MMO Week in Review: Corporate greed was China’s WoW killer

The second Dragonflight prepatch wave in World of Warcraft was rather overshadowed this week by the not unexpected but still disturbing news that Blizzard and NetEase have dismantled their core partnership, leading to the demise of all but one of Blizzard’s MMOs and multiplayer titles in China.

Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings Online released Before the Shadow and rallied around a rock, we said farewell to Elyon, and ArcheAge 2 and Blue Protocol dropped tantalizing teases.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

WoW, Overwatch, Diablo, and more to sunset in China following failed Blizzard-Netease licensing deal - Last week, as part of its Q3 2022 investor report, Activision-Blizzard included what we described as an ominous note about its apparent difficulties negotiating a new licensing deal with Chinese…

WoW Factor: So Blizzard just lost China - Sometimes it's not fun to work in this particular industry. Not in the sense that it's horrible, but in the sense that you've written a column, you're all set, and…

LOTRO Legendarium: Exploring Before the Shadow’s new starter area and skirmish - You know that agonizingly delicious sensation of encountering an MMO drop that has so much stuff to explore that you hardly know where to start? That's exactly how I'm feeling…

Why I Play: World of Warcraft, 2022 edition - Have you ever watched The Good Place? If you haven't, I suggest you stop reading right now and go watch. Your life will be better for it, I promise. Anyway,…

WoW Factor: First impressions of the Dracthyr Evoker - With the second part of the Dragonflight pre-patch live, I have now been granted an ability I did not particularly want in World of Warcraft: the ability to create and…

MMO Cartographer: Elyon, dead game walking - It would be reasonable to wonder why I am bothering to write about my experiences in Elyon, a game that Kakao has long since slated for closure. Truthfully, I had…

Lord of the Rings Online’s community goes bonkers for a boulder nicknamed Dwayne Johnson - One would think that the arrival of a small Lord of the Rings Online expansion (or huge content update, take your pick) this past week would spur discussion about its…

Massively on the Go: How Pokemon GO players can prepare for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet - I know what you may be thinking: Pokemon GO preparing for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet this early? I mean, will the game even still be out? Well, we'll probably get a tease soon at…

Embracer Q3 2022: Mobile game ads drive revenue with Cryptic MMOs contributing - Before we dive in to the numbers, we'll remind you that Embracer Group is the company that owns publisher Gearbox Software, which now governs Cryptic and therefore MMOs and multiplayer…

PSO2 New Genesis celebrates 10 million ARKS worldwide and begins the second half of its autumn festival - Does 10 million ARKS in Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis indicate that there are 10 million players or 10 million characters? Whatever that number is, Sega is celebrating the…

Harry Potter Magic Awakened announces plans for a 2023 launch as it tightens up the game - NetEase's mobile MMOTCG Harry Potter: Magic Awakened has been doing a lot of previewing, singing, and pre-registering, but it hasn't done a lot of release date announcing and we're nearly…

Blue Protocol will be published by Smilegate in South Korea - After an exceedingly long wait for any information about the game, Blue Protocol fans are finally getting some solid information about the game in testing and actually releasing! Hooray! And…

ArcheAge 2 confirms PC and console versions, action combat, and non-linear progression - In case the earlier gameplay video from ArcheAge 2 wasn't already a clue, the developing MMORPG will have a pretty wide open space and some generally active combat mechanics. That's…

Path of Exile’s next content drop is The Forbidden Sanctum - While Grinding Gear Games is keeping most of the details about Path of Exile's big December content update secret (for now), the studio did announced that its title will be…

World of Warcraft offers free play weekend, posts Dragonflight release times - With a little over a week to go before World of Warcraft: Dragonflight releases, Blizzard is doing all it can to draw lapsed players back into Azeroth's ecosystem. One way…

MMO veteran Scott Hartsman discusses why overseas game publishing is so messy - All right, so Blizzard and Netease are no longer working together for publishing the former studio's games in China. That's significant, but it should be easy for Blizzard to hop…

Here’s what to expect from Star Citizen’s IAE free fly promo starting tomorrow - Try before you buy, whether it's a new shiny spaceship (with in-game or real world currency) or a starter pack! That's the primary thrust of Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo…

Blizzard once again tries to delay Albany QA workers’ union vote through a request for review - Just because Blizzard was told "no" already apparently doesn't mean the company is giving up on stopping QA workers at Diablo IV developer Blizzard Albany from forming a union. Blizzard…

Seed MMO halts comms, disables website over cease and desist from… a sugardaddy dating service? - Something happened on the way through our Twitter timeline: SEED, the in-development colony-building MMO from Klang Games, put out a tweet announcing a hold on communications because of an "ongoing…

Crowdfunded survival MMO Frozen Flame officially enters early access - In the middle of 2020, we caught wind of a new multiplayer survival RPG called Frozen Flame; Russia-based studio Dreamside Interactive crowdfunded the game on Fig as an "action survival…

CCP Games has already locked down dates and early details for its EVE Fanfest 2023 - We are all a very long way from September 2023, but CCP Games is still eager to tie down that month as the one for next year's Fanfest event for…

EG7 Q3 2022: LOTRO’s monthly active players are up 11% compared to last year - If you can pull your eyes away from the Activision-Blizzard/NetEase trainwreck that unfolded overnight, then we've got a blast of new financial news for you in the form of EG7's…

ArcheAge 2 teaser introduces you to a vibrant world that needs smashing - Your peepers deserve a treat today, so slap them on the brand-new teaser video that just dropped for ArcheAge 2. XLGAMES' sequel to the lauded-yet-troubled sandbox MMO is heading our…

Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go players are voting against Niantic with their feet - I hate being negative. I really do. But at the same time, because Niantic continually lands major IPs to make poorly designed games (if they manage to launch), I feel it's…

Perfect Ten: The players you’re likely to meet in MMO hell - We've all met folks in game who leave an unpleasant taste in our mouths for a long time after. With all of the good of social games comes the seedy…

New World will merge down 17 ‘legacy’ servers as the Turkolon event returns - Will no one think of the poor turkeys?! Amazon patched up New World overnight, and the key feature is Turkulon, which essentially adds a turkey world boss spawn in a ton…

Choose My Adventure: Broken Ranks is a grim and fascinating bit of RPG gaming - Most of the time when you hear something call itself "grim," "dark," or "grimdark," it often translates into being some 17 year-old's idea of what maturity and adult behavior is…

MMOs and MMORPGs fill several voting categories at this year’s Game Awards - While many of the categories that fans can vote on in this year's Game Awards certainly skew towards some of the heavy-hitting single-player titles of gaming, there are more than…

Aion Classic is finally launching in Europe next year - Back in September, Gameforge began teasing that Aion Classic, which had already gone live for the NCsoft North American branch of the game back in the middle of 2021, was…

EVE Online hits its second highest daily user count for November thanks to Uprising and promotional offers - Last week saw EVE Online release its much ballyhooed Uprising update, bringing along with it new ship variants, the frontlines mode, and more to the spaceship sandbox. Naturally, this sort…

World of Warcraft moves into its second Dragonflight pre-patch phase with Dracthyr Evokers - Azeroth is closed for the time being while Blizzard prepares the second phase of its World of Warcraft: Dragonflight pre-patch for later today. This feels even more like an early…

Blue Protocol confirms an early spring launch in Japan, schedules an announcement at the Game Awards - The beginning of this month saw Blue Protocol rise from its presumed grave, confirming that work is still ongoing and announcing plans for a Japanese network test in preparation for…

Lord of the Rings Online goes Before the Shadow today with new zones, leveling changes, and delving system - You can't walk into Mordor, but you can download a new mini-expansion for Lord of the Rings Online today -- provided that you've purchased it. [AL:LOTRO]Update 34: Before the Shadow…

Wisdom of Nym: Reactions to the first Final Fantasy XIV patch 6.3 live letter - Let me start with the most trivial question possible first: Does Naoki Yoshida have a calendar? He has to, right? Early January 2023 is not four months after the last…

NCsoft showcases gameplay and early details of its new shooter MMO Project LLL - While NCsoft elected to avoid this year's upcoming G-Star, it is once again revealing things on its own on its YouTube channel. The most recent showcase videos are about a…

SWGEmu sunsets the original Basilisk server, but Finalizer is going strong - One of Star Wars Galaxies' oldest emulator projects bid farewell to a long-running test server this past weekend. SWGEmu announced that it took the Basilisk shard offline as part of…

Arcane Waters launches into access launch today – a full day early - "You know how when you're excited for something you wish it would come a day sooner? Us too," the developers of Arcane Waters told players this weekend, and now, instead…

Pearl Abyss Q3 2022: DokeV and Crimson Desert delays, CCP’s new blockchain game, and EVE Online’s uptick - Pearl Abyss, primarily known around these parts as the company that owns EVE Online and Black Desert, has released its third quarter earnings report for this year, and there are…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 396: Crowfalling

The Stream Team: Relaxed Mode and more in No Man’s Sky

The Stream Team: Gabbing and grinding for goodies in AdventureQuest 3D

The Stream Team: Experiencing Undecember in November

The Stream Team: Touring Neverwinter’s Northdark Reaches with devs (plus giveaway)

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming from the driver’s seat of online racer Live for Speed

The Stream Team: Preparing to move onward to Orr in Guild Wars 2’s personal story

The Stream Team: A first crack at Warframe’s Angels of the Zariman

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.