This week, Lost Ark delayed its launch into next year, freeing up your MMO autumn for the likes of New World of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker.
Meanwhile, No Man’s Sky launched Frontiers, Daybreak is a mess as always, and World of Warcraft continued trying to win back its alienated playerbase with patches and bribes.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Lost Ark has been delayed to ‘early 2022’ with closed beta in November - Lost Ark has been oddly quiet over the last few weeks, in spite of posting founder packs and running a massive closed alpha back in June. MMO players will recall…
WoW Factor: What’s behind the turning of the tide in World of Warcraft’s patch 9.1.5? - There's some interesting stuff going on right now when it comes to World of Warcraft's next major patch, due in no small part to the fact that it's clearly the patch…
No Man’s Sky’s Frontiers sets you up as overseer of your very own space town - No Man's Sky is launching Frontiers today, so why are you sitting here reading when you could be scooting off to your Steam download? You may as well get that…
Blizzard’s Mike Ybarra clarifies that Ion Hazzikostas is still running World of Warcraft - Ever since Bobby Kotick removed J. Allen Brack from his post atop Blizzard and replaced him with Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal in the wake of the sexual discrimination and…
EG7 Q2 2021: What the heck is going on at EG7 and Daybreak and who the heck owns Cold Iron - Last week, we covered the puzzling news that EG7's CEO Robin Flodin has been (at least temporarily?) replaced by Daybreak's Ji Ham, a move that concerned gamers who'd seen Flodin's…
Not So Massively: Diablo II Resurrected is a lot of old school jank in a pretty wrapper - I admit I debated whether I should write this column at all: After all that's happened lately, giving coverage to Blizzard games doesn't feel quite right. But for better or…
Interview: Crowfall’s Global Conquest update brings ‘mega’ changes to the world - Today we are being treated to the latest and greatest Crowfall has to offer with Update 7.100, better known as Global Conquest. We're expecting a slew of new features coming…
World of Warcraft patch 9.1.5 kicks off testing with new customization for Nightborne, Lightforged Draenei, and Void Elves - We've said it before and we'll say it again: World of Warcraft wants you to love it again. Can you come up with another reason for the game suddenly adding…
Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster has all but said he’s building a metaverse - If you've been listening to companies like Epic Games yammer about the "metaverse" over the last year and wondered whether it's all just a lot of simple tricks and nonsense,…
Guild Wars 2 teases its next elite spec as leaked filenames provide clues for new class weapons - ArenaNet is ready to keep on drumming up the hype for further Guild Wars 2 elite specs, starting with the newest teaser image featuring what appears to be a Norn-shaped…
Fallout 76’s Fallout Worlds Update includes Unstoppables reward track and two new allies - Superheroes and other comic book figures might initially seem at odds with Fallout 76's post-nuclear wasteland, but fans of the series know that there's a particular love in the remaining…
The Game Archaeologist: SOE’s many MMO spin-off digital card games - One thing that I deeply admired about old Sony Online Entertainment was that it strove to experiment, innovate, and take risks. Sometimes those special projects panned out, sometimes they did…
Book of Travels attributes its latest delay to an ‘unholy trio’ of bugs, promises a new early access launch date soon - When Book of Travels saw its early access release date pushed back a fourth time to date, there was perhaps some concern about just what is happening. Developer Might &…
Massively Overthinking: MMO ideas that were ahead of their time - I'm gonna say something wild right now: In some ways, CliffyB was ahead of his time. My husband and I came to this realization a while back when he was…
12-year-old Champions Online kicks off four-week anniversary celebration - [AL:Champ]Does it seem as if Champions Online has been around 12 years? Well, recenter your internal clock because yes, yes it most definitely has. Cryptic's festivities include a historical tour…
Massively on the Go: Everything we learned from Pokemon Go’s post-backlash Task Force - While Niantic already reverted its Pokemon GOÂ gym and PokeStop nerf in late August, the company said that more changes would be announced on September 1st, along with the rest of…
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are useless, and that’s completely fine - When you play an MMO, you are developing a skill. That skill is playing that MMO. It's not a skill with a great deal of lateral application. But it doesn't…
World of Warships finally issues apology for August debacles, addresses communication and monetization - World of Warships has really not had the best run over the last couple of weeks. As our own WoWS expert Ben has been covering, August saw a mass-exodus of…
Embers Adrift, formerly Saga of Lucimia, says it’s raised enough money to launch - Stormhaven Studios has been relatively quiet this summer since announcing that it was rebranding Saga of Lucimia as Embers Adrift following the bizarre departure of the game's original founders earlier…
World of Warcraft removes references to former employees and removes the AoE cap in patch 9.1.5 - The most immediate fallout of the ongoing Activision-Blizzard lawsuit has been the removal of numerous references to now-former employees directly named or implicated in the suit, and the latest hotfix…
The Daily Grind: Are there IPs you still want to see in MMO form despite failed projects? - My bitterness toward Jagex is entirely down to how the company handled its license to make a Transformers online game. Transformers Universe was first announced as an MMO set in one…
Elder Scrolls Online players killed 2 billion monsters in two months this summer - [AL:ESO]To cap off its "World Plays ESO" promotion, ZeniMax Online Studios has released an infographic covering all the stuff players did in The Elder Scrolls Online this summer. Apparently, y'all…
Camelot Unchained shares updates on Cait Sith, mage mechanics, global servers, and coastal areas - If that headline reads a bit like a cornucopia, that's because it's September and I'm ready for all the good autumn things. It's also because Camelot Unchained has been busy…
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis mars its Sonic crossover event with high-dollar cosmetics - It should have been a fun little thing, merging the Sonic franchise into Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, but like offering people a delicious ice cream cone and jabbing…
Blizzard offers piles of Hearthstone and World of Warcraft loot to boost subs - If you were among the gamers who thought it was a little thirsty of Blizzard to finally be dishing out long-wanted changes in World of Warcraft just as the effects…
Massively on the Go: Monster Hunter Stories 2’s biggest problem is too much Pokemon - Since its demo, I've seen people both on social media and other game sites comparing Monster Hunter Stories 2 with the Pokemon series, often praising the former over the latter, especially when discussing Pokemon…
Guild Wars 2’s Festival of the Four Winds is live with new achievements and deprecation for WinXP client - [AL:GW2]The Crown Pavilion is open once again in Guild Wars 2 today as the Festival of the Four Winds is live, bringing a dash of Cantha flair to the longrunning…
Pearl Abyss shares additional details about the creatures, setting, and gameplay of DokeV - Let's assume that your disappointment in DokeV shifting from MMO to open world action adventure hasn't put the kibosh on your overall curiosity or interest in the game. Then you…
Choose My Adventure: Club Worlds are the pinnacle of player creativity in Trove - Homestead who? Dungeons what? Player-made items? Don’t need ‘em. The pinnacle of player creativity in Trove, without any peer or equal, is the Club World excursions I’ve been on. Seriously,…
Star Wars The Old Republic patches in bug fixes and new looting system today - It's patch day over in the galaxy of Star Wars The Old Republic, with GU 6.3.2 on deck. It's not the most exciting patch ever, but then you probably didn't…
WoW Classic’s upcoming LFG tool boasts a big improvement - While the modern version of World of Warcraft's looking for group tool really got going in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, many newer players might not know that…
Pokemon Go subreddit goes dark to protest Reddit’s stance on COVID disinfo - For once, the Pokemon Go community is protesting someone other than Niantic when it comes to COVID. Earlier this month, Reddit community leaders began agitating for the Reddit administration to…
Wisdom of Nym: What will Final Fantasy XIV do for melee damage dealers in Endwalker? - This particular role is the easiest one to fill up whenever there's any column about the various roles getting stuff added in Final Fantasy XIV. With four jobs already occupying the…
Considering the ‘housing crisis’ in MMOs like Ultima Online, FFXIV, and EVE Online - MMORPGs with limited digital real estate for player housing such as ArcheAge and Ultima Online may be hurting rather than helping the overall game, a new piece at Game Developer…
China now limits minors’ gaming time to three hours a week, indicates anti-monopoly policies are forthcoming - The Chinese government is introducing a significant crackdown on gaming for minors as state media has reported that children will only be allowed to play games for three hours a…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
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.
