The week or so between Memorial Day and Not E3 is always packed with reveals and updates, and this week was no different for MMOs: Star Wars The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, and No Man’s Sky all dropped major updates, Tarisland announced a June 21 release date, and both Guild Wars 2 and Lord of the Rings Online teased their next big thing. Plus we got a look at Rabbit and Steel!
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
Star Wars The Old Republic’s GU 7.5 Desperate Defiance launches today alongside The Acolyte collab - Star Wars The Old Republic's 7.5 patch is upon us today, as servers went down at 8 a.m. EDT this morning to prepare. The so-called Desperate Defiance patch continues the…
Star Trek Online’s Unparalleled is live on PC today, helmed by Denise Crosby - It's update day for Star Trek Online fans as the iconic sci-fi MMORPG releases Unparalleled for PC, and accordingly we are never allowed to misspell "unparalleled" ever again. The update…
LOTRO Legendarium: LOTRO’s Update 41 plans monster play reward track, birding hobby, and coop crafting event - Yesterday's Lord of the Rings Online dev stream was a particularly informative one as SSG's Orion made an appearance to talk about what's coming in this summer's Update 41. [AL:LOTRO]Orion…
Tarisland announces a global release date of June 21 – here’s the new trailer - There have been a lot of teases, previews, and tests over the past few months, but now Tencent's WoW-like MMORPG Tarisland has locked down an official launch date, confirming its…
Guild Wars 2 teases land spears, builds on Secrets of the Obscure’s lessons for next expansion - But Bree, you say, Guild Wars 2 already has spears. And you're right! Spears as an underwater weapon have been in the game since launch. But what ArenaNet's brand-new video…
LOTRO Legendarium: Exploring Lord of the Rings Online’s enormous new Neaths zone - Do you remember when you were a kid and you got to poke around and explore a cool place? You'd eagerly run around it, committing all of the nooks and…
Vague Patch Notes: Why do so many MMOs fail? - We talk a lot about MMOs that fail here on Massively Overpowered. I wrote a whole column about how our standards of success are kind of skewed so that we…
Massively Overthinking: Is tab targeting a problem in MMORPGs? - This past weekend, MMO designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street lobbed another bomb rather cavalierly into the MMORPG discourse, this one about tab targeting. And maybe unsurprisingly, he's not actually opposed to…
Casually Classic: Three questions I have for WoW Classic’s probable Pandaria - Oh hey, Cataclysm Classic is here. You can absolutely sense the palpable excitement and community buzz over it, much the same way you can sense my sarcasm at writing this…
Monster Hunter Wilds’ first gameplay trailer showcases new monsters and new mechanics - It's been quite some time since Monster Hunter Wilds, the next entry in the venerable multiplayer RPG series, got any information since it was first unveiled during last year's Game…
Marvel Rivals confirms launch on Xbox and PS5, two new characters, and a multi-platform beta in July - NetEase's team vs. team shooter Marvel Rivals is spreading its wings to new horizons, as the shooter has just announced that it will be making its way to the PlayStation…
Destiny 2 provides one more Final Shape preview, collabs with Dungeons & Dragons for a cash shop bundle - We are now mere days away from Destiny 2: The Final Shape going live (unless you were among those PS5 players who got that unintended advanced peek), which means that…
Path of Exile 2 announces couch co-op plus simultaneous PC/console launches and updates - At last night's PlayStation reveal hoopla, Grinding Gear Games had two announcements for Path of Exile 2 ready and waiting. First, yes, the game is going to have couch co-op,…
Wayfinder’s Echoes update goes live for founders today as the game gets Steam Deck verified - If you were among those who bought into the promise of Wayfinder back when it was still angling to be a fully multiplayer experience, then today is the day when…
Fallout 76 counts 20 million players as franchise interest continues to spike - It turns out that a whole lot of people are willing to crawl out through the fallout... the Fallout 76, that is. The impact of Amazon's recent first season of…
World of Warcraft starts The War Within beta next week while softening power scaling in Mists Remix - Starting on June 5th, World of Warcraft players who pre-ordered the most expensive version of The War Within and a select number of people who did not will be playing…
Mortal Online 2 improves new player experience and adds guild finder in latest patch - Ruthless PvP fans in Mortal Online 2 may lift their bloodied axes to the sky and rejoice at the arrival of Patch 2.0.5 this week. The update comes with many…
Final Fantasy XIV launches its promotional site for Dawntrail – here are all the new pics! - At the time of this writing, there is less than a month to go until Final Fantasy XIV's next expansion, Dawntrail, enters early access. If you are rabidly waiting for…
Ship of Heroes talks raid preferences, its new raid UI, and its animation system overhaul - If you're following Ship of Heroes' Twitter or official website for updates, you won't find the latest news there, as Heroic Games has focused its attention on Steam. Last week,…
Wolcen is stripping out multiplayer and heading into maintenance mode - I'm sorry to report to Wolcen fans today that Wolcen Studio has announced the end of updates for the game, essentially putting it in permanent maintenance mode - without multiplayer,…
Wisdom of Nym: Hands-on with the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set - On some level, the Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG Starter Set was very much a product conceived and released to gauge interest. I don't need to specify that it does, in…
Elite Dangerous introduces its next new ship, the Type-8 cargo hauler - Space truckers of Elite: Dangerous rejoice because the game's next new ship is for you. Say hello to the Type-8, a new medium-size cargo hauler that Frontier Developments debuted during…
Multiplayer survival sandbox Aloft opens Steam demo for the Open World Survival Crafting Fest - Among the many multiplayer survival sandbox titles being promoted on Steam this week as part of the Steam Open World Survival Crafting Fest is Aloft, an upcoming titles from Chinese…
Fight or Kite: Rabbit and Steel distills the MMO raid experience into a flashy boss battling roguelike - So here’s one that came out of left field for me. Rabbit and Steel (heretofore mentally referred to as Buns 'n' Blades) is an MMO raid-like designed around a party…
No Man’s Sky’s Adrift expedition offers a lonely and hostile ‘alternative universe’ - No Man's Sky has spent years shoring up its MMO bona fides, and now, it's doing the opposite with today's Adrift update, which shrinks it all back down. "[I] have…
Perfect Ten: The 10 types of MMO guides you find in the wild - Look, folks. I'm a simple man, but I figure out how to handle my own things. I put my pants on one leg at a - wait. Hold on. I…
Multiplayer nautical sim Ships at Sea officially makes its way into early access - Despite the game's whole thing, we resolve here and now to avoid using typical maritime jargon in this news post. There will be no references to setting sail, battening down…
Mike Morhaime’s Dreamhaven game studios open playtest sign-ups for their upcoming games - Back in 2020 we got wind of Mike Morhaime's return to the games industry after leaving Blizzard thanks to the formation of Dreamhaven, a new company with two internal studios…
Warner Bros. battler MultiVersus officially relaunches with cross-platform play - The jury is still out whether or not "MultiVersus" is a clever title, but either way, Warner Bros. popular team battler finally slugged its way out of a strange beta…
Final Fantasy XIV will charge sales tax on subscriptions and purchases starting June 25 - If you have some purchases in the Final Fantasy XIV store you really want to make soon, we suggest you do so now, as they'll be very marginally more expensive…
Palia’s Crafted Comforts update is live for beta players today with building and economy QOL - If you were watching Discord or social media, you already knew it was coming, but Palia's spring Crafted Comforts patch has officially rolled out to players as of this afternoon.…
Choose My Adventure: Adventuring in Southern Elsweyr brings back Elder Scrolls Online’s simple pleasures - It's a bit unfortunate that I've had more fun playing Elder Scrolls Online by myself than with others in recent days, but then I also believe this whole experience has…
Cozy MMO Brighter Shores says it’s still on track for a Q3 2024 release - For all of you craving a brand-new MMO that hasn't been delayed to death, here's some promising news: Brighter Shores, the cozy skill-based MMO that's somewhat inspired by RuneScape, announced…
Skull & Bones begins the Chorus of Havoc season with new endgame, ship, and weapon types - Despite the game's arguably bumpy arrival, Ubisoft's piratical multiplyer game Skull & Bones is pushing ahead with Season 2 today, launching what it calls the Chorus of Havoc and all…
Wisdom of Nym: What other character jobs could Final Fantasy XIV pilfer in the future? - If there is only one game I know in the Final Fantasy franchise other than Final Fantasy XIV, it is Final Fantasy VI. This is because absence makes the heart grow…
Throne & Liberty producer resigns as mobile version rumors surface - If you were already harboring doubts about the prospects of Throne & Liberty's western launch, then prepare to possibly hoist another mental red flag: Reporting from South Korea's MTN confirms…
Blizzard says adding raid finder to WoW Cataclysm Classic is a matter of player feedback - LFR. Three little letters that can apparently spell intense psychic damage to a certain class of player in World of Warcraft Classic. With the progression servers now in the Cataclysm…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Hurray for more AQ3D housing features
The Stream Team: Taking a peek at the closed alpha of Corepunk
The Stream Team: Wake me up before you go go in DDO
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming wanders the wilds of RIFT
The Stream Team: Heading into the early access multiplayer ocean of Ships at Sea
The Stream Team: Concluding Guild Wars 2’s Secrets of the Obscure
The Stream Team: A night of Nightwave in Warframe
The Stream Team: Hunting the big bad wolf in V Rising
The Stream Team: Taking on the Rathalos battle 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.
