MMO Week in Review: Gamestonk, Amazon, Jagex, and Blackwood

Well this was a fun week – the week everyone learned how to stock market, and it was all thanks to GameStop, which is finally good for something! Meanwhile, Amazon is a dumpster fire, Jagex is in the midst of what we can describe only as a right proper imbroglio, and Elder Scrolls Online is headed to Blackwood this spring.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

With some trading restrictions lifted, GameStop stock is taking off again - The GME train keeps on a rollin' here on Friday. As daytraders and retail stock-buyers have been organizing on Reddit to buy GameStop stock and urging each other to "hold…

The Reddit-driven GameStop stock spike isn’t going to end well - (We're continuing to update this piece on the latest at the end!) If I had told you last year that GameStop, the retail business that was already struggling even before…

The Blackwood chapter will headline Elder Scrolls Online’s Gates of Oblivion year, launching in June - Here we go, folks: Tonight we're finally getting some hard details on what The Elder Scrolls Online is up to in 2021, courtesy of the ZeniMax Online Studios livestream this…

Report exposes mismanagement, bro culture, and trend-chasing at Amazon Game Studios - We've all heard about how someone or something is "too big to fail," but in the case of Amazon Game Studios, it's been one failure after another, with the cancellation…

Lawful Neutral: The bizarre corporate effort to buy RuneScape studio Jagex - Would it really be a new year without Runescape developer Jagex being involved in some sort of weird corporate sale only to be blocked by a lawsuit that says, "You…

WoW Factor: The pros and cons of deterministic gear systems - One of the big changes that's hit World of Warcraft over the years is in regard to deterministic gear systems. In the original launch version of the game, gear was entirely…

Star Trek Online’s new Legendary Anniversary Pack unleashes a torrent of rage from players - In case you somehow missed it, Star Trek Online has released a new Legendary Anniversary Pack to commemorate the game's 11th year of operation. The reaction from players to this…

Ashes of Creation plans a new website, 20 biomes, and February 19 milestone test - The month of January is almost over, but there's still some news to be heard from the devs of Ashes of Creation in the form of their monthly development update…

World of Warcraft makes Torghast unlocks account-wide - Here's some really good news for players who are groaning in anticipation at running those lengthy Torghast levels in World of Warcraft! Blizzard hotfixed a way to share those achievements…

Camelot Unchained previews the Verdant Forest and creation of 21 different races - The latest Unveiled newsletter from Camelot Unchained has a lot to talk about, but then again when you're trying to describe the creation of a forest biome and 21 different…

Fallen Earth sees ‘significant pre-production,’ APB Reloaded gets a marketing push - The small studio of Little Orbit has a whole lot on its plate for 2021, starting with the recent early access launch of Unsung Story, a tactical RPG. But of…

Massively Overthinking: Are you susceptible to second-hand MMO hype? - So there's a thing going around the MOP virtual offices lately: Elite Dangerous hype. Between Chris and Ben especially, the excitement for Odyssey is palpable. I didn't do a formal…

Fallout 76’s next update will finally allow players to build and store multiple C.A.M.P.s - Fallout 76 just pumped out an update - and Bethesda is already looking ahead to the next one. Most notably, the studio is working on what it's calling S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Loadouts…

Old School RuneScape is finally launching on Steam - Every once in a while, I'll bump into a long-running MMORPG that isn't on Steam and think, wait, what? How is that thing not on here yet? Old School RuneScape…

Vague Patch Notes: The difficult value of MMOs - If given the option, I would probably get a lifetime subscription to Final Fantasy XIV. But the key word there is probably, and this is a game where I have spent lots…

Star Trek Online’s House Reborn update sees the highest level of player numbers since 2018 - This year's anniversary event for Star Trek Online bet big on the Klingons with new Klingon episodes, Klingon recruitment, and a Klingon-themed anniversary ship. Turns out that was a good bet,…

Black Desert PC adds new chicken chasing quests, opens Western transfers from Kakao - As sure as the sun will rise and set, the latest update to Black Desert on PC has added a bunch of new events and quests. This time around, though,…

Stick and Rudder: Nine non-combat activities to enjoy in Elite Dangerous - I’m horrible at combat in Elite Dangerous. It took me several tries to get past the bot in the combat tutorial. Not the advanced combat tutorial, mind you - the…

RuneScape studio Jagex disputes RICO-tinged lawsuit over its convoluted ownership - Earlier this week, RuneScape studio Jagex announced it had been sold to a new investment company, The Carlyle Group. But then we learned another company, Plutos Sama Holdings, had contested…

End-of-Year Eleven: The best-value MMOs at the start of 2021 - What exactly is value, especially when it comes to MMOs? We all know what the word means, but the thing about "best value" is that it's highly variable. Is a buy-to-play…

Indie MMO Wild Terra 2 begins early access with a ‘spirit of adventure’ - The sequel to Wild Terra is finally here for players looking for a dash of fresh winter gaming. Wild Terra 2: New Lands has officially kicked off its no-wipe early…

Choose My Adventure: My post-level 30 life in ArcheAge - Well, this final week of my time in ArcheAge was indeed challenging, but not perhaps in the ways that were expected. [AL:Arche]Almost overwhelmingly it was asked that I push on…

Magic Legends sets open beta for March 23, drops new trailer and dev vlog - The question of how a CCG like Magic: The Gathering will translate into an online ARPG like Magic Legends has been a question that may be on the minds of…

EVE Online player’s ashes take last voyage into space as CCP Games adopts ‘gaming genius’ label - Members of the EVE Online community were saddened back in 2019 as they lost one of their own: Bruce R. "Spike" MacPhee aka Paradox Olbers, who passed away at the…

Diablo II’s remaster is officially in the works - It's no longer just a rumor; now we know for a fact that Activision Blizzard is working on a remastered version of the classic Diablo II. Bloomberg reports that the…

Fight or Kite: Sea of Thieves made me feel like a pirate - In the long running debate between who would win in a fight between pirates and ninjas, I’ve always fallen on the side of the ninjas. Ever since I was a…

Wisdom of Nym: Oh, the places left to go in Final Fantasy XIV - There's a lot of stuff on the Source in Final Fantasy XIV. (It feels faintly wrong to call the place Hydaelyn now, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has…

RuneScape studio Jagex has been sold for the third time in six years against the backdrop of a… RICO lawsuit? - We're going to play a fun new game today. It's called Who Owns Jagex Now! As we chronicled last summer, RuneScape studio Jagex's ownership became a bizarre mystery in 2019…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 306: Money makes the MMOs go ’round

The Stream Team: Checking in on the now free-to-play Will to Live Online

The Stream Team: AdventureQuest 3D’s Blood Moon is about to rise

The Stream Team: A Neverwinter night raid to put Drow slavers out of business

The Stream Team: The Epicness of LOTRO’s Mirkwood

The Stream Team: Exploring EverQuest II’s Echo Caverns

The Stream Team: Listening for echoes in Path of Exile’s Atlas

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.