Even in a holiday week, the MMO news just kept coming: Daybreak startled nearly everyone by buying out Palia studio Singularity 6, Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail is not only warming our hearts but seeing record concurrency, The First Descendant officially launched, and we’re still buzzing about Stars Reach.
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
Daybreak bought Palia studio Singularity 6 and aims to bring the game to launch - File this one under "did not see this coming in a million years but also not sad about it whatsoever": Daybreak has acquired Palia studio Singularity 6. "Our team is…
First Impresions: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is a dense summer getaway for the MMORPG - I finished up Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail's story a while ago, but I've been spending a couple days turning over what I think about the expansion in my head. It's…
Elder Scrolls Online previews Update 43’s home tours feature and Infinite Archive additions - Earlier this month, Elder Scrolls Online teased that a new housing feature would be on the way in Update 43, and now we all know just precisely what that feature…
Vague Patch Notes: The stuff that has me excited about Stars Reach - Raph Koster is a smart guy. Not just an experienced one (he's that, too), but a smart one. The man knows his stuff front to back, and while there are…
Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail peak player concurrency has apparently topped even Endwalker’s - In case you were still wondering whether Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail was a hit with MMORPG gamers, wonder no more, as apparently the game has set a new post-ARR peak…
Ashes of Creation is ‘close’ to Alpha 2, shows off server meshing tech - If there are two things that we know for certain about Ashes of Creation's second alpha test, it's that (1) Intrepid Studios really loves talking up its features, and (2)…
Nexon’s co-op looter-shooter The First Descendant has officially launched today - It's launch day for Nexon's The First Descendant, a word I still manage to misspell even after covering this game for at least the last three years - you remember,…
Here’s how the ‘cellular automata simulation’ in Raph Koster’s new sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach works - In the wake of the announcement of Stars Reach, Playable Worlds' Raph Koster has been making the rounds of Reddit and the gaming blogosphere - and now, he's heading to…
Vitae Aeternum: New World Aeternum’s stagger changes could make or break the game - In all the hubbub over New World's controversial Aeternum relaunch, there's one element of the update that's been largely overlooked. The features infographic mentions "combat improvements (stagger PvE enemies"). If…
LOTRO’s progression server stress test last week crashed in a useful way - Last week's stress test for one of Lord of the Rings Online's new legendary servers resulted in a resounding crash as over 200 players crowded into the same spot to…
LOTRO Legendarium: Six ideas LOTRO totally should steal from other MMOs - It's only natural for people who play multiple MMOs or are aware of what's happening in other titles to foster a sense of envy. Sometimes you'll look across the fence…
Dune Awakening shows off character creation process, preps for persistent beta - When you get your hands on Dune Awakening, what kind of character are you planning to roll? To help you make that decision, Funcom recently posted a video that shows…
Tencent says it’s compiled ‘over ten thousand suggestions’ to act on in Tarisland - What's happening over in Tarisland right now? Plans. Plans, schemes, and updates. Plans for updates. At least that's the general throughline thanks to a message in the MMORPG's Discord and…
CCP Games CEO says making EVE Online’s dev platform open source cements the MMO’s legacy - EVE Online developer CCP Games is planning on making its Carbon development platform open source sometime later this year, which will grant interested developers access to the Carbon engine that…
Mortal Online 2 releases its mastery tree system, adds a new dungeon, and introduces more items - No, Mortal Online 2 is not making characters masters of climbing trees; it's adding a mastery tree for them to climb in its latest update. These are two entirely different…
EverQuest’s continuing 2024 roadmap teases The Outer Brood expansion and a server merge - "The Year of Darkpaw has passed the halfway mark and is still going strong!" Daybreak's Jenn Chan says in her latest EverQuest producer's letter, and she means it, declaring Fippy…
Perfect Ten: 10 more MMOs you’ve already forgotten ever existed, from Elyon to Defiance - Last year, I assembled a list of 10 former MMOs that not only have ceased to exist but have ceased to be remembered (for the most part). With so many…
The Game Archaeologist: World of Warcraft in the 1990s - MMORPGs don't pop out of nowhere, ex nihilo, to suddenly be enjoyed by players across the globe. Good ones take several years, dozens of developers, and millions of dollars to…
RuneScape’s RuneFest is saved as Jagex sets new location and dates for March 2025 - Jagex's RuneScape-themed fan festival RuneFest has not had the best luck the last few years. Jagex had to cancel it back in 2020 for pandemic reasons, and it hadn't brought…
Funcom marks Secret World’s 12th anniversary with a brief message of thanks - Today, July 3rd, marks the launch date of the deeply unique modern world MMORPG The Secret World, which has been online for 12 years now but hasn't seen any new…
Nexon is handing out compensation for The First Descendant’s messy but popular launch - So I know you'll be shocked to hear this, but the launch of The First Descendant yesterday did not go perfectly smoothly. I know, it's a lot to take in.…
Black Desert’s latest class, the mist-warrior Dosa, is live in today’s PC update - If you peeped any of the news coming out of Pearl Abyss' Black Desert Heidel Ball extravaganza in Beynac-et-Cazenac a few weeks back, you had an inkling about today's launch…
Star Citizen raked in higher profits over the month of June and the second quarter - One might suspect that the month of May would have been a big one for Star Citizen's piggy bank owing to the Invictus event - and you would be right…
Choose My Adventure: The Elite Dangerous vs Pax Dei rematch - Nine times out of ten, I generally follow the Will of the Polls here in MOP's Choose My Adventure column without too much question or thought because that's... well, kind…
Final Fantasy XIV’s massive Dawntrail expansion is officially live today - If you've already been playing Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail early access since Friday, then today's official launch will be little more than a blip in the relatively smooth queues for…
Albion Online’s Paths to Glory update is coming July 22 with a new achievement system - You had to know this one was coming, given the game's cadence, but finally we have details: Albion Online's Paths to Glory update, its third major release of the year,…
Gamigo offloads Desert Operations and Wargame 1942 publishing to Fawkes with only two weeks’ notice on migrations - Remember back at the end of 2020, when Gamigo began rather obviously to divest itself of most of its publishing agreements and video games, along with a large portion of…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s relatively smooth early access isn’t a sign of doom - On Sunday evening, I had to log out from Final Fantasy XIV to take care of an errand. This is not unusual. It is, in fact, incredibly usual, but this…
Sega is promising a new open-world and massively multiplayer Crazy Taxi game - If you've never played Crazy Taxi before, the gameplay is very simple to describe: Someone gets in your taxi, you drive to the designated location. What makes it crazy is…
Shroud of the Avatar offers an axe in honor of Richard Garriott’s birthday, but only for buying $80 in currency - We're not trying to be facetious when it comes to writing headlines for Shroud of the Avatar, but when the update notes for Release 127 lead off with encouraging funny…
Corepunk’s third alpha test arrives this week with a fully voiced pilot episode - A third round of alpha testing for the genre blended Corepunk kicks off this week, starting on Monday July 1st and running through Sunday, July 8th. This follows an aborted…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Checking in on the alpha test of MMORPG Corepunk
The Stream Team: Celebrating the 8th AQ3D-iversary
The Stream Team: The painful process of Mandalorian battle pup adoption in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Entering Nexon’s looter shooter The First Descendant
The Stream Team: Catching the updraft in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: A Calamity of Fate in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Trapping the ICARUS wolf boss
The Stream Team: Trying out the Pictomancer class 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.
