It’s the week before Christmas, so you know what that means: a whole bunch of weird stuff happening to mess up our carefully plotted awards and end-of-the-year content. Yep, this week, Crowfall got sold to a fan developer, Fractured confirmed Gamigo as its publisher, and Final Fantasy XIV halted sales while it sorts out its congestion problems.
Meanwhile, we dished out our awards for best indie MMO, best (and worst) business model, biggest blunder, biggest surprise, and biggest disappointment, along with our MMO predictions for 2022 and most anticipated MMOs. Eleven more formal awards to go!
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
Wisdom of Nym: Please do not hear of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV - Well that was surprising. In case you somehow missed it, Square-Enix took a heretofore unprecedented step this week, announcing that not only would Final Fantasy XIV be giving out additional free…
Kickstarter MMORPG Crowfall was just acquired by Mythgard publisher Monumental - So, who had "Crowfall gets bought out" on the ol' end-of-the-year bingo card? Did you also have "and the announcement gets made at 7:20 p.m. EST on the Friday night…
LOTRO Legendarium: A look back at Lord of the Rings Online in 2021 - It's that time of year again! As we get ready to make the psychological transition to a new year, we pause to look back at the journey that was the…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Indie MMO of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Indie MMO of 2021, which was awarded to Albion Online last year. All indie MMOs, crowdfunded or not,…
Make My MMO: The biggest MMO crowdfunding news of 2021 - Welcome to a special edition of Make My MMO, Massively OP's intermittent check-in on all the crowdfunding MMOs in our genre. You might have noticed that our Make My MMO column…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Worst MMO Business Model - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Worst MMO Business Model of 2021, which was awarded jointly to Star Citizen and ArcheAge last year. The…
Activision-Blizzard published its representation data, admitting it has ‘a lot of work to do’ - Activision-Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre sent 'round a press release this week attempting to send a strong signal to the studio's workforce that hiring practices are about to shift…
Here are all the New World servers destined for a merge in the near future - So who had "New World merges" on your Christmas list? Because that is what you're getting. Last night, today we'll see selected servers in Central Europe, US East, US West,…
Massively Overthinking: Our MMO predictions for 2022 - OK folks, it's that time of the year again: the time when we cast our eyes ahead and try to pinpoint what's going to happen to the genre in 2022,…
Lord of the Rings Online teases February’s update 32, with new raid, housing, and zone - Standing Stone Games has a fresh producer's letter up for Lord of the Rings Online fans, already peeking ahead into the new year. SSG's Oleg "Raninia" Brodskiy kicks it off…
Neverwinter announces Dragonbone Vale module for January 11, kicks off winter festival today - [AL:NW]Remember back in October when PWE and Cryptic were teasing a new module coming to Neverwinter in the new year? As of today, it's been officially announced: It's called Dragonbone…
Peter Molyneux’s multiplayer ‘blockchain business sim’ Legacy sells $53M in land NFTs before release - If you feel strongly about another game making money off of concepts of internet spaceships, then you might have some feelings about what Peter Molyneux and his studio 22cans is…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Biggest MMO Surprise - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Biggest MMO Surprise of 2021, which was awarded to the Microsoft buyout of Besthsoft last year. This category…
Fractured Online’s CEO addresses Gamigo publishing deal, promising unchanged design and monetization - Yesterday, when we covered the news that Gamigo was taking over the publishing of Kickstarted MMORPG sandbox Fractured, we noted that the Fractured team hadn't directly addressed its players and…
Final Fantasy XIV suspends sales and ads to mitigate Endwalker server congestion - So, anecdotally, how's the congestion situation for you in Final Fantasy XIV? Getting better? Director and producer Naoki Yoshida clearly feels that it's not getting better fast enough, so the latest…
Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis’ ‘major’ Sandstorm Requiem content update is live today - Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis now have something new to do beyond spend AC on Scratch Tickets. Yesterday saw the game's sizeable Sandstorm Requiem content patch go live, introducing…
Warframe’s The New War expansion is live today with new ‘frame Caliban - Today's a truly massive day for Digital Extremes' Warframe, as The New War lands on PC and console simultaneously. DE is calling this a "cinematic story-driven expansion." As our own…
End-of-Year Eleven: The top MMOs to watch in 2022 - If 2021 had a problem, it was that we got simply too many MMO releases between new launches, early access, and expansions. This breathtaking torrent of titles to check out…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Biggest MMO Disappointment - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Biggest MMO Disappointment of 2021, which was awarded to Torchlight 3 and the Great MMO Downshift last year.…
It’s official: Gamigo’s new game is Kickstarted sandbox MMORPG Fractured - As we've been covering for the last couple of weeks, Gamigo's been teasing a big new secret MMORPG, and the community was already pretty sure it was Dynamight Studios' MMORPG…
Nexon America will now accept cryptocurrencies as payment for in-game cash shop items - You read that headline correctly; cryptocurrencies will now be as acceptable a form of payment as cash if you're buying in-game things from Nexon America-owned MMOs like Mabinogi, Vindictus, and…
Choose My Adventure: Grim Dawn is finally getting fun - One of the best things that can happen to me in video gaming is to be proven wrong. To be surprised by how wildly incorrect my first impressions can be.…
Fight or Kite: KEO is on the cusp of being Twisted Metal for the Internet age - Gamers of a certain age - those who remember going to the local game store on a Friday with a gaggle of friends, grabbing a bag of popcorn and chips…
Myth of Empires studio seeks to take Studio Wildcard and Snail Games to court over Steam DMCA takedown - As MMO early access launches go, the release of Myth of Empires has certainly been the weirdest. First arriving to our radar at the beginning of the year and releasing…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best MMO Business Model - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO Business Model of 2021, which was awarded jointly to World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls…
Wisdom of Nym: Combat design and balance in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker - I really want to talk about the story of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker. I really want to talk about it. But the expansion has also been out and playable for…
Black Desert unveils a new region for PC, dates class reboots for PC and console, and announces the Eclipse class for mobile - This past weekend saw the Calpheon Ball event for Black Desert arrive to fans of the MMORPG, and as usual the presentation was full of reveals for players to sink…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Biggest MMO Blunder - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Biggest MMO Blunder of 2021, which was awarded to Standing Stone's Lord of the Rings Online debacles…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 351: There are no bad Star Wars jokes in this show
The Stream Team: Stumbling into the Party Spectacular season of Fall Guys
The Stream Team: Christmas in Star Citizen
The Stream Team: Pouncing on AQ3D’s Gar-Feld pyramid
The Stream Team: Starting Neverwinter’s Echoes of Prophecy battlepass
The Stream Team: Star Wars Galaxies’ 10th sunset anniversary
The Stream Team: Exploring Champion’s Dawn in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Riding dragons and the danger zone in Century Age of Ashes
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.
