MMO Week in Review: Necrom, AI, and SWTOR’s big move

EA stunned everyone this week by confirming that it’s in what sounds like pretty firm plans to move Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to Broadsword, which is basically the retirement studio EA uses to stash MMOs it no longer wants to directly support but does want to keep online. Broadsword, which already maintains two older MMOs, will apparently pick up 40-odd BioWare staffers in the move, and while the team wasn’t at liberty to confirm what’s going on, it promised the content rollout will continue.

Meanwhile, The Elder Scrolls Online welcomed the Necrom chapter, Summer Game Fest 2023 brought trailers and teases for multiple upcoming MMOs, and we pondered the impact of the so-called AI revolution on gaming.

And in meta news, we published our 50,000th article today on MassivelyOP!

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Star Wars: The Old Republic development is moving from BioWare to Broadsword - A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, BioWare poured an insane amount of money, developers, and voice talent into making Star Wars: The Old Republic. And now,…

Elder Scrolls Online’s Necrom chapter is officially live – here’s the launch trailer! - Happy Necrom launch day to The Elder Scrolls Online, which is sending players to mainland Morrowind for a deeper look into Dunmer culture and customs - and then to Apocrypha…

Fans and game devs alike react to Star Wars The Old Republic’s move to Broadsword - Yesterday saw the 100-ton news bomb of Star Wars: The Old Republic changing hands from BioWare to Broadsword Games drop on the genre's collective head, kicking off a whole swath…

Summer Game Fest 2023: Throne & Liberty, Path of Exile 2, Black Desert, Wayfinder, Fae Farm - We're updating at the end of this post with all the big MMO news! Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest arrives today, marking the closest thing to E3 we're gonna get…

Lawful Neutral: How might the so-called AI revolution affect the MMO genre? - This article has been rolling around in my head since ChatGPT rocketed into the public awareness a few months ago, and just in the last few weeks, there's been slew…

Summer Game Fest 2023: Grinding Gear Games releases new Path of Exile 2 trailer - Way back in 2019, Grinding Gear Games announced a sequel for Path of Exile - Path of Exile 2 - and we even got our hands on it that year.…

Perfect Ten: MMOs that ghosted us after talking a big game - There's nothing worse as a fan of games to buy into all of the hype and previews of a promising-looking project only to see that title's studio fold, the project…

WoW Factor: The WoW Token, selling gold, and institutional power - Last week, I wrote about the addition of the WoW Token to the classic version of World of Warcraft, and I noted at the start of that section that I…

Perfect Ten: MMORPGs as Jell-O flavors - During last year's April Fools' Day, I wrote about the important topic of MMO NPCs as muffins. At the time, I felt my work complete, but then a conversation in…

ArcheAge’s June 22 update lets players become a gathering-focused Daru and fight in 10v10 flag wars - Sure, you could always do things like craft, gather, farm, and trade in the auction house in ArcheAge now, but what if you could do those things while transformed into…

New World lets testers have the first crack at the new Sandwurm Trial - The second round of testing for New World's upcoming Blood of the Sands content update is in progress, and with this phase comes two of the patch's PvE tentpole features.…

Diablo IV contends with server issues, Megan Fox promo, and Whoopi Goldberg yelling at Blizzard - The launch week for Diablo IV continues to be both enthusiastic and shaky, with server issues and unexpected downtime plaguing the online ARPG. Some lengthy queues are raising the question…

World of Warcraft’s tweaked community Discord terms are better but still problematic - Back in May, the World of Warcraft community erupted over Blizzard's announced plans to crown certain fan Discords as part of its new "community Discord" program. As originally announced, Blizzard's…

Massively Overthinking: When an MMO has everything and so much of it - Last week, when No Man's Sky released its native Mac client, MOP's Chris and I fell into a discussion about the game being so vast that even as players of…

Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch Old Wounds on June 13 - It's just about time to head back to Voss in Star Wars: The Old Republic. No, not because you're leveling another alt through the story and you're anxious about the…

LOTRO Legendarium: A breezy trip through King’s Gondor - It was only this past spring that I took my level 100 Minstrel through the lands of Gondor in Lord of the Rings Online. Starting from the west, she traveled…

Blue Protocol JP opens for pre-installation, details battle pass, and shares post-launch content roadmap - Japanese fans of Bandai-Namco's MMORPG Blue Protocol are just under a week away from enjoying the title, but the anticipation is already being kicked up, as the developers have put…

Vague Patch Notes: Paying customers in MMOs aren’t voting shares - So let's take a tour back to the dewy slopes of 2010, when I bought the collector's edition of Final Fantasy XIV. That would be the original version, yes. That…

Funcom’s Dune Awakening was partly inspired by Villeneuve’s Dune duology - If the video rehashes of Funcom's Dune Awakening the past few months weren't doing it for you, then you're going to want to take a peek at today's release, which…

Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis enters ‘ver. 2’ with new player housing feature and several bugs - This week is likely a big one for players of Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis as the June update (aka ver. 2) has made its way to the MMORPG…

Tower of Fantasy merges dozens of servers all over the world today - The anime-inspired Tower of Fantasy is cinching its belt and scooping all of its players into the same place with a massive round of server merges today. The studio announced…

AdventureQuest 3D confirms four new classes and player housing is in the works - You know what's an underrated little MMO that's pretty slick and offers plenty of cross-platform play? AdventureQuest 3D. There's always something new to see and do in this ever-expanding game,…

No Man’s Sky’s Singularity aka expedition 10 is live – here’s the new trailer - Is No Man's Sky allowed to have two big drops in the same seven-day span? Welp, it's happening anyway, as hot on the heels of its native Mac client release,…

Riot Games collabs with Coca-Cola on Coke Ultimate flavor, the taste of League of Legends XP - You know, I came very close to sending a MOP staffer in California to the reveal of this promo, but since it has almost zero MMO value, I didn't subject…

The Day Before talks player housing, lifeskilling, volunteer workers, and the ongoing trademark dispute - Fntastic's post-apoc shooter The Day Before has been a swirl of scandals and irregularities all through 2023. First announced in 2021, the game was supposed to drop gameplay footage last…

World of Warcraft preps ‘welcome back’ gifts for lapsed characters - Another promotion is in the works to lure lapsed World of Warcraft players back to the fold. According to the updated patch notes on the public test realm, Blizzard will…

Guild Wars 2 begins Dragon Bash 2023, plans WvW world restructuring beta this weekend - If the heat of summer is already getting you down, head to Hoelbrak in Guild Wars 2: The chilly Nord capital has thrown open its doors for the Dragon Bash…

World of Warcraft announces price hikes on subscription plans for Turkiye and Ukraine - Fans of World of Warcraft who live in Turkiye and Ukraine are seeing some bad news this week, as Blizzard has confirmed that the prices of several game services are…

Choose My Adventure: Age of Conan underwhelms almost immediately - For an MMORPG that has been out for as long as it has, Age of Conan sure feels like an early access title. And I say this as someone who…

The Magic to Master Kickstarter fiasco has become a scandal over Idea Fabrik, Hero Engine, and The Repopulation - Last week, we reported on the dubious Kickstarter of studio Laniatus' MMO Magic to Master, an old MMO being brought back from the dead for a crowdfunding run. The Kickstarter,…

Lost Ark announces June 14 update with the Elgacia continent and new dungeon - If Diablo IV isn't your cup of isometric multiplayer grinder, Lost Ark would like your attention, as last night it announced its update plans for June. Smilegate and Amazon are…

Diablo IV’s global launch was marred by server issues, but Blizzard is already working on two expansions - "Welcome to Hell. Diablo IV is now available." With last evening's announcement, a new era for the long-running Diablo franchise began. The online ARPG rolled out to all regions and…

Cinderstone Online makes its early access debut, plans to share a roadmap soon - A couple of weeks ago we checked back in on Cinderstone Online, aka The MMO Formerly Known as Fioresia Online, where we found the game holding a weekend stress test…

Microsoft is reportedly considering pulling Activision out of the UK market over regulatory block - The locking of horns between Microsoft and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority over Microsoft's billion-dollar acquisition of Activision-Blizzard appears to be reaching a boiling point. According to reporting from…

Vitae Aeternum: What Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO should (and shouldn’t) take from New World - We've had one, yes, but what about second attempt by Amazon to deliver a Lord of the Rings MMO? During the last run at this, I did a piece outlining…

Tarisland begins its global closed beta for PC and Android on June 27 - Tencent's modern WoW clone Tarisland is on the way - maybe sooner than you thought, as the company announced today the global beta will inch open its doors as of…

Wisdom of Nym: Breaking down Final Fantasy XIV’s The Dark Throne storylines - So there are, in fact, a number of stories going on in Final Fantasy XIV's The Dark Throne patch, but there are only two that actually matter. Oh, sure, if…

David Brevik on Marvel Heroes’ 10th anniversary: ‘It is gone into the nothingness forever’ - The importance of June 4th may have passed you by, but the creator of Diablo II and Marvel Heroes commemorated the 10th anniversary of the latter's release. David Brevik took…

Subreddits for FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, WoW, and more MMORPGs plan blackout protests over Reddit’s API access changes - If the subreddit feeds you follow seem especially on-fire recently, it's not just because it's a Tuesday; it's because many Reddit communities are angry over API changes Reddit plans to…

Lord of the Rings Online boss is ‘very psyched’ about possible big lag fix - Everybody's number one complaint with Lord of the Rings Online is, of course, server performance and lag. And it's to this end that Standing Stone Games' engineers have been working…

Neverwinter celebrates 10th anniversary with free companions, VIP time, and new content on the PTS - All hail Neverwinter! It was 10 years ago on June 20th, 2013 that Cryptic's Dungeons & Dragons MMO launched. So you best believe that the studio is pulling out all…

Here’s what’s coming in Guild Wars 2’s June 27 class balance patch - Guild Wars 2 is once again going to turn the tuning knobs for the MMORPG's various classes, and once again ArenaNet has put up some preview patch notes to help…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 424: Blue Protocol, red Diablo

Battle Bards Episode 225: Embers Adrift

The Stream Team: Playing around in the creative space of Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis

The Stream Team: A foray to the Fingers in SWTOR

The Stream Team: Working through the Destiny 2 mission backlog

The Stream Team: Squelching ruinous rumors in Guild Wars 2

The Stream Team: Hightailing it to High Isle in Elder Scrolls Online

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming takes a step into the New World

The Stream Team: Back to the beginning in Aion Classic

The Stream Team: Sunday dailies in Final Fantasy XIV

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.