Wild week, right? Not only did Elder Scrolls Online reveal its High Isle chapter and Blizzard announced an unnamed survival game in a fresh IP, but we got no less than three launched MMOs this week: Zenith, Mortal Online 2, and Broken Ranks. Plus, New World launched its January update and SWTOR hyped Legacy of the Sith. Also, Global Agenda is back, kinda?We’ll take it, all of it, warts and all.
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
Elder Scrolls Online just announced the High Isle chapter and Legacy of the Bretons arc - During this afternoon's big reveal stream, ZeniMax Online Studios announced The Elder Scrolls Online's major content update for this year's Legacy of the Bretons year-long theme, as teased, promised, and then…
VR MMO Zenith hits the ‘big red launch button’ today - Zenith, a virtual reality MMORPG project that crowdfunded successfully back in 2019, is hitting the "big red launch button" today, according to its indie team. To drum up interest for…
WoW Factor: What could World of Warcraft’s next expansion do to save the game? - You know what I miss? Writing about World of Warcraft as a fun game to play. Not writing about the latest iteration of sexual harassment scandals or how the game has…
Blizzard is hiring for a new unnamed survival game set in an ‘all-new universe’ - We've long known that Blizzard is working on several new unannounced games, but today, the company has confirmed that one of them is a survival game "in an all-new universe."…
Fight or Kite: Starting a journey in Mortal Online 2 - Throughout the past year and even longer maybe, we’ve seen near biweekly updates from the team over at Star Vault as it's been developing Mortal Online 2. Of course it…
Global Agenda is back from the dead at least temporarily, Hi-Rez confirms - Global Agenda has long been a lament in the sliver of the MMO community that loved it. It was a Hi-Rez Studios free-to-play MMO shooter that rolled out way back…
New World’s January patch was accompanied by fresh bugs and worries over population - It's become a bit of a pattern for New World: Amazon looses a patch, and something almost immediately goes wrong. So it was for the January patch, which launched yesterday.…
Newly launched Mortal Online 2 postpones subscriptions for a month - Who would have thought that Mortal Online 2 would actually be grabbing headlines and decent crowds on the depths of January? Yet such is the case, and the team is…
Mortal Online 2 wrestles with server queues, login issues, and unhappy players - Remember when we noted that Mortal Online 2 was having a pretty good launch overall? Well, that appears to have turned south as players across the forums and social media…
Elder Scrolls Online plans big combat changes for Update 33 - Players thrilled with the announcement of this summer's High Isle expansion for Elder Scrolls Online are paying closer attention to the development of ZeniMax's MMO these days. That scrutiny reveals…
World of Warcraft promises easier flight in Zereth Mortis and preps gear catch-up system - World of Warcraft's Patch 9.2 is gaining traction on the public test realm, with players and developers alike looking forward to the release of the new zone, Zereth Mortis. One…
Warframe details February’s Echoes of War and spring’s Angels of the Zariman - The first developer livestreaom of 2022 from Warframe continues the tradition of packing in huge reams of information into one broadcast. In this livestream, Digital Extremes offered a look at…
Broken Ranks officially launches, servers almost immediately melt down due to demand - Yesterday was a very busy one for Whitemoon Games, by all accounts. The Polish studio launched its turn-based tactical MMO Broken Ranks yesterday and its servers were instantly besieged by…
Vague Patch Notes: Why play-to-earn is a garbage idea - Good afternoon, readers. Do you remember not so long ago when I talked about the fact that MMOs are perfectly fine as just games rather than being some sort of…
Raph Koster talks metaverse creation and learning lessons from past game design mistakes - "Metaverse." It's the one word that, apparently, drives game execs and investors into a babbling frenzy just seconds before they explode into venture capital that rains down on any studio…
SWTOR drops new Legacy of the Sith trailer, outlines unwelcome gearing changes - With very little time until Star Wars: The Old Republic launches its next expansion, Legacy of the Sith, the developers appear to be engaging in a campaign to ensure that players are…
The Game Archaeologist: The history of Hi-Rez’s Global Agenda - This past week, former Global Agenda players woke up to a surprising reality: Their game, which went offline in 2018, suddenly was back. Hi-Rez Studios said that it was a…
Lost Ark posts pre-download timing, with 21 servers planned for head-start - Are you ready for Lost Ark's launch? If not, you're about to be, as last night Amazon and Smilegate posted a launch schedule for players so they can mete out…
Sea of Thieves plans new content seasons for 2022 but sunsets arena mode - Sea of Thieves went a bit Mary Celeste over the holidays, but this week, Rare has resurfaced with an outline of content through the end of 2022. "With Seasonal updates…
Massively on the Go: Orna vs. Pokemon GO in the battle of the MMOARGs - I've recently been playing Orna: The GPS RPG as a way to further explore a genre that's still small and niche, but studios keeps trying (and failing) to expand it. It's…
Superhero MMO City of Titans seeks more money: ‘We’re operating on a used shoestring’ - As City of Titans and its volunteer team enter yet another year of development, Project Lead Chris Hare submitted to an interview on how the game is shaping up and…
35 states and the US Justice Department back Epic’s appeal in Epic v. Apple lawsuit - We knew the Epic v. Apple lawsuit wasn't entirely over in spite of the ruling, as both parties planned to appeal, but this latest move - from no less than…
Massively Overthinking: Are you an MMO skeptic or true believer? - A while back, a reader (hi Ken!) posted an infographic into a Star Citizen thread I'd forgotten all about, but it wasn't even the first time it's made it to…
Atlas expands and bosses multiply in Path of Exile’s Siege of the Atlas expansion, launching February 4th - [AL:POE]In Path of Exile's history of consistent, regular updates, sometimes there is a larger focus on the league, and sometimes its on the expansion itself. For next week's Siege of…
Leaderboard: Valve’s gaming-on-the-go Steam Deck launches February 25 – will you buy it? - Get ready to never move off of the couch again because Steam's handheld gaming computer is less than a month away from release. Valve announced this week that the Steam…
EVE Online player sets a new speed world record for visiting every star system in the game - EVE Online players will very likely be familiar with the name of Katia Sae, the character that visited every star system in the game without losing a single ship, which…
Perfect Ten: Genuinely fun MMO minigames - Few people are without opinions on minigames in MMOs. Some love 'em, some hate 'em, and some just ignore 'em. Some even despise that I won't type "th." Takes all…
Mortal Online 2 hotfixes in more wildlife and less wealth in Haven as it draws respectable player counts - It's been a couple of days since Mortal Online 2 made its way into launch, and the devs at Star Vault are starting the process of turning knobs to reflect…
Lost Ark talks name reservations, endgame challenge, and the new level cap ahead of launch - We're just two weeks away from Lost Ark's big western debut now, and Smilegate and Amazon are tuning up the engines to prepare players for what to expect from the…
PlanetSide 2’s long-delayed Oshur continent is officially online today for PC players - Rome wasn't built in a day, and PlanetSide 2's new continent of Oshur wasn't either; in fact, it took the devs at Daybreak's Rogue Planet Games about three years from…
Tamriel Infinium: A look back at Elder Scrolls Online’s Greymoor - When Skyrim came out in 2011, everyone knew it was going to be big -- but even within the already massive Elder Scrolls fandom, few had any idea of just…
Guild Wars 2 kicks off the Lunar New Year with plenty of tiger-based rewards - It's the year of the tiger, it's a new year's event, during which you can fill out new achievements. Go ahead, sing along as you log in to Guild Wars 2;…
Raven Software files for union election after ActiBlizz ignores recognition request - Activision Blizzard's Raven Software has moved forward with its next step in officially forming its Game Workers Alliance union. Readers will recall that ActiBlizz was given until this past Tuesday…
Choose My Adventure: Dungeons and Dragons Online is fun but would be better with friends - Once more, I’m reminded that Dungeons and Dragons Online should be part of my regular MMORPG gaming diet, primarily because this game lets me just drop in, have adventures, and…
Star Trek Online brings Kate Mulgrew to the game as part of its latest anniversary celebration - For all that Star Trek Online has featured cast members from throughout the series' history, there's been a bit of a blank spot in terms of the captains that headed the…
Final Fantasy XIV adds a new data center in Oceania and buffs several jobs with today’s patch 6.08 - It's a good day to be melee DPS in Final Fantasy XIV because nearly every melee DPS job got some pretty substantial potency buffs with the arrival of patch 6.08 today.…
Full-loot PvP MMORPG sandbox Mortal Online 2 officially launches today - Mortal Online 2 is officially live today, as StarVault pulls it from its early access to launch. Readers will recall that the game was first announced almost three years ago…
New World’s mutator dungeons are live in today’s January patch - New World's January update is finally upon us - and yes, this is the one headlined by mutator dungeons, which essentially insert gearscore-dependent, randomized, challenging versions of the game's existing…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV and the ongoing balance pass, part two - So the good news to be noted is that at this point, we know there's going to be some job adjustments with the Final Fantasy XIV 6.08 patch that's launching tomorrow.…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 357: Microsoft swallows Blizzard whole
Battle Bards Episode 209: Superhero MMOs
The Stream Team: Searching for sea serpents in Valheim
The Stream Team: Delving into Neverwinter’s Undermountain
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming brings some team-based gunplay in Halo Infinite
The Stream Team: Hopping into the newly released sandbox of Mortal Online 2
The Stream Team: Pouncing on Year of the Tiger events in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Spoiler stream of starting Warframe’s The New War
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.
