This week in MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons got a release date, Swords of Legends Online announced a free-to-play conversion, and Star Citizen ticked off even its most die-hard Kickstarter backers and fans by withdrawing much of the game’s public roadmap and referring to backers holding the studio accountable as “noise.” Yikes.
Over in World of Warcraft land, Blizzard’s sudden about-face on the subjects of cross-faction play and boosting made much more sense once Activision-Blizzard’s quarterly financials revealed Blizzard lost significant amounts of money and players in 2021.
Meanwhile, Lost Ark’s promos are still kind of a mess, New World is still kind of a mess, Mortal Online is still kind of a mess, and Zenith is… actually doing all right over in VR land? Oh yeah, and Sony bought Bungie as the acquisition frenzy continues. At least it wasn’t a slow news week?
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
Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons expansion has a launch date: February 28 - [AL:GW2]We've finally got a date for Guild Wars 2's End of Dragons expansion: February 28th. Yep, they're making February with no more delay, which means we're finally going to Cantha…
CIG reels back Star Citizen’s roadmap because players ‘interpret anything on the release view as a promise’ - Yes, that headline is indeed a quote pull from CIG's February 2022 roadmap roundup post for Star Citizen. The post announces that the game's public roadmap - specifically the release…
Activision-Blizzard Q4 2021: Blizzard lost another 2M monthly actives as ABK revenue holds steady - Welcome back to our regular coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials. As readers are aware, the company, its leadership, and its games have been the subject of much-deserved criticism and scrutiny…
WoW Factor: Pulling the trigger on cross-faction play (in the weakest way possible) - At long last, World of Warcraft is finally pulling the plug on one of the dumbest system decisions that was ever made for the game in the case of its rigid…
Guild Wars 2 shows off End of Dragons’ cyberpunk-esque New Kaineng - With Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons close in the distance, it's time to start thinking about what you'll be doing during your time not spent roaming the wilderness. Why not…
Massively Overthinking: How would you fix New World? - Amazon's New World is one of the biggest, most ambitious, and most beautiful MMORPGs the industry has seen in years, and yet since its launch last fall, it's been weighed…
World of Warcraft is finally getting cross-faction dungeons, raids, and rated PvP - So hey, if you're one of the bajillions of World of Warcraft players who've been agitating for Blizzard to nuke the faction divide for the last almost two decades, you're…
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs taking inspiration from one another is not a bad thing - Back when Guild Wars 2 announced the Bladesworn elite spec for Warriors, I had a little fun with the idea because... well, let's not be coy, that's a gunblade. That…
Mortal Online 2 finally rolled out its queue patch, then it rolled back the server 24 hours - Just one day after talking up its player counts and marking out its ambitions to someday take on EVE Online, Mortal Online 2 is already back in the news, this…
Perfect Ten: Ten things you need to understand about MMO healers - It's time for yet another column in Perfect Ten wherein we talk about a given player archetype, but this one's going to be a little bit different compared to its…
Zenith promises to do right by fans as it posts an early roadmap for 2022 - It's been a busy launch time for Zenith on VR headsets. Not so much on the promised but still undelivered PC version, which is not mentioned in the game's post mortem…
No, Lost Ark isn’t giving away unlimited founder packs, but the whole thing is definitely a mess - A tiny storm is beginning to brew across the Lost Ark community: The so-called "Ark Week extravaganza" - the week of programming on Amazon's Crown channel devoted to the upcoming…
New World announces new server merge for February 8, confirms more merges coming soon - In the middle of December, New World announced that it would be merging servers for various global regions, though some would be later than others due to a housing persistence…
Google has ‘deprioritized’ Stadia, pivots to offer cloud gaming white labeling - The drawing down of Google Stadia has reached what appears to be its expected and inevitable end. As first reported by Business Insider, and sourced here from Ars Technica, the…
Star Wars: The Old Republic tempts you with $40 Legacy of the Sith collector’s edition - While Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming Legacy of the Sith expansion can be unlocked for the cost of a single month's subscription, BioWare's not going to stop you if…
Gamigo’s forums are down without explanation or ETA, affecting RIFT, Fiesta, Trove, and more - Hello everybody! It's RIFT's Fail Whale here to tell you of another little "oopsie" that's happening in Gamigo's neck of the woods! Apparently all of the forums for Gamigo's games…
Path of Exile’s Siege of Atlas expansion is launching this afternoon - As promised, planned, and predicted, Path of Exile's Siege of Atlas expansion will officially go live today - in fact, it's offline right now for deployment, though you'll can patch…
The Daily Grind: Do you even want a survival game from Blizzard? - Last week, amid the Microsoft buyout and unionization/unionbusting within Activision, Blizzard boldly, absurdly stepped forward and announced that it was hiring for a survival game in a new IP, thereby…
EA’s Q3 earnings call notes Battlefield 2042 sales ‘did not meet expectations,’ walks back crypto aspirations - Electronic Arts has had its Q3 2022 earnings call with investors this week, and it features some points of interest for our pocket of gaming. One of the first highlights…
Not So Massively: Shadow of War plays fast and loose but hits the mark - Like many of you, I suspect, I have myriad games in my backlog. These neglected titles were typically obtained on sale at a point in time when my gaming life…
New World’s public test server opens today with the February fixerupper patch - New World players are in for a treat today, as the public test server is slated to open at 1 p.m. EST this afternoon. As promised, the February patch is…
Embers Adrift plans beta and NDA drop for March 1, launch later this year - Embers Adrift has been teasing an announcement all week, as now we know what's up: beta. "Stormhaven Studios is excited to announce that Embers Adrift will officially enter closed beta…
Mortal Online 2 promises fixes for long queues, hopes to someday rival EVE Online - Mortal Online 2 hasn't had the most auspicious of launches this last week, and all you need to do to know this is peek into the game's Discord to see…
The FTC will investigate the Microsoft Acti-Blizz buyout, company to skip Q4 conference call - When Microsoft announced that it was buying Activision-Blizzard - that was just two weeks ago, to put time into perspective - we knew the deal would be subject to plenty…
Choose My Adventure: Returning to Project Gorgon was much harder than I expected - Project Gorgon is being mean to me. OK, maybe that’s unfair. I think I just shouldn’t have come back to this game after so long away from it, meaning my…
Tamriel Infinium: Six takeaways from Elder Scrolls Online’s High Isle announcement - I love me a good MMO roadmap, especially when it's about a game that you are enthusiastically playing. Elder Scrolls Online wrapped up its Blackwood saga last year, and all…
Elder Scrolls Online begins testing update 33, Ascending Tide, and new Seaveil Spire house - As promised, Elder Scrolls Online's update 33 and Ascending Tide DLC hit the public test server yesterday. The update and DLC aren't expected out until March, so we've got at…
World of Warcraft’s game director defends cross-faction team-ups: ‘It’s time’ - Yesterday's announcement that World of Warcraft will, for the first time in its storied history, allow cross-faction raids, dungeons, and rated PvP sent shockwaves across the community. While most gamers…
Sony is acquiring Destiny developer Bungie for $3.6 billion - The acquisition train just keeps on rolling, as Sony announced today that it's acquiring developer Bungie for $3.6 billion US. Bungie is best known among the MMO space for developing…
Wisdom of Nym: What’s in Final Fantasy XIV’s February live letter? - It is not quite February yet at the time you read this, but it's not as if February is some distant future that we can't see. It's tomorrow. And we…
World of Warcraft is finally outlawing boosting rings – though not boosting itself - Last fall, the boosting situation in World of Warcraft bubbled up into the mainstream when the new Blizzard co-lead encouraged it and even advertised a "sales run" for his WoW…
Vitae Aeternum: The rent in New World is too damn high! - The wonderful thing about video games is that they let you experience impossible things that could never happen in the real world. Like buying a house as a Millennial. Yes,…
Swords of Legends Online announces free-to-play switch and Firestone Legacy expansion for February - Gameforge is making huge moves with Swords of Legends Online: This morning, the publisher announced not just a new expansion but a release in the CIS and a free-to-play switchover.…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 358: High Isle thing, you make my heart sing
The Stream Team: Another run through Architect missions in City of Heroes Homecoming
The Stream Team: A third Astroversary for Astroneer!
The Stream Team: Completing AQ3D cosmetic collections in the Moistverse and Masquerade
The Stream Team: Slip sliding away in Dungeons & Dragons Online’s Snowpeaks Festival
The Stream Team: Celebrating Star Trek Online’s 12th birthday with Janeway
The Stream Team: Return to SWTOR’s The Spirit of Vengeance
The Stream Team: Depending on the kindness of multiplayer strangers in Monster Hunter Rise
The Stream Team: Getting back into Global Agenda on its 12th anniversary
The Stream Team: The Ambitions of Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood
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.
