Two different MMORPGs announced early access this week, both planned for the end of the year: the long-awaited Corepunk, and the Kickstarted Pantheon. Something new to look forward to when the summer and fall launches have cleared out!
Meanwhile, we weighed in on Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, Once Human is tearing up the charts, and New World delayed its console beta for Aeternum.
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
WoW Factor: Blizzard started listening to World of Warcraft players for a reason its leadership doesn’t want to say - I have a few different conflicting thoughts when it comes to the most recent interview with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas, or perhaps it would be more accurate…
Wisdom of Nym: Spoiler-free impressions of Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s leveling dungeons - The funny thing about Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail's story is that in some ways spoiling it feels pretty minor. Like, it's not unconscionable to spoil. It's not full of huge…
NetEase’s post-apoc survival MMO Once Human is live – and already tearing up Steam - NetEase has been extremely busy the last few years, cranking out games and picking up studios to make more for what it apparently thinks is an insatiable or at least…
New World has delayed its Aeternum console closed beta two weeks to July 25 - When Amazon first announced the Aeternum reboot and console port for New World, it noted that it would be rolling out beta testing all summer. That was drowned out by…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs with weirdly defensive fanbases - I do not have nice things to say about RuneScape. I have never had nice things to say about RuneScape. I also do not worry about saying not-nice things about…
Crowdfunded MMORPG Pantheon Rise of the Fallen is launching early access in December - Who had this one on the ol' 2024 bingo card? Pantheon is gunning for an ambitious early access launch in December - yes, that Pantheon, the one originally envisioned and…
Corepunk coming to early access on November 26th, still requires ‘significant polishing in all directions’ - Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen isn't the only MMO that surprised us this week with an early access release announcement. After years of troubled production and delays, Corepunk should come…
Vague Patch Notes: Yes, tutorials are a good thing in MMORPGs - For those of you who haven't been reading the site for a while or just don't keep this in your head, I'm going to start by laying down a couple…
Raph Koster lays out the (first) four pillars of design for his sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach - I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Raph Koster's Stars Reach is probably a good long while away for everyone but lucky pre-alpha testers.…
World of Warcraft launches the pre-patch for The War Within on July 23 - On July 23rd, World of Warcraft will be patched with the prelude to the upcoming The War Within expansion, and players will immediately experience something odd and unusual. For the…
LOTRO Legendarium: Six ways you can prepare for the new legendary servers - With brand-new legendary servers coming soon to Lord of the Rings Online, the allure of a fresh start, lower lag, and the Ringwraith ruleset may pull in many old, new,…
Fans fill The Crew’s gas tank back up for a ride down Rogue Server Lane - Just because Ubisoft planted an "End of Road" sign for its open world racer The Crew doesn't mean that fans are content to turn off the engine and let their…
Legend of Ares, a PvP MMO from the mid-2000s, will relaunch next month - Legend of Ares probably isn't an MMORPG that any of you remember. It was a PvP-centric MMO from the mid-2000s that failed to gain much traction in the global scene.…
‘The era of the big raid has returned,’ superhero MMORPG Ship of Heroes declares - If you're tuning into Ship of Heroes for the raiding scene, Heroic Games aims to support your playstyle, as it's made abundantly clear in this week's dev blog for the…
Pax Dei devs talk communication, transparency, updates, and… horses? - Mainframe Industries has released a long post on both social media and Discord explaining to Pax Dei fans just what's going on with the newly early access MMORPG. The devs…
Funcom says Conan Exiles’ dev cadence isn’t impacted by Dune Awakening - Last month saw Conan Exiles do something that seems to be anathema for most MMOs and multiplyer titles: It decided to stop making battle passes starting with its next Age…
Dungeons and Dragons Online delays Magic of Myth Drannor expansion to August 14 - Standing Stone Games has a bit of bad news for Dungeons and Dragons Online players: Its Magic of Myth Drannor expansion has been delayed a few more weeks. Or maybe…
Massively Overthinking: How often do you play human MMO characters when you have other choices? - I've been thinking about this question a bit lately, partly owing to Stars Reach and partly to Project Gorgon. Playable Worlds says Stars Reach will have only humanoid characters, specifically…
World of Warcraft Classic begins Season of Discovery Phase 4 today - The time is now for players of WoW Classic's Season of Discovery to move to The Next Episode, or more specifically the next phase: Season of Discovery Phase 4 officially…
Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online are finally getting official Discords - Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online both have community-led Discord channels where players and developers hang out, but Standing Stone has apparently conjured plans to open…
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas reflects on a ‘a time of introspection and reexamination’ for the MMORPG - World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas has a lot to say regarding the changes that the game's development staff is making moving forward in The War Within. But the…
Albion Online celebrates seventh birthday with cake and the Living Legacy event - Albion Online is coasting into its seventh birthday this week with its Living Legacy event splashed across all three regional servers, pitting players against open-world mega-mobs based on some of…
Wayfinder preps a huge quality-of-life patch as it journeys toward 1.0 - How many launches is Airship Syndicate's Wayfinder going to get in its lifetime? We had the early access release last year, the Echoes re-launch last month, and the full 1.0…
Lord of the Rings Online says there are ‘lots and lots and lots of adventures still to have’ - In a recent forum discussion around whether or not Lord of the Rings Online will wrap up its story when (and if) the Scouring of the Shire arrives, Standing Stone…
Fractured will release next patch ahead of July 24 new server and full game launch - The deal has been altered; pray Dynamight Studios doesn't alter it further. Only this time the alteration will be a welcome one to fans of Fractured Online as the studio…
Massively on the Go: MOP’s planning guide for Pokemon Go Global Go Fest 2024 - It's almost time, Pokemon Go trainers: Go Fest 2024 arrives July 13th to 14th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time each day, and as usual, Massively on the…
Black Desert’s 300v300 War of the Roses elite PvP battleground begins this week - If mass PvP is your jam, Black Desert has some violent delights for you in the form of War of the Roses, live on PC today ahead of the season…
Tencent’s co-op looter-shooter Synced is sunsetting just a year after its western PC launch - We're the bearer of more bad news today: Tencent is closing down its looter-shooter Synced. Synced was a sci-fi co-op looter shooter from Tencent's Level Infinite and NExT Studios; it…
The Quinfall previews maritime activities and trading ahead of today’s second closed beta - You've signed up. You've been selected. You thought it was happening on June 22nd but that was delayed. Now the time is here, as Quinfall has officially kicked off its…
Star Wars Galaxies Restoration rogue server confirms leak that it’s considering subscription benefits - Uncertainty has enfolded Star Wars Galaxies rogue server SWG Restoration III, as a player senator leaked financial plans from the team that suggest the developers are considering compensating subscribers with…
Fight or Kite: Multiversus relaunched is just as fun as ever - I had been eagerly anticipating the return of Multiversus ever since it was suddenly and unceremoniously shut down last year. For those who don’t recall, the game was technically fully…
The Soapbox: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, mortality, remembrance, and last chances - Earlier this week, at least at the time of this op ed's writing, I completed the main story for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, and overall I came away extremely pleased.…
City of Heroes Homecoming begins public testing of new raid and Marine-themed support set - The totally legal and licensed City of Heroes Homecoming (isn't that fun to say?!) has rolled out Issue 28: Page 1, dubbed Legacy, to the game's official open beta server.…
More than 4000 gamers killed 566K baddies in Monsters & Memories’ June playtests - If you happened to have missed out on last month's stress tests for throwback MMORPG Monsters & Memories, you might be left wondering how things went. If that's the case,…
Path of Exile’s Settlers of Kalguur releases July 26 as QoL previews begin ahead of July 18 livestream - Path of Exile fans now have two dates to possibly write on their calendars: July 18th and July 26th. That's when there will be a preview livestream and the full…
Throne & Liberty showcases character creation, dungeons, and PvP activities ahead of July 18 open beta - With Throne & Liberty getting some important dates revealed during Summer Game Fest - namely, its open beta running between July 18th and 23rd - Amazon Games is keen to…
Kickstarted VR MMO Zenith officially goes into maintenance mode - It's the end of the road for Zenith, more or less, as its small indie team announced that the virtual reality MMO is going into maintenance mode going forward. This…
Player numbers for Once Human continue to climb as limited seasons ignite friction - NetEase's survival shooter Once Human continues to make a significant and surprising splash in the multiplayer gaming world, as this weekend has seen player headcount continue to climb, hitting a…
WoW Classic players petition Blizzard to revert the server to its original state without any changes - It would appear that a small segment of WoW Classic players have a bone to pick with Blizzard and the way the era servers have been handled to this point:…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 475: The Legend of Ralph Lobster
The Stream Team: The killer droid jailbreak in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Taking a second swing at The First Descendant
The Stream Team: Fighting Fey with Fey in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming gets some flight time in Nuclear Option
The Stream Team: Hopping back into the firefights of Helldivers 2
The Stream Team: Guild Wars 2’s The Predator’s Path
The Stream Team: A very voxel Trove birthday
The Stream Team: Jumping into Warframe’s Jade Shadows
The Stream Team: Summer sun and fun in AQ3D
The Stream Team: Hopping into the Dawntrail roulettes of 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.
