MMO Week in Review: Season of the Guardian

New World finally limped its way to Season of the Guardian, which frustratingly launched with a long list of bugs – but also player acknowledgement that the fixing was faster than usual, presumably owing to the spruced-up infrastructure. Amazon also got candid with players, addressing the slipping population, corporate support for the MMO, and the motivation behind the decision to wait until June for the game’s next big reveal.

Meanwhile, the Palia team was hit with serious layoffs, Blizzard began hiring for an unannounced titles, we got a look at Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road, Neverwinter set a date for Adventures in Wildspace, and both EverQuest and EverQuest II announced new progression server. Plus, there’s a new game preservation movement grabbing headlines.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Stop Killing Games is a modern games preservation initiative prompted by The Crew’s cynical sunset - The words "game preservation" are holy words here on MOP and in the MMORPG genre beyond, as few gaming communities understand the pain of the loss of an online game…

Derek Smart’s Alganon is planning a 2025 relaunch following alpha this year - Derek Smart has been promising that Alganon is returning for years now, and it's finally happening, or at least it has a timeline for happening. The 2009 MMORPG almost immediately…

Blizzard starts hiring high-level positions for a new mystery game - Just because Blizzard has canceled quite a few promising projects over the years and suffered shocking layoffs in 2024 doesn't mean that the studio has foresworn new games. As a…

Tamriel Infinium: Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road chapter - The Elder Scrolls Online celebrated its 10th anniversary just this week, an impressive milestone and a chance to reflect on just how far this game has come. And yet Zenimax…

Palia studio Singularity 6 has been hit by layoffs – 35% of the team impacted - (This article has been updated with S6's statement at the end; the original piece is as follows.) Palia studio Singularity 6's frustrating deceptions regarding the beta status of the game…

LOTRO Legendarium: Lord of the Rings Online’s Corsairs of Umbar is a vacation into the unknown - Those of you who follow this column know that I'm never in a particular rush to plow through Lord of the Rings Online expansions for the sake of a timely…

Pax Dei’s upcoming 100K-player alpha announces server info to help groups and guilds plan - The days are counting down to Pax Dei's second alpha test, officially dubbed the "Wilderness Alpha" and scheduled to kick off this April 23rd. As the studio plans to open…

Greg ‘Ghostcrawler’ Street’s Fantastic Pixel Castle delivers a prototype peek of Project Ghost - It may not have an official name yet, but Fantastic Pixel Castle's Ghost has a face of sorts. This week, the Greg Street-run studio delivered its first development blog and…

Vague Patch Notes: Game preservation is way more complicated than it seems - Before I say anything with this week's article, I want to make something very, very clear right from the premise: As you have probably gathered by now, I am very…

NASA teams up with Epic’s Fortnite and Microsoft’s Minecraft to stream the April 8 solar eclipse - If you somehow don't know about the solar eclipse this coming Monday, then you're probably not in the US since that's all anyone here is talking about. The path of…

Classic EverQuest announces two new time-locked progression servers, Teek and Tormax, launching May 22 - It'd be tempting to assume that EverQuest's producer's letter would just mirror EverQuest II's earlier this week, as Darkpaw head of studio Jenn Chan recaps PAX and Fippyfest sales just…

Massively Overthinking: Would you pay for a Guild Wars 1 revival? - WoodenPotatoes had a fun video this past weekend about Classic Guild Wars 1, and I fully admit I clicked on it just to hear the music again, but I'm glad…

Elder Scrolls Online kicks off freebie Gold Road prologue quest and free-play event - As Elder Scrolls Online turns 10 years old, ZeniMax Online Studios is rolling out the red carpet for both new and old players.[AL:ESO] For starters, as of today, the Gold…

Ankama launches DOFUS Touch on mobile as Waven adds new chapters and Wakfu rolls back a server - Ankama's MMOs have been busy this week: To start with, the French company has launched - actually, relaunched - DOFUS Touch on mobile, both iOS and Android. "Originally launched in…

Neverwinter announces Adventures in Wildspace, its 28th module, launching April 23 - If you watched Cryptic's stream last month or even just caught our recap, you already know that the Neverwinter team has been hard at work on Module 28, dubbed Adventures…

Into the Super-Verse: How to get started with Incarnates in City of Heroes - It wasn't so long ago that I mentioned how pleased I was about City of Heroes matching my different intensity and goals after I returned to Homecoming with zeal once…

Blizzard’s John Hight on using AI to support World of Warcraft’s artists, not replace them - Franchise director John Hight might have spent some of his GDC time last month drawing a mystery line for World of Warcraft subscriber numbers, but he also took the opportunity…

EverQuest II announces a new 2006-era progression server called Origins, hitting beta in May - The latest EverQuest II producer's letter has arrived, and while the majority of it is recap of things you already knew about - like the PAX East panel and last…

Almost five years after killing Player Studio, Daybreak wants to revive a Creator Program - It's weird enough to see a Daybreak press release in my inbox, but this one threw me for a loop as it's for a game that everyone always forgets Daybreak…

Perfect Ten: The 10 best Final Fantasy crossovers - So yesterday we got hit with the Final Fantasy XVI crossover in Final Fantasy XIV. It was all right, I guess. But it wasn't a surprise that we got it…

Throne & Liberty’s next global beta remains under NDA, tests combat and trading - We're just a week away from Throne & Liberty's next big global test run, and ahead of the event, Amazon has released a dev blog outlining what players can expect.…

New World is already hotfixing bugs out of Season of the Guardian - "I hope just this once it's flawless," I said yesterday morning as the New World servers were finally coming back online with Season of the Guardian in tow. "Wouldn't that…

New World’s Scot Lane talks Summer Game Fest announcement timing and Amazon support - As we noted this morning, New World's Season of the Guardian is live today - in fact, it was only a few minutes later than Amazon's estimate, and while we're…

Fight or Kite: Predecessor’s open beta brings back MOBA action and a heap of nostalgia - The newest, brightest pupil from the School for Extraordinary MOBAs has arrived for your gaming pleasure. Predecessor launched in early access last week, bringing a ton of click-click-clicking over-the-shoulder action…

Choose My Adventure: Returning, remembering, and relearning in New World - Once again for this week's Choose My Adventure, I've found myself coming back to a game I haven't touched in a while - New World - and being up to…

Conan Exiles’ Age of War Chapter 4 is live today with a new event, fatalities, and the updated battle pass - Conan Exiles' Age of War is coming to a close today with the release of Age of War Chapter 4. The update, live now on PC and console, includes an…

New World’s Season of the Guardian finally launches this morning - New World's Season of the Guardian is finally set to launch today after a significant delay during which Amazon worked on its massive new combat and animation system. As readers…

Final Fantasy XIV players report being banned on Xbox for advertising their free companies (guilds) - So how are things going with the Final Fantasy XIV version on Xbox Series X|S? Well, you would think that Microsoft had done enough to help shoot this particular version…

Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV isn’t easier, but it also is - So it was about half a month ago when Final Fantasy XIV fans translated an interview with producer and director Naoki Yoshida talking about making the game more stressful moving…

Star Wars The Old Republic plots new story content, Lane Vizla missions, and a spring event in GU 7.5 - With Game Update 7.4 already out the door, the Star Wars: The Old Republic dev team is already looking ahead to releasing Game Update 7.5, which got some fresh new…

Working As Intended: The top 10 hot tubs in MMORPGs - It's been a running joke for a few years that I always put hot tubs in my MMO houses whenever possible, and once that became a Whole Thing, I started…

Starship Simulator is a Kickstarter new multiplayer space game about exploring a Milky Way replica - How do you simulate something that doesn't actually exist in real life yet? Well, if you're indie developer Fleetyard Studios, you start creating a title that marries some of the…

Monster & Memories has only cost $70K to date – from the devs’ pockets - In addition to providing a roadmap to early access in 2026 and beyond, retro-themed Monsters & Memories candidly discussed how much money it's cost to build the MMORPG to date.…

April Fools’ Day 2024 events and gags from around the MMORPG world - Welcome to weird MMORPG game mode day! I mean, April Fools' Day - not that we're sorry a lot of the "pranks" have become full-fledged gameplay modes. We're recapping some…

LOTRO and DDO’s unexpected server outage goes into its third day [Update: They’re up!] - Update: The servers for both games are now back online. If you're a fan of Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons and Dragons Online, no doubt that it's been a…

Chronicles of Elyria shifts development roadmap of its six different pieces based on feedback - Back in January, Chronicles of Elyria began an alpha test of a feedback form, then started to process some of that form's responses a month later. The breaking down of…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 464: Guild Wars 3 is a go

The Stream Team: AQ3D mixes Easter Greenwog, April Fools’ fun, and a Burger Hero home franchise

The Stream Team: Peering into an all-new realm in Nightingale

The Stream Team: Bashing Baba Lysaga in Dungeons & Dragons Online

The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming goes into Star Citizen’s Overdrive Initiative

The Stream Team: Taking a friend along for a ride in the Starship Simulator demo

The Stream Team: April Fools and cuddly kitties in Guild Wars 2

The Stream Team: Nothing here but us chickens in Neverwinter

The Stream Team: A burrito finale for of Astroneer’s Breakdown event

The Stream Team: Grabbing Final Fantasy XIV’s greatest rewards ever

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.