Throne & Liberty and Palia displayed both ends of the “delay” spectrum this week. NCsoft told investors it is delaying the western release of Throne & Liberty yet again; we won’t see it – and its newly added action combat – until 2024, marking yet another frustrating wait for one of the bigger MMOs on our horizon. But Palia took the other option, rushing into open beta in spite of the overall consensus that it needed quite a bit more time in the oven.
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
NCsoft Q2 2023: Throne & Liberty delayed as revenues, mobile games, and MMOs decline - While we've already covered the major delay to Throne & Liberty revealed during NCsoft's investor call this week, there was more to the financial report worth calling attention to. For…
Throne & Liberty’s Western release delays into 2024, adds action combat - Toss this onto the pile of the already-numerous delays that we've received this year: NCsoft is pushing Throne and Liberty's Western release back from 2023 and into 2024, marking yet…
First impressions: Palia is a half-baked project that could rise to be a masterpiece - For a reviewer, there is nothing more frustrating than something that is equal parts amazing and terrible. All awesome? That's an easy, glowing recommendation. Absolutely abysmal? Dunk on it to…
First Impressions: Palia is missing the depth MMO life-skillers are hoping for - "Life-sims" are another of those game genres that I like in theory, but less so in practice. Most have graphical styles I find off-putting, and they usually offer little to…
Perfect Ten: Every expansion era of World of Warcraft ranked - For a long time, I have been considering this particular column just because, well, it's an obvious one. If you have a column whose entire premise is listing things and…
Star Citizen will now invite players into its PTU based on their activity in an effort to stress test builds - For the past several years, access to the PTU builds of Star Citizen has gone out in waves - that's nothing new - but the activity of those player waves…
Not So Massively: Despite everything, Overwatch 2’s story missions deliver an epic experience - After a long wait, a tortured development, a great deal of cutting back on features, and endless controversy, the PvE update for Overwatch 2 has finally arrived. While the repeatable…
The Elder Scrolls Online is free-to-play right now thanks to QuakeCon - If you didn't snag a free copy of The Elder Scrolls Online last month when it was in promo mode on EGS, then you're exactly the person ZeniMax Online Studios…
Guild Wars 2 exhibits Secrets of the Obscure’s rift hunting in another new vid - When Secrets of the Obscure launches later this month, Guild Wars 2 isn't going to abandon old Tyria in favor of the new zones. Little shiny rifts are going to…
Massively Overthinking: Rescuing the worst economies in the MMO genre - As a hardcore economy player in most of the MMOs I play, I pay a whole lot of attention to the health of the game economy, as I've been on…
Co-op monster hunter Atlas Fallen officially launches - Looking for a brawl with oversized grumpy baddies in the middle of a desert? For those craving the Monster Hunter experience, Deck13's Atlas Fallen is there for them. This single-…
Roblox Q2 2023: Roblox sees a net loss of $282M, goes all in on AI - Roblox's financial reports have been both bizarre and repetitive for years now, and we're afraid Q2 2023 is no different. While the company saw a sizable increase in revenue -…
Palia’s open beta is officially underway as S6 calls it a ‘marathon’ it’ll run ‘one update at a time’ - Palia is plunging ahead into open beta in spite of all the issues that cropped up over the last week of closed beta, Singularity 6 made clear this afternoon. "We…
Guild Wars 2 shows off the landscapes and points of interest in latest Secrets of the Obscure trailer - Time to get hyped for Secrets of the Obscure: The Guild Wars 2 team at ArenaNet has dropped a new flip-through trailer highlighting "some of the new places you'll travel…
Destiny 2 has a new Commander Zavala following the untimely death of Lance Reddick - The tragic death of actor Lance Reddick hit the Destiny 2 community hard this past spring, as Reddick was not only a hardcore player of the game but the voice…
Vague Patch Notes: Almost nobody can save struggling mid-to-small MMOs - A week ago, we all sounded off on the best way to save a small-to-mid-size MMO that was struggling, as prompted by a discussion of Temtem. I often demur on…
Pearl Abyss Q2 2023: EVE surges, Black Desert stumbles, Crimson Desert hedges - August is a month of quarterly financials, and the season hasn't been kind to the type of MMO company that publishes its numbers. So it goes too with Pearl Abyss,…
Diablo Immortal launches a PvP event, temporarily changes gem drop rates, and makes its PC release - Today marks another update for Diablo Immortal that brings a host of events and updates for the mobile OARPG. Or at least the formerly mobile OARPG, as today marks the…
Lost Ark’s August-December roadmap heralds new continents, jump-start servers, and more - Yesterday, when Amazon finally put a date on the release of Lost Ark's Aeromancer, it also teased more information en route. That info is here already as the studio has…
Survival MMO-lite Dawnlands launches to a righteous roasting on Steam - It's been barely more than a month since we even knew Dawnlands existed at all, but it's officially launched as of this week. Singapore-based developer Amazing Seasun Games bills it…
Ashes of Creation has enough testers, prepares to stop selling pre-order packs - Ashes of Creation is getting ready to shut the door on players looking to buy their way into the alpha and beta testing process. Intrepid Studios announced on its website…
Dark and Darker launches into paid early access in spite of ongoing legal battle with Nexon - It has been quite a while since we heard from the PvPvE dungeon crawler Dark and Darker, but readers might remember that all through the month of April there was…
Following Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest COVID outbreak, one fan admits guilt – in a comic - An apparent COVID-19 outbreak at Final Fantasy XIV's Fanfest in Las Vegas a week and a half ago has been punctuated by one fan who admitted to unwittingly bringing the…
Blizzard’s Warcraft Arclight Rumble is soft launching as Warcraft Rumble - Back in May of last year, Blizzard announced a new game in its pipeline: Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a mobile strategy title using the familiar Warcraft slate of hero and villain…
Some Assembly Required: A trip around the world in Craftopia for materials and exploration’s sake - One of my favorite things to do in survival sandboxes is explore. Now, I admit that I don't get to feed that need very often - some survivalboxes downright punish…
Fight or Kite: Decks-building and fast-traveling in Harry Potter Magic Awakened - A couple of weeks ago when I first wrote about my impressions with Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, I had a chance to discuss a lot of what the starting experience…
Pixelart MMO Tales of Yore officially launches out of early access - It's been months since we last peeked in on Tales of Yore, the goofy but detailed retro 2-D MMO from indie studio Coke and Code Games, but it has big…
Here’s how WoW Classic’s hardcore mode will work when it launches August 24 - With World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore realms now officially launching August 24th, Blizzard has penned a dev blog reminding players just what to expect. With luck and some forethought, it'll…
Square-Enix Q1 2024: Overall profits and MMO sales drop as FFXVI underperforms - The latest earnings report for Square-Enix has been released for the period ending on June 30th, 2023, and it's good news for the company in terms of a general increase…
World of Warcraft is delivering its next patch, Fury Incarnate, on September 5 - If you're sitting in your computer chair vibrating excitedly for Night Elf and Forsaken heritage armor to be in the live version of World of Warcraft, you will have to…
Star Citizen sees roughly $55M in crowdfunding to date this year as it nears $600M in total - Today in "Math News That Will Make Your Head Hurt," we're taking a look at some of the latest data points out of Star Citizen and its overall crowdfunding, which…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV will have to dig deeply for future jobs - Anyone who has read my columns for a long while knows that I put my predictions front and center and both admit when I'm wrong and don't give myself credit…
Multiplayer RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 tops 814K concurrent players on Steam - If you get the sense that everyone in the known universe was playing Baldur's Gate 3 this past weekend, it's not merely your imagination. The long-awaited follow-up to the classic…
Star Wars The Old Republic begins its move to the cloud August 15, previews update 7.3.1 features - Back in March, Star Wars: The Old Republic announced its plans to make the switch to cloud server tech with the aim of modernizing the MMORPG, improving the player experience,…
SMITE runs charity sale to aid Maui wildfire relief efforts - Readers may have learned about a series of devastating wildfires that have caused havoc on the Hawaiian island of Maui earlier this week, with hundreds of structures destroyed and a…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 432: Palia breaks through to the other side
The Stream Team: Looking in at the launch version of Tales of Yore
The Stream Team: Starting Neverwinter’s final elemental evil adventure, water
The Stream Team: Trine traps, take two in Backseat Streaming
The Stream Team: Romping around with a friend in some Cat Quest II multiplayer
The Stream Team: Spelunking in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Doing some dojo decorating in Warframe
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.
