Blizzard and NetEase finally confirmed long-running rumors that they’re putting the band back together: The companies agreed this week to renew their partnership more than a year after the angry split that saw Blizzard’s MMOs ripped out of China.
Meanwhile, Gigantic is back, World of Warcraft is trying “remix” content with Mists of Pandaria, Loric Games unveiled Echoes of Elysium, and Final Fantasy XIV dropped the Dawntrail benchmark.
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
NetEase and Blizzard ink deal to revive World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2, and Diablo IV in China - (As of late tonight, Blizzard has officially confirmed the rumors. Our original post follows, and we've updated with the official news at the end.) It's not official yet, but we're…
First Impressions: Gigantic Rampage Edition’s classic Clash mode and the game’s overall plans for the future - I admit that when I was first invited by Gearbox Publishing to get my hands on the resurgent Gigantic, I was mostly awestruck. I was stunned to be playing a…
WoW Factor: What’s a Mists of Pandaria remix and why is World of Warcraft doing it? - In hindsight, I feel like I was gentler toward Season of Mastery than I should have been. World of Warcraft has turned everything into that. WoW Classic just went all-in…
MOBA shooter Gigantic officially resurrects as the Rampage Edition – here are the patch notes - If you were among the many fans who were holding a candle for the third-person MOBA shooter Gigantic, then your faith has been rewarded today, as the game has returned…
World of Warcraft previews the upcoming Mists of Pandaria Remix in patch 10.2.7 - Apparently, the plan for World of Warcraft's content leading up to The War Within is to just make you play classic flashbacks whether you want to or not. Even if…
Massively Overthinking: How long should it take MMO players to get to ‘endgame’? - With Throne & Liberty's latest global underway, I want to point back to something Amazon said about the test for our Massively Overthinking discussion this week. Amazon said it had…
Mythic vets at Loric Games unveil Echoes of Elysium, a new co-op skyship survival sandbox - Way back in 2022, we first caught wind of Loric Games, a new studio founded by Mythic vets Rob Denton, Brian Johnson, and Ray Soto, all working on a co-op,…
Fallout 76 kicks off free-play week in celebration of the Fallout TV show’s launch - Bethsoft knows how to work some transmedia synergy: It's running a bunch of Fallout 76 promos in conjunction with the premiere of the Fallout TV series this week. For starters,…
Into the Super-Verse: What to pick for your Incarnate powers in City of Heroes - Last week in Into the Super-Verse, I offered a quick explanation for how you can get started with the process of sorting out the Incarnate powers in City of Heroes.…
Todd Howard doesn’t see an Elder Scrolls television series happening any time soon - So now that everyone loves the Fallout television series (except possibly for John Phillips Fallout, who was literally named to be the lead), the obvious question is whether or not…
Blue Protocol JP unveils the Beat Performer class headed for the MMO April 24 - It's part bard, part hard rock guitarist, and an all-new class for the Japanese version of Blue Protocol. It's the Beat Performer, the headline act of the anime MMO's April…
PlayStation players are flooding the Sea of Thieves PS5 closed beta servers - Sea of Thieves officially rolled into closed beta on PlayStation 5 early this morning, continuing its forked path far away from the exclusivity it once had. Access to the event,…
Diablo IV boss discusses whether season 4 constitutes a whole new game - If I had a nickel for every time a game dev or a gamer insisted that a patch to a game constituted a whole new game, well I'd be rich…
EverQuest II devs address everything from hardcore servers and Player Studio to Isle of Refuge and Legends of Norrath - Back in February, Daybreak's Darkpaw Games opened up an ask-me-anything thread on the EverQuest II official forums - and now the dev team is actually offering its answers, at least…
Genshin Impact’s April 24 update adds a new area, new events, and a new frenemy - Normally when Genshin Impact introduces a new character to its big giant gacha machine (which incidentally has helped developer Hoyoverse to be valued at $23B), it's someone who wants to…
Star Wars Galaxies Legends expands its bounty hunting system into space with this week’s patch - Hot on the heels of its spring newsletter, Star Wars Galaxies rogue server SWG Legends has dropped its April content update, and as one Discord fan put it, "tldr patch…
Roblox walks back statements that children earning money is a ‘gift’ and not exploitation of labor - Roblox's PR department has found itself in the unenviable position of providing cover for some dumb nonsense an executive said at GDC this year. During an interview with Eurogamer, Roblox…
Guild Wars 2 players can now ‘game, grow, and touch grass’ with officially licensed… plant seeds - There is a lot of plant life growing all over the world of Guild Wars 2 - and some of it even isn't trying to kill you! But perhaps you're…
Donkey Crew sets Bellwright early access for April 23 – still no update for Last Oasis - Snail Games and Donkey Crew have announced today that they're pushing gritty co-op survival sandbox Bellwright into Steam early access on April 23rd. The title was only just announced in…
KingsIsle announces Wizard101 single-player spinoff Ravenwood Academy - If you've ever wanted to dive back into the Wizard101 world without actually being in Wizard101, now is your time, as this morning KingsIsle announced a brand-new game in the…
New World’s Springtide Bloom event returns April 17 with some gorgeous new rewards - If the pollen is trying to murder you the way it's trying to murder me right now, you're best off getting your springtime cheer in a video game than out…
Stormgate studio Frost Giant opens equity crowdfunding campaign to make players into investors - Back in February, we covered the eyebrow-raising story that Frost Giant, the studio behind multiplayer RTS Stormgate, was planning to make a push for an equity crowdfunding campaign. Unlike the…
Cozy MMO Sky Children of the Light launches F2P early access on Steam today - Thatgamecompany's five-year-old Sky: Children of the Light officially debuts on PC today, one of the rare few multiplayer titles these days that seems to proudly bear the term MMO. Oh,…
Perfect Ten: MMOs that earned a notorious reputation - Nobody wants a bad reputation. I mean, you can't make everyone everywhere approve of you, but you also don't have to go out of your way to offend people and…
Rumor: Bungie is (or at least was?) supposedly working on Destiny 3 - According to reporting on multiple websites this morning, Bungie wasn't just blowing hot air during yesterday's The Final Shape stream when the studio's Luke Smith vowed the team had big…
Battlefield 2042 confirms Season 7 is the shooter’s last as development focus shifts to the next title - We certainly hope that players of Battlefield 2042 are enjoying last month's Season 7 launch because it's going to be the last: Dice has officially announced that Season 7 marks…
Black Desert PC expands its music instrument feature to all classes, Black Desert Mobile adds new gear - Were you excited by the prospect of playing an instrument in Black Desert but bummed that the feature was limited to the Shai class? Then you might be delighted to…
Albion Europe flings open the doors to its open beta – yes, everyone can play now - European MMORPG gamers - and really any gamer looking for a fresh start - will find the doors of Albion Online's new European server thrown wide open today as the…
Corepunk delays Alpha 2 until the end of May - So we've got some good news and bad news for Corepunk fans. The bad news is that the second alpha test which was originally planned for the end of April…
Destiny 2 releases Into the Light and teases The Final Shape with two new trailers - During its preview stream this afternoon, the Destiny 2 team had two tasks: peel back more layers of The Final Shape and launch Into the Light. Let's go in launch…
World of Warcraft brings the Cataclysm Classic pre-expansion patch on April 30 - Do you remember back in the day when you were very excited to have Deathwing blow up a good chunk of World of Warcraft? Possibly with a bit of apprehension,…
The last remains of Perfect World Entertainment rebrand as Arc Games following Gearbox sale to Take-Two - Don't look now, but the chunk of Gearbox that MMORPG players cared about is changing its name. Readers will recall that back in 2021, Embracer bought Perfect World Entertainment -…
Not So Massively: Final Stand Ragnarok might be the seed of a fun game, but it was set up for failure - Not being a PvP fan, I haven't had much investment in the long and tortured saga of Camelot Unchained, but I am a fan of Norse mythology and co-op action,…
Last week’s massive Palia layoffs included waaaay too many senior Singularity 6 staff - As Palia players continue to reel from last week's news that Singularity 6 had laid off 35% of its team, the staff are continuing to organize on behalf of their…
EverQuest II’s GU 125 Darkpaw Rising revives ‘the spirit of Fippy’ this afternoon - Happy launch day to EverQuest II players, who are reliving some nostalgia today in the form of GU 125 Darkpaw Rising. (A moment of awe for the fact that this…
Wayfinder sales are temporarily halted as Airship Syndicate assumes publishing from Digital Extremes - No, you aren't reading that headline incorrectly: Even though it was announced months ago that Wayfinder was being dropped by Digital Extremes, the studio behind the game, Airship Syndicate, announced…
Wisdom of Nym: Taking a look at the Final Fantasy XVI x Final Fantasy XIV crossover - Confession time: I've been not exactly low-key waiting for the Final Fantasy XVI crossover in Final Fantasy XIV since June of last year. You might point out - correctly -…
Former Prytania CEO blames economic downturn and lack of investor interest for Crop Circle Games closure - At the tail end of March, we finally received word that earlier furloughs of staff at Jeff Strain's Crop Circle Games transformed into a full studio shutdown, leaving many employees…
Final Fantasy XIV shares pre-Dawntrail schedule, releases the benchmark on April 14 - Want to make yourself a Hrothgal in Final Fantasy XIV? Want to see what you'll look like Vipering about? (Yes, Viper is not a verb. Hush up.) You'll have to…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: A trip to the new AQ3D museum
The Stream Team: Taking our first steps into the world of Sky Children of the Light
The Stream Team: Sunrise, Ravenloft’s finale in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: SWTOR’s companion date nights
The Stream Team: Searching spooky subterranea in Content Warning
The Stream Team: Achievement junkie mode unlocked in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: A new way to make cake for Elder Scrolls Online’s 10th birthday
The Stream Team: My first ICARUS mission
The Stream Team: Tanking while discussing Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail benchmark
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.
