Blizzard had a rough week, lurching from messy story to story, all tucked neatly under the arc of the FTC appearing to finally give up on blocking Microsoft’s ABK acquisition. Blizzard itself managed to piss off the Diablo IV fanbase with a trainwreck patch for which it had to offer penance on Friday, then the ABK financials made clear that while Diablo IV had made a nice chunk of one-time money, the company’s MAUs continue to sag thanks to WoW Dragonflight’s lack of pull with MMORPG fans and Overwatch 2 bleeding players. Blizzard’s solution to the latter? Shove the game out on Steam, which the company has traditionally snubbed, then lay off esports workers and jeopardize what’s left of the once-lucrative Overwatch League. Welp, least it’s not boring.
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
Not So Massively: Diablo IV’s disastrous 1.1.0 patch – and Blizzard’s mea culpa - Diablo IV's last week has just been the drama gift that keeps on giving, and since Blizzard's latest toy is my favorite game right now, I'm here for it. Its…
Activision-Blizzard Q2 2023: Diablo IV doubled Blizzard’s revenues as MAUs continue decline - Activision-Blizzard has once again released its Q2 financials early as of this morning, but given the fact that this week was meant to be the original deadline for its merger…
Blizzard attempts to mollify Diablo IV players threatening boycott over season patch - Diablo IV players are none too pleased about the game's patch this week, which rolled out ahead of the release of season one today. You need only scope out the…
Overwatch 2 arrives on Steam on August 10 - So things are all going just super for Overwatch 2, as alluded to within the most recent Activision-Blizzard earnings report. So how do you fix that? Why, you put the…
The FTC suspends its administrative challenge of the Microsoft Activision-Blizzard merger - It would seem as if the US Federal Trade Commission has read the suggested writing on the wall: The government body has officially withdrawn its August hearing with an administrative…
Activision Blizzard is laying off workers in its esports division amidst future uncertainty regarding Overwatch League - Amidst all the other signs of robust health that you can see written across the state of Overwatch 2, you can add the Overwatch League's uncertain future. A number of…
Diablo IV’s 1.1.0 patch is live ahead of this week’s Season of the Malignant launch - Diablo IV's Season of the Malignant does not technically begin until July 20th - but you can download and play patch 1.1.0 as of this afternoon. Much ado has already…
The Soapbox: Why The Secret World really failed - We're back with part two of my long-overdue post-mortem of The Secret World, my favourite MMORPG of all time. In the first part I addressed the oft-hated combat, how the…
Diablo IV’s first seasonal content, Season of the Malignant, is available today - The dictionary definition of "malignant" can mean evil or malevolent, but it can also means highly infectious or destructive and is frequently used in conjunction with cancerous tissue to refer…
Wayfinder’s early access starts August 15 for founder’s pack purchasers - If August wasn't already going to be an intense no-holds-barred throwdown between new releases, expansions, and updates, Wayfinder is wading into next month with its early access program. The MMO-styled…
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs that are worth their dreadful early gameplay - I think many of us are primed to roll our eyes at anyone who says "oh man, just keep playing, it gets better later after the early parts" - and…
Here’s how the UK gaming industry says it’ll self-regulate lockboxes - Remember a few years ago before NFT scams took over, when politicians realized they could score some press coverage and campaign donations for talking big about finally cracking down on…
Bandai-Namco will sunset Gundam Evolution after barely a year - We've got some bad news for fans of Gundam Evolution: Bandai Namco is already shutting it down, and though the company doesn't give a particularly compelling reason, as you'll shortly…
Warframe of Mind: Fashion ‘Framing with Digital Extremes’ Megan Everett - With TennoCon 2023 just around the corner, it's hard for me to not think about the cool cosplay costumes that folks will be showing off -- especially since we haven't…
‘Anime battle royale MOBA’ Eternal Return makes its full release after nearly three years of early access - We're happy to report that another game hatchling has made its way across the sands of early access into the full launch ocean: Eternal Return, a self-described "anime battle royale…
All hail Glorbo: The WoW community baited and trapped AI scrapers with a Reddit prank - As the editor of this very real website with very real paid humans who every damn month has to deal with scrapers and bots who literally steal and mangle our…
Roblox aims to be ‘one of the biggest virtual economies on Earth’ through additional creator monetization tools - Roblox has some immense aspirations for its so-called economy. A blog post from the studio's VP of Economy Enrico D'Angelo offers a broad strokes look at what is being planned,…
Elder Scrolls Online’s base game is free on Epic Games Store alongside Fortnite crosspromo - Last week, a glitch on The Epic Games Store showed a sweet promo for The Elder Scrolls Online, but it was quickly yoinked, leading players to assume it had just…
Ship of Heroes’ latest video demos its inspiration-like infusion system for buffs - Indie Kickstarted MMORPG Ship of Heroes has a brand-new video and newsletter out today focused on its infusion system and how it works in combat. "Infusions are cheap, single-use click…
Vague Patch Notes: Whaling is a death spiral, especially in MMOs - Here we are again with another one of my "let's put down some important industry notes" columns, and this time we're talking about whaling. Specifically, we're talking about whaling as…
CCP restructures EVE Online’s CSM, giving two seats to the studio’s picks - The process of forming the 18th Council of Stellar Management that's intended to represent EVE Online players is about to begin. CCP Games has posted an announcement that offers important…
Lord of the Rings Online just offered a first look at the new Hobbit premium housing - Yesterday, Standing Stone Game's senior world designer Matt "Scenario" Elliot was kind enough to spend an hour showing off my next house in Lord of the Rings Online. I'm only…
The Perfect Ten: 10 MMOs and online worlds with super cozy vibes - In this age of increased anxiety and friction, there's a natural desire to retreat into safe spaces. And yet not all of us have a room under the stairs full…
New World’s Summer Medleyfaire is live now with new songs and content - Early this morning, Amazon patched up New World as planned with update 2.0.1. The highlight of the release, of course, is the return of Summer Medleyfaire, the music-themed summer festival…
Palia shares an hour of crafting, gathering, exploring, and multiplayer gameplay footage in livestream - Before you know it, the month of August will be here, which is when the beta testing rounds for Palia will be starting for PC players. Before then, the devs…
Guild Wars 2’s Festival of the Four Winds breezes back into town - Hope you're not afraid of heights or mild atmospheric disturbances, for Guild Wars 2's Festival of the Four Winds has returned to the realm of Tyria. Once a sadly MIA…
Choose My Adventure: Frustrations mount in Warhammer Return of Reckoning - Memory is a funny ol' thing. It can straight-up lie to you and convince you of something that probably wasn't even there. Or it recalls something from the past without…
Neverwinter’s Demonweb Pits module is live today alongside a new recruitment event - Neverwinter's Demonweb Pits module is officially live for all platforms - PC and console - today as promised. The 26th module for the game includes the new campaign set in…
The Neopets team goes independent with new funding for World of Neopets – no crypto involved - There's some big news this week for Neopets fans: According to a massive post on Medium, Netdragon closed down the game's studio, JumpStart Games, at the end of June, turning…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Secrets of the Obscure has me concerned for Guild Wars 2’s future - If you haven't picked up on it by now, I really like Guild Wars 2. It is my favorite MMORPG of all time and the one I have spent the…
Survival MMO Coreborn Nations of the Ultracore officially hits early access today - Don't hold its goofy name against it: Coreborn Nations of the Ultracore has done what a whole lot of in-development MMOs never do, and that's actually launch into a proper…
Final Fantasy XIV patch 6.45 is live today with treats for Blue Mage and variant dungeoneers - In a bit over a week, Final Fantasy XIV fans will be celebrating a decade of operation for the game and looking to the future with the first Fan Festival…
Wisdom of Nym: So how will Final Fantasy XIV cross with Final Fantasy XVI? - At this point, Final Fantasy XIV has directly crossed over with three separate titles in the Final Fantasy franchise: Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XV. This…
Vitae Aeternum: New World’s second season improves on the first - New World's first attempt at seasonal content didn't exactly impress, but in typical New World fashion, the developers at Amazon Games have already made rapid progress on improving things. New…
Marvel Snap introduces gacha-like ‘premium mystery variants’ and retools its card cache reward system - The ways that players of the digital CCG Marvel Snap get new cards is changing with the game's latest patch, and arguably not for the better. Developer Second Dinner has…
Overwatch 2 claims that story and lore is ‘incredibly important’ and a ‘key pillar’ of the PvP FPS - How does Overwatch 2 reconcile the culling of most PvE features, confirmation that what remains will be paywalled if you want to play them later, and further confirmation that more…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Stepping into the Solstice celebration of Destiny 2
The Stream Team: The end of the icy Dungeons & Dragons adventure
The Stream Team: Movie night with SWTOR
The Stream Team: Taking a delve into a dungeon in Craftopia
The Stream Team: Blowing through Guild Wars 2’s Festival of the Four Winds
The Stream Team: Elder Scrolls Online’s Deadly Investigations
The Stream Team: Onward through more AdventureQuest 3D Oversoul story
The Stream Team: Exploring Final Fantasy XIV’s Mount Rokkon Criterion dungeon
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.
