It’s pretty rare that a story that broke over the weekend is the most interesting thing to have happened all week unless it’s a treat from Daybreak, but we’ve got one for you: Yesterday, Amazon admitted that it and Tencent-owned Leyou have canceled the Lord of the Rings MMORPG that they’ve been working on for the last few years. Even though the reason sounds more like some sort of dispute rather than a lack of faith in the MMO market, it’s still unsettling.
The good news is that we’ve already got a Lord of the Rings MMO, and it’s still doing fine. We’re also staring down betas for Swords of Legends, Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis, and Elyon. Plus, we dipped a toe into Diablo II Resurrected’s alpha, Elite Dangerous’ Odyssey alpha, Path of Exile’s messy Ultimatum launch, Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood, and FFXIV’s Death Unto Dawn.
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
Amazon and Leyou have canceled that unfinished Lord of the Rings MMO - For the last few years, we've been covering a new Lord of the Rings MMO that was a collaboration between Tencent's Leyou Technologies and Amazon Game Studios. Back in November,…
Stick and Rudder: Elite Dangerous Odyssey’s second alpha phase had more FPS goodness and even more bugs - The whole that made up the second phase of Elite Dangerous Odyssey's alpha testing could easily be broken up into two parts: Frontline Solutions and the related combat zone gameplay,…
First impressions from Diablo II Resurrected’s alpha: Just as good as you remember - Multiplayer isn't in yet. There are only two acts and three classes available. So why am I heading into Diablo II: Resurrected? Simple: It's a stone-cold classic that's getting a…
Tamriel Infinium: Previewing The Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood and companion system - While fans of the Elder Scrolls series patiently await any scrap of information pertaining to TES6, players of The Elder Scrolls Online continue to enjoy vast and persistent amounts of…
Phantasy Star Online New Genesis plans global closed beta for May 14 - Hey, so remember how Phantasy Star Online 2 is supposed to be reinventing itself as New Genesis this year, not all that long after finally launching in the west? Yeah,…
Path of Exile addresses messy Ultimatum launch, says giving streamers queue priority was a mistake - In a week that should be full of heady excitement for Path of Exile players, thanks to the release of the Ultimatum league, the mood has taken a turn for…
Lord of the Rings Online addresses performance issues, LIs, and custom difficulty - Lord of the Rings Online decided to put together a Q&A with the executive producer Rob “Severlin” Ciccolini this past Friday, offering up a chance for players to get answers…
Vague Patch Notes: Playing MMOs as an introvert - I've heard people say that the idea of "extroverts" and "introverts" isn't really all that accurate to the way that human beings actually behave, and let me tell you something:…
Corepunk’s second Q&A session reveals a strange take on PvP design - The questions keep coming for fantasy-scifi MMORPG Corepunk, and the devs keep dishing answers back. For a second week in a row, Artificial Core compiled a whole bunch of fan…
Star Wars Galaxies Legends finally puts a date on the City in the Clouds expansion: May the fourth - Rogue server Star Wars Galaxies Legends has been teasing its Bespin expansion, called City in the Clouds, for literally years now. It was supposed to launch in early 2021, and…
Path of Exile Ultimatum league is now live - Path of Exile friends, I hope you have blocked off your weekend and stocked your fridge because Ultimatum is very definitely happening to you tonight. As this post goes live,…
Black Desert offers a sneak peek at the Sage’s Awakening arriving to PC April 21 - If you thought the Sage class that was recently introduced to Black Desert did some damage using magical cubes, just wait until you see what it can do with some…
Raph Koster expounds on MMO fun, retention, and cynicism in the genre - MMORPG developer Raph Koster has been having words about the MMO industry ahead of the reveal of the MMO that his new studio Playable Worlds is working on. Really, kind…
Massively Overthinking: The 2021 MMORPG outlook is good, actually - Early this week, I saw a mainstream gaming headline in my feeds about how we should all just give up on 2021 since it's obviously going to be a year…
Activision launches lawsuit against indie game dev over Warzone trademark - RPS has a juicy piece up this week on a lawsuit Activision is waging against an indie game developer that should probably prompt Activision to graciously move on. But it's…
Ashes of Creation promises to sell more alpha keys, heads back to the studio - Like bees spying a honey buffet, Ashes of Creation fans are buzzing about this coming June's non-NDA Alpha One test. In this month's creative director's letter, Intrepid Studios' Steven Sharif…
Elyon answers more player questions about PvP, cash shop items, and PvE plans in Reddit AMA - The community manager for Elyon seems to be hard at work. Following a Q&A session held on a fansite's Discord, Elyon CM Yukimura took to Reddit to open an AMA,…
Star Citizen announces October 9 date for all-virtual CitizenCon - This won't surprise anyone, I suspect: Cloud Imperium has once again opted for an all-virtual CitizenCon for Star Citizen fans this year. "As circumstances continue to keep us from gathering…
Perfect Ten: How to deal with MMO burnout - I remember the first time I got hit hard by the powerhouse slugger known as "burnout." It was during my second stint in World of Warcraft, oddly enough, which by…
Hellgate is back yet again, this time as a terrible VR game - It's the corpse that refuses to be buried -- and it's back to take a stab at virtual reality gamers. That's right, Hellgate London has returned for the billionth time.…
Elyon’s western closed beta will run May 6 through 10 – without the cash shop - When Krafton and Krafton opened up Elyon's new English website and started tooting the beta horn, you had to know this announcement wasn't far behind: Today, the company has posted…
Derek Smart on the dormant Alganon: ‘It will be back. I promise.’ - If you think you've endured long server maintenance and downtime on a game, you have nothing on Alganon's playerbase. These loyal adventurers saw their game taken down for what was…
Bless Unleashed sets final PC beta for May 12, will test UI and cash shop - Bless Unleashed is in the home stretch of its PC testing, as it's now preparing for its final beta. "The purpose of this test is to perform a final test…
Choose My Adventure: Warrior time and a more classical Cleric in RIFT - This week, I traded my shepherd’s cane for a big honkin’ sword in RIFT and found that… well, there’s not too much different here, really. Just a matter of looking…
Casually Classic: Ranking WoW Classic’s capital cities (through Burning Crusade) - Even more so than they are in retail World of Warcraft, WoW Classic's capital cities are the central bustling hub of commerce and staging for grand adventures. Chances are that…
Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.5, Death Unto Dawn, is out today - The date has finally arrived for Final Fantasy XIV to get a new patch. Patch 5.5 is now live on the game's servers, bringing with it a new dungeon, new…
Wisdom of Nym: Some interesting bits from Final Fantasy XIV’s 5.5 patch notes - Part of me has never been altogether clear on why I am so enthusiastic about seeing the fresh set of patch notes for Final Fantasy XIV when the actual patch…
Not So Massively: Four things I wish I’d known when I started Magic Legends - Inevitably after a couple weeks in a new game, you've learned a few things that you wish you'd known from the start. For me right now, that game is Magic:…
Gamigo outlines the timing for the last Defiance server shutdown - It's almost time to say goodbye to both versions of Defiance, and while fans of the sci-fi shooting MMO may be reveling in the game's final schedule of events, ultimately…
Population Zero has apparently sunsetted, is now just plain zero - Population Zero appears to have fulfilled its destiny and now has zero population. Reports are coming in from both press and players on Steam that the survival MMO has quietly…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 317: Stay awhile and listen
The Stream Team: Sidetracked from AdventureQuest 3D’s Sandsea story
The Stream Team: The atmosphere of Warframe’s Call of the Tempestarii
The Stream Team: Hunting eggs and adventure in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Silly shenanigans in Guild Wars 2’s Super Adventure Box
The Stream Team: World of Tanks turns 10 with attack geese and battle castles
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.
