Amazon’s New World released its Summer Medleyfaire update this week, prompting its highest player counts of the summer and stanching the playerbase bleed since its launch last year.
Meanwhile, Blizzard confirmed September 26th for WoW Classic’s Wrath of the Lich King launch, we got our hands on Multiversus, Chronicles of Elyria admitted to hemorrhaging cash, Ashes of Creation previewed another biome, and SWTOR previewed its 7.1 update.
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
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is confirmed to be launching on September 26 - It's almost time to head back to Northrend in World of Warcraft. The official word is out after last week's leak confirming that Wrath of the Lich King Classic will…
Chronicles of Elyria admits to running out of money in 2021, ‘hemorrhaging cash’ ever since - There are grim tidings out of Chronicles of Elyria in its July State of Elyria report. Studio head Jeromy “Caspian” Walsh has once again reported that the game is in…
Wisdom of Nym: Forgotten and abandoned systems in Final Fantasy XIV - The weird thing when talking about Final Fantasy XIV when compared with a whole lot of MMOs is that it doesn't have a lot of dead ends. I don't mean…
Hands-on with Multiversus: How WB’s new brawler stacks up against Super Smash Bros. - Like most of the readers of this site, I spend the majority of my gaming time in MMORPGs, or I wouldn't be here. But platform fighters are my second love.…
Indonesian government blocks access to Steam and EGS for failure to meet a database registration deadline - The government of Indonesia is drawing attention and ire after it implemented new regulation for internet services and digital games storefronts that have resulted in a block of Steam, the…
New World’s population perks up with queues post-Medleyfaire as Amazon works on LFG - If you tried to play New World yesterday following the launch of the Summer Medleyfaire patch and noticed the game was hopping again, you weren't imagining it. The game saw…
The Soapbox: Why diversifying your MMO gaming is the smart thing to do - Allow me to indulge in some retrospection for a moment as I sit back on my rocker, squint into the fading afternoon light, and recall the "good ol' days." Well,…
WoW Factor: How Blizzard squandered the potential and desire for WoW Classic - With the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, I think it's now completely fair to say that World of Warcraft took the idea of WoW Classic and…
Vague Patch Notes: The many flavors of ‘boosting’ in the MMO genre - The other day MOP's Bree and I were having a discussion about boosting. This is not entirely unusual, but it was unusual insofar as the reality is we were talking…
Vitae Aeternum: New World interview on Summer Medleyfaire, solo play, housing, and more - With the launch of New World's Summer Medleyfaire patch and event this morning, we naturally had questions about the new systems and the future of the game. Multiple developers from Amazon…
Voxelbox MMO Elteria Adventures goes pay-to-earn while promising a ‘true synergetic experience’ - If the name Elteria Adventures isn't quite striking familiar to you, allow us a brief moment to recap: This sandbox MMO, which brought to mind Landmark at first blush, was…
Lord of the Rings Online community calls SSG out over stealth nerfs - A follow-up patch to last week's Lord of the Rings Online update made a few improvements to raid groups and allowed players to actually repeat the new Elladan and Elrohir…
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight moves into third alpha phase, makes barber free forever - World of Warcraft shifted into the third alpha test phase for Dragonflight yesterday with plenty of additional features and content added into the mix. This alpha is putting the Waking…
Star Wars: The Old Republic previews next month’s ‘short story’ update, gives out free decorations - Following the anemic content offerings and reception of this past spring's Legacy of the Sith, Star Wars: The Old Republic is under a lot of pressure to ensure Update 7.1…
Ashes of Creation shows off its remarkably diverse desert biome - Everyone knows that deserts are boring... or are they? Ashes of Creation would like to convince you that its barren regions aren't quite as barren as you might first assume.…
Star Citizen reverses course on its credit clawback - Yesterday we reported on a decision by Star Citizen to roll back an in-game credit grant that was meant to award regular players, remarking that the original amounts were "inflating…
The Game Archaeologist: That time when EverQuest let you play as the monsters - It's a near-given that in every MMORPG, players assume the roles of heroes who are sent out to vanquish the evil, dark, or at least annoying mobs that populate the…
Rockstar devs call studio ‘a boys’ club transformed into a real company’ as it reels back crunch culture - Readers might recall a rather infamous episode related to Rockstar Games and the treatment of its devs during the creation of Red Dead Redemption 2: It all started when studio…
Axie Infinity CEO caught shuffling $3M in the game’s crypto tokens before announcing its $620M hack - No matter how decentralized cryptocurrencies claim to be, there's always going to be a paper trail to follow, and one such trail was left behind by Axie Infinity CEO and…
World of Warcraft offers up a basic preview of how Dragonriding will work - You are not going to need to train your dragon in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Well, not in the sense of first addling up and taking control of the dragon,…
Diablo Immortal made $100 million in revenue in two months - When Diablo Immortal launched, pretty much everyone was united in calling the game out for its absolutely atrocious and exploitative monetization model, which led to much speculation about how much…
Star Citizen 3.17.2 brings a new event, updated missions, new locations, and a 100-player server cap - The alpha of Star Citizen continues its seemingly endless march forward with a new build now available for backers, bringing with it several new features and some updates to existing…
Massively Overthinking: Is old-school MMO dungeon-camping ever coming back? - A while ago on the MOP Podcast, Justin and I randomly wound up on the topic of camping in MMOs - not pitching a tent and peeing behind a tree…
Tower of Fantasy confirms global launch date of August 10, rakes in over 3M pre-registrations - Over the past several weeks, Tower of Fantasy has been trying to stir up hype for its arrival with video previews of characters and combat, but precisely when that arrival…
Open world MMO Noah’s Heart makes its global debut on PC and mobile today - After about two years since its original reveal to our shores, some beta tests, and a soft launch in Europe, today marks the day when Archosaur Games' PC and mobile…
Guild Wars 2’s ArenaNet posts hiring ad for yet another unannounced project - Veteran MMORPG players probably already knew that Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet is working on at least one unannounced project, but we've had a bit a news to confirm that…
Palia ushers in Alpha 2 with rain, more home customization, and community events - After a short run earlier this year, Palia's alpha test has returned for a second tour around this cozy life sim MMO. Singularity 6 said that all previous alpha testers…
Roblox removes its iconic ‘oof’ sound effect as a result of an unexplained ‘licensing issue’ - Even if you've never played Roblox in your life, you're very likely familiar with an "oof" sound effect that's in the game. The sound was actually never made by anyone…
Massively on the Go: Monster Hunter Rise’s Sunbreak expansion remains solid one month later - It's been about a month since Monster Hunter Rise’s expansion Sunbreak released, and I'm still enjoying myself. Personal issues exploded during release that prevented me from giving release a proper treatment, but…
Wallpaper Engine’s rise in popularity is likely thanks to Chinese gamers using it as a porn delivery system - "The Internet is for Porn" as the Avenue Q song goes, which appears to be holding true in the unique case of Wallpaper Engine, a program on Steam that lets…
Perfect Ten: Useful excuses for ditching an MMO dungeon run - I'm not saying that MMO dungeons are boring or anything, but when you start one, you've kind of committed to seeing it through -- even if it's late in the…
Guild Wars 2 plans Festival of the Four Winds for August 1, next WvW restructuring beta for August 12 - You knew it was coming since ArenaNet said so in its recent roadmap, but Guild Wars 2's next WvW world restructuring beta now has a start date: August 12th. "We’re…
Riot Games’s $100M discrimination lawsuit settlement is final with over 2000 women and contractors benefiting - Before the Activision-Blizzard sexual harassment and discrimination scandal blew up last year, the games industry was fixed on the 2018 Riot Games sexual harassment and discrimination scandal, which culminated in…
NCsoft Q1 2022: Revenues rise thanks to Lineage W and Guild Wars 2, Throne and Liberty arriving this year - NCsoft's stock may have fallen dramatically over the last year, but its Q1 2022 financial report is chock-full of happy bars thanks to strong performance from both its older and…
Fight or Kite: F2P MOBA Fault Elder Orb rises from the ashes of Epic Games’ Paragon - Just last week a new MOBA dropped on the free-to-play scene in the form of Fault: Elder Orb. It looked a little familiar, so I wasn’t sure if we’d seen…
Choose My Adventure: Feeling like a vampire is not the problem with or the solution for V Rising - After these few weeks and hours playing V Rising in its early access state at the time of this column's publishing, I can pretty confidently say that the vampiric power…
Riders of Icarus’ play-to-earn crypto token is down to about ten cents of value - So, how is play-to-earn going for Riders of Icarus? Well, about as well as play-to-earn usually goes, which is to say very badly. MMO Fallout has been tracking the cryptocurrency…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 382: Wrath Classic forecasts a frosty September
The Stream Team: Stepping into the Odd Giants world of Glitch for the very first time
The Stream Team: Enjoying the Astroneer EXO event
The Stream Team: Adopting an adorable bank pet in AQ3D
The Stream Team: Checking out the Medleyfaire and strumming some instruments in New World
The Stream Team: Seeing Neverwinter’s space station
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming some more solo Secret World nightmare missions
The Stream Team: Fighting Dauntless’ ambulatory crystal mountain monster
The Stream Team: Attending all the Cantha events in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Razing Warframe’s relays
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.
