So, uh… yeah things aren’t going so hot for Activision, Blizzard, or Activision-Blizzard, except for King, which is just peachy. ATVI’s Q1 2022 investor report was abysmal, showing another 2M players lost from Blizzard’s individual count, along with a 43% quarter-over-quarter revenue drop for Blizzard; even Eternity’s End couldn’t stanch the flow of players. In fact, Blizzard has lost 18.5% of its players just in the last year. Activision alone fared no better; it saw a 49% revenue decrease QoQ and a loss of a third of its MAUs over the last year.
Naturally, the news prompted a slew of countermeasures, including the fact that Diablo Immortal is launching in June on console – the same day it hits beta for PC.
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
Activision-Blizzard Q1 2022: Revenues plummet, Blizzard loses another 2M players - Welcome back to our regular coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials. As of this morning, we have Q1's results, comprising January, February, and March 2022, a bit earlier than the company…
WoW Factor: Blizzard’s excuse for not adding housing to World of Warcraft convinces no one - One of the things I noted in my initial reactions to the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight announcement was that I had not expected to get an announcement of player housing, and…
LOTRO Legendarium: Six reasons why now is a great time to return to LOTRO - When you greatly love a game, franchise, or IP, there's nothing so heartwarming as to see it get a renaissance. In a world where everyone is scrambling to consume the…
Working As Intended: LFD, community accountability, and the balance of power in classic MMOs - At the heart of the WoW Classic argument over the dungeon finder tool is the professed belief that LFD ruined socializing in part by taking away server communities' ability to…
Rumor: Leakers claim Elder Scrolls Online’s ZOS is working on a Star Wars Mandalorian MMO - Is Elder Scrolls Online's ZeniMax Online Studios working on a new Star Wars MMO? Well, that's what the rumor mill is claiming. Comicbook Gaming has collected supposed leaks, one from…
MMOARPG Diablo Immortal launches June 2 – the same day its PC open beta begins - Buried in this morning's frankly disastrous Activision-Blizzard quarterly financial report is some actual good news for gamers (and Blizzard itself, which could use a win): Even if you don't have…
Wisdom of Nym: Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV Newfound Adventure’s storyline - The most interesting task that Final Fantasy XIV had set for itself with the launch of patch 6.1 was storyline-related, let's be realistic. Sure, there was stuff to get from the…
Gearbox is sunsetting PWE’s Forsaken World on November 30 - While Forsaken World may not have set the western MMORPG world on fire, there appeared to be enough players out there to snap up the keys we had given away…
Bless Unleashed PC is becoming a blockchain play-to-earn MMORPG - Apparently, Valofe can be counted among the other studios being seduced by the siren song of crypto and play-to-earn schemes: A press release from the company confirms that Bless Unleashed…
Perfect Ten: Things that turn me off from trying your MMO - Hey, designers, we need to talk. So, if you haven't noticed, I like MMOs. And you're making an MMO. This should be a good thing. I should be interested in…
ABK shareholders approve Microsoft buyout, World of Warcraft gets new executive producer - We've got some hefty Activision Blizzard news for you today, so buckle up and let's go for a ride. Shareholders approve Microsoft buyout: On our first stop of the tour,…
Blizzard explains why – and how – it’s porting Diablo Immortal to PC - Earlier today, Blizzard attempt to offset Activision-Blizzard's dismal quarterly financials with the news that Diablo Immortal is launching in June - and on PC to boot with "with cross-play and…
Former EVE Online CSM member recounts CCP mismanagement during his tenure - What's life like at EVE Online developer CCP Games? To hear one former CSM member's account, it's generally pretty chaotic and poorly managed. A Reddit post from Xenuria, one of…
Vague Patch Notes: The positives of MMORPG rogue servers - Here at MassivelyOP, we have a complicated relationship with rogue servers for MMOs. We have some pretty firm rules about when covering them is totally fine and when it's a…
The Game Archaeologist: Six cancelled MMOs that I wish had launched - In my lengthy tenure writing The Game Archaeologist -- which dates back to May 2010, if you can believe it -- I've covered MMOs that generally fell into three categories.…
PSO2 New Genesis shows off the frosty region of its June update and its May one year anniversary - Yesterday saw Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis offer up another NGS Headline video, which showcased the next major updates arriving in the next couple of months, including the game's…
Free Realms would’ve turned 13 years old this week if it were still alive - If you were around the MMO genre back in 2009, you might remember when SOE launched Free Realms, a cutesy kid-centric MMORPG that was playable on PC and console. It…
Massively on the Go: The top 10 Pokemon Go Mega Pokemon worth investing in - As dataminers discovered back in April, Pokemon GO's Mega Evolution system has gotten its third reworking, plus the release of regional Kangaskhan's Mega, released globally today and getting an 11am-2pm raid…
Massively Overthinking: Bots in MMOs – but not the bad bots - A while back on the MMORPG subreddit, there was a provocative thread about bots - no, not those bots. Essentially, the Redditor asked whether people would still be game to…
New World’s May update, now on the PTR, addresses PvP and combat tuning - With just a few days to go in April, you had to know Amazon was getting ready to reveal the bulk of its May update for New World, and this…
Desert Oasis: Black Desert Mobile has a little something for every playstyle - It's amazing how fast two years flies by. It didn't seem that long ago that I was doing my first impressions piece of Black Desert Mobile back in October 2019.…
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will not have a mission table but will have traditional flying - World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is coming. When? Well, Blizzard isn't going to tell you, but one of the points raised during a Twitter roundtable with director Ion Hazzikostas and narrative…
Disney announces life sim Dreamlight Valley with multiplayer potential - If your wildest gaming dreams involved the, ahem, goofy combination of Disney, Pixar, Stardew Valley, and The Sims, then you're weirdly in luck. Gameloft and Disney announced a new "hybrid…
Dungeons and Dragons start taking Isle of Dread pre-orders, officially adds the Tabaxi race - While Dungeons and Dragons Online's next expansion isn't fully coming until June 8th, players can sample one important element of Isle of Dread right now. Pre-orders are up for the…
Overwatch 2’s first beta officially begins this afternoon – are you playing? - We're just an hour away from the beta launch of Overwatch 2, which ought to please everyone but folks who simply liked Overwatch's meta better. As of this afternoon, "selected…
Choose My Adventure: A walk into the yellow zones and realm warfare in Albion Online - After all of the time I’ve spent in my return trip to Albion Online, I can comfortably say that it’s not the kind of sandbox game that I can get…
Not So Massively: Dune Spice Wars targets a very small niche - Unpopular opinion time: I never liked Frank Herbert's Dune novels. I do, however, acknowledge that the setting has a lot of cool ideas, and I did play an awful lot…
Lineage’s Throne and Liberty aims for a PlayStation 5 release on top of PC - The next major chapter for the Lineage franchise won't just be for PC gamers. NCsoft announced that Throne and Liberty will be coming to the PlayStation 5 as well. This…
Star Wars: The Old Republic adds cosmetic weapon customization in today’s update - Game Update 7.0.2 is rolling out today for Star Wars: The Old Republic, bringing with it some changes to currency names and functions, minor fixes for companions, combat style tweaks,…
Final Fantasy XIV adds in the newest Ultimate fight and adjusts PvP balance with patch 6.11 - The bad news of today's Final Fantasy XIV patch is that you will still have to wait a bit longer for new Hildibrand quests or custom deliveries. (This is not a…
PAX East vendor reports COVID-19 exposures from the event despite masking and vax requirements - If you were concerned about PAX East 2022 being an in-person event in spite of the ongoing COVID pandemic, your caution may have been for the best: Pandemonium Books &…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s 2022 Community Day was as meh as anticipated - It's judgment day for Niantic as Pokemon Go's 2022 Community Day has now come and gone. As we'd noted, the studio was pushing a new Pokemon GO Community Day model…
The original Guild Wars has officially turned 17 years old this week - Do you remember when you first set foot in the world of Tyria in the original Guild Wars? Do you remember how long you stayed in pre-Searing Ascalon? How much…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 371: Upending the mailbag
The Stream Team: Come dance in AdventureQuest 3D’s colorful Carnaval
The Stream Team: Warframe’s Enemy of Enemies
The Stream Team: Hack and slash in true Dungeons & Dragons (Online) style
Stream Team: MOP celebrates City of Heroes’ anniversary
The Stream Team: Another visit to the multiplayer games park of Tower Unite
The Stream Team: Meeting an elder dragon Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Another Allods anniversary adventure
The Stream Team: Cutting down the cult in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Partying like a Hobbit for LOTRO’s 15th anniversary
The Stream Team: Checking up on the open beta of Space Punks
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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