we deal with burning out of MMOs
Vague Patch Notes: Apple vs. Epic is not good vs. evil
Massively on the Go: Here’s how Niantic is trying to fix Pokemon Go’s Mega Evolutions
Massively on the Go: An open letter to Pokemon Go’s Niantic and The Pokemon Company
The Game Archaeologist: Mirrorworld
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s second season of crafting PvP
Jukebox Heroes: Six great ArcheAge tunes
Massively Uplifting: MMOs from LOTRO to ESO bring comfort, healing, camaraderie, and charity
Fight or Kite: New World’s beta hasn’t made me a true believer – yet
Choose My Adventure: Mining misadventures in Wurm Online
First impressions: Small World of Warcraft is a fun boardgame with a touch of Azerothian flavor
Desert Oasis: Checking back in on Black Desert Mobile, almost one year later
Perfect Ten: How to speak with your family members about playing MMOs
Massively Overthinking: Contemplating in-game advertising
WoW Factor: Covenants have become a Shadowlands prison of Blizzard’s own making
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s new event includes problematic features and stat bloat
LOTRO Legendarium: The quiet consistency of Lord of the Rings Online
Jukebox Heroes: The best of MapleStory 2’s soundtrack
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s second Ishgard season is a touch underwhelming
Not So Massively: The dos and don’ts of stealing from MMOs
First Impressions: Craftopia is an enjoyably laid-back but extremely unrefined bit of survival sandbox gaming
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s new Sunqua Peak fractal, live today
First impressions: Hands-on with Dauntless’ new Mission hunts and the Terra Escalation
Perfect Ten: 10 amazing hidden quests in World of Warcraft
Desert Oasis: Black Desert Mobile is not just a mobile copy of Black Desert
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating on the newly announced Final Fantasy XVI
LOTRO Legendarium: Is LOTRO getting greedy with its fall content update?
The Survivalist: First impressions of Conan Exiles’ Isle of Siptah expansion
WoW Factor: No, Shadowlands is probably not going to be terrible
The Soapbox: The joys of MMO collecting
Jukebox Heroes: LOTRO’s Great Wedding soundtrack
Wisdom of Nym: So… what if our last expansion is Final Fantasy XIV: Nextpack?
Fight or Kite: Spellbreak’s epic combat and classes set it far apart from the battle royale pack
Choose My Adventure: Wurm Online is not for me, and that’s OK
Perfect Ten: Why do players keep playing MMOs they hate?
Vague Patch Notes: Why stan an MMO with nothing to show for itself?
Leaderboard: Are you tempted by Ultima Online’s New Legacy server?
WoW Factor: The stuff I’m genuinely excited for in World of Warcraft Shadowlands
The Game Archaeologist: The short ride of Auto Assault
The Daily Grind: What has your biggest MMO Kickstarter disappointment been to date?
Not So Massively: The dos and don’ts of stealing from single-player games
Wisdom of Nym: What awaits Final Fantasy XIV’s Norvrandt in the future?
The Daily Grind: Why didn’t RIFT do better?
Perfect Ten: 10 tools MMOs use to tell stories
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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