The week before Christmas certainly didn’t slow down in MMO land: PWE and Cryptic got bought out by Embracer and slotted under Gearbox along with all its MMOs, Daybreak picked up publishing rights on Magic: The Gathering Online, Legends of Aria got bought out by an NFT metaverse company, and Book of Travels saw serious layoffs.
Meanwhile, we’ve kicked off our Year in Review posts and our Golden Yachtie awards, as well as continued our serious awards with MMO Studio of the Year, Best MMO Trend, Most Improved MMO, Best Classic MMO, Story of the Year, Best MMO Housing, Not-So-Massively GOTY,
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
Daybreak assumes publisher role on Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering Online - This week is squeezing out one more surprise announcement: Daybreak is taking over the publishing of 2002's Magic: The Gathering Online. "We are very excited to partner with Wizards of…
Everything we learned about PWE’s and Cryptic’s MMOs thanks to the Embracer buyout - Earlier this week, we covered the news that Perfect World's North American branch, and by extension its publishing branch and Cryptic Studios, had been bought by Embracer Group AB and…
Kickstarted MMO Legends of Aria and its studio just got bought out by an NFT metaverse games company - Time to add another game to the acquisition heap this week: Blue Monster Games has apparently purchased Citadel Studios and Legends of Aria, along with the Shards Engine. Citadel's Derek…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: MMO Studio of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the MMO Studio of 2021, which was awarded to ZeniMax and Cryptic last year. We asked our writers to…
PWE and Cryptic have been bought out by Gearbox’s Embracer Group - We keep joking that the week before Christmas is basically the Friday night of burying last-minute news, and it keeps on proving us right. This time, we've got the news…
Book of Travels just had serious layoffs as Might and Delight cuts team from 35 to 10 - The end-of-the-year hits just keep coming, and I mean the bad kind: Book of Travels studio Might and Delight just announced a round of layoffs the week before Christmas. "In…
City of Titans shows off a ‘critical first step’ of its superheroic combat - Crowdfunded superhero MMO City of Titans has talked about a whole lot this year -- its city, its travel powers, and even its music. What it hasn't done yet is…
Vague Patch Notes: Skewed perspectives of the MMO industry - So there were some surprises when Fractured announced that it had secured a publishing deal with Gamigo, or rather that Gamigo announced that Fractured was going to be published under its…
Fallen Earth contemplates using NFTs to fund development - The winner of Massively OP's Biggest MMO Surprise of 2021 has another potential shocker up its sleeve -- and this time it's none too pleasant. Little Orbit CEO Matt Scott…
Crowfall after the Monumental acquisition: ‘Capital, support, and fresh energy to accelerate our exciting plans’ - The shockwaves surrounding Crowfall's acquisition by Monumental just days after an alleged investor report said that the game was on the brink of failure are still being felt in the…
CCP Games CEO voices support for NFTs and play-to-earn schemes but won’t link EVE Online to a blockchain - If you're an EVE Online fan, you might have been a bit concerned that the internet spaceship sandbox started dipping its toes into the NFT waters during last month's Alliance…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Not-So-Massively Game of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Not-So-Massively Game of the Year for 2021, which was awarded to Genshin Impact and Animal Crossing New…
End-of-Year Eleven: The best MMO updates and expansions of 2021 - Some years are just bulkier than others when it comes to updates for existing MMOs. That's the nature of the beast. Some years just about every major game gets another…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best MMO Trend - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO Trend of 2021, which was awarded to the MMO console port craze last year. This award…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best MMO Housing - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best MMO Housing of 2021, which was awarded to EverQuest II and Elder Scrolls Online last year. MMORPGs…
The 2021 One Shots Awards, celebrating your best MMO screenshots - Welcome the final One Shots column of 2021! As promised, this week we'll take the briefest of breaks from sharing recent submissions for the sake of handing out awards. This…
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v5.0 - It has been another thrilling year of exploring the relatively unknown or forgotten lands of MMORPG history here in The Game Archaeologist. From projects that never saw the light of…
Jukebox Heroes: Your favorite MMO holiday music - Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a festive Life Day to you all! As you hopefully enjoy some down time with family, friends, and video games this weekend, we'll engage in…
Massively on the Go: The latest Pokemon Go dev diary is just more marketing speak - Pokemon Go’s second dev diary is out, and it's at least as disappointing as the first. Niantic has not been known for great communication and continues to release controversial content and phone-breaking…
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMO stories of 2021 - Every year, we give a nod to the biggest MMO story, but in 365 days, a whole lot more happened than just one narrative. We publish many thousands of articles…
ArcheAge begins swinging the banhammer against promotion and web inventory exploiters - Yesterday we reported on a massive exploit wave that swept over ArcheAge involving players taking advantage of a free mana crystal promotion as well as a tool that allowed players…
Pantheon is still planning to roll into alpha in 2022, teases a ‘new pledge tier’ - Pantheon's latest newsletter is a mix of recap and previews, beginning with reminders about the game's "seven-figure investment" back in January, an influx of new hires, the roadmap, Fortress DeViare,…
Black Desert’s patch today ‘rebooted’ every single class in the game - The promised class overhaul update has arrived in Black Desert's western PC version as of today. Reboots have come to literally every single one of the game's classes, in addition…
Leaderboard: What was the most overrated MMO of 2021? - As our veteran readership will remember, one of our core MMORPG awards every year is our award for the most underrated MMO - an MMO that is doing everything right…
Christmas and winter holiday events across the MMORPG genre, 2021 edition - We're knee-deep in holiday gifts and winter events around MMO world right about now as Christmas and then the New Year is bearing down on us. If you live in…
Amazon just announced a big New World, Wheel of Time, and Twitch collab - So this is probably the most predictable collab ever, but I'm still here for it: Amazon just announced a New World x Wheel of Time TV show collab, both of…
Star Citizen’s alpha 3.16 brings back Jumptown as a dynamic event, adds new bounties and a new ship - The time has come for players of Star Citizen to come back to Jumptown for some hard-won contraband. Alpha 3.16, aka Return to Jumptown, is going live today at around…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: MMO Story of the Year - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the MMO Story of 2021, which was awarded jointly to Daybreak's sale and COVID's impact on gaming last…
New World addresses engagement, merges, faction swaps, and copyright strikes ahead of today’s patch - Amazon sent 'round a New World state-of-the-game missive last night, recapping its development over the fall since its launch, admitting to mistakes, addressing merges, and even enthusing about the game's…
Choose My Adventure: Grim Dawn gets comfortable and continues to get better - I’m not sure that this edition of Choose My Adventure has any more legs left to it. Partially because Grim Dawn is, at least to this point, a generally linear…
Not So Massively: Godfall’s Challenger Edition is a flawed introduction to a flawed game - I've been keeping one eye on Godfall for a while. I didn't want to take a chance on a game from a new franchise with a triple-A price tag without…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Best Classic MMO - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Best Classic MMO of 2021, which is another new award for us as traditionally we merely address…
Gamers, along with everyone else, are apparently avoiding Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon NFTs - If this blossoming world of cryptocurrency and NFTs is making you long for a simpler and less stupid era of gaming history, you're not alone. Ubisoft is discovering that players…
Final Fantasy XIV patches in the first portion of Pandæmonium today - Not everyone has made it through the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker launch intact. No, we're not talking about queue issues or the sales suspension or anything like that; we're talking about…
New World merges several servers across the globe - Following the extreme expansion of New World's server count just after launch is the expected contraction. Amazon just concluded a series of server merges for underpopulated realms across North America…
SWTOR celebrates Life Day, heralds 10th birthday, and teases post 7.0 updates - Have you gone caroling with your favorite Wookiee yet? You better, lest your arms get ripped off for not displaying the right holiday spirit! [AL:TOR]Life Day is once again all…
Fractured and Gamigo reps discuss publishing, refunds, IP ownership, and the possibility of a console launch - As we've been covering, Kickstarted MMORPG Fractured - now Fractured Online - announced that it's being supported and published by Gamigo, and the response in the aftermath of that has…
Wisdom of Nym: Unpacking the story of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker - All right. So this column is going to contain spoilers for the plot of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. You have probably gathered that from the title. I am also making…
Path of Exile boss tells NFTs to ‘f*ck off’ as the Endless Heist event gets underway - Given the number of games and games companies investigating or outright applying NFTs, crypto, and blockchain schemes seeming to grow by the minute, many fans are understandably eager to know…
Massively OP’s 2021 Awards: Most Improved MMO - Welcome back to Massively Overpowered's formal end-of-the-year awards! Today's award is for the Most Improved MMO of 2021, which was awarded to Black Desert last year. All live MMOs, regardless of…
Final Fantasy XIV’s pizza emote promotion results in undelivered codes managed by a reportedly random draw - There is nothing inherently wrong with the pizza being eaten in Final Fantasy XIV; in fact, it looks very enjoyable and delicious. There is a problem, however, with the promotional…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 352: Mailbag diving, part 1
Battle Bards Episode 207: Seeing Red
The Stream Team: Feeling the Frost and Fury in Century Age of Ashes
The Stream Team: Collecting toys in Astroneer on Christmas Day
The Stream Team: Giving the Gift’hulu of AdventureQuest 3D for Frostval
The Stream Team: Trimming tree dungeons in Trove’s Snowfest
The Stream Team: Huggy Wookin’ for SWTOR Life Day
The Stream Team: Peeking into EverQuest II’s Visions of Vetrovia
The Stream Team: Old friends and New Life Festival in Elder Scrolls Online
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.
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