Black Desert officially launched an expansion this week, marking the fifth of the so-called Big Five MMORPGs to do so in 2024. Land of the Morning Light: Seoul is a free followup to last year’s folklore-filled romp.
Meanwhile, CCP Games rebranded its absurd blockchain EVE spinoff as EVE Frontier, New World kicked off its Aeternum open beta, Wayfinder announced a launch date and Critical Role collab, and Microsoft announced it’s laying off another 650 games industry workers.
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
Black Desert’s Land of the Morning Light: Seoul expansion has officially launched - Today's the day, Black Desert fans, at least if you're on PC: Pearl Abyss has officially launched the game's 2024 expansion, Land of the Morning Light: Seoul, the sequel to…
Interview: Wayfinder on the latest patch, October launch, mod support, and Critical Role collab - Wayfinder has already stealth-launched its "quality-of-life 2" patch on Steam as of this past weekend, and now it's live on the the PlayStation console too - yes, the Echoes version…
Vitae Aeternum: New World Aeternum’s open beta build is actually pretty good – but will it be enough? - Starting this Friday, Amazon Games will be running an open beta test for New World's soft relaunch as Aeternum. Before then, the studio offered members of the press the chance…
Microsoft is laying off yet another batch of games division workers – 650 this time - A Microsoft memo leaked to the press today heralds another round of layoffs at the company's games division: Microsoft Xbox boss Phil Spencer informed staff that he's cutting another 650…
LOTRO Legendarium: How LOTRO’s cosmetic system should be overhauled - Here's a fun bit of trivia for you newcomers to Lord of the Rings Online: Did you know that for most of the first year of this game's operation, it…
Raph Koster shows off Stars Reach’s updated world graphics in new footage - When Playable Worlds first fully revealed Stars Reach to the public earlier this summer, the one sticking point with a certain segment of MMO gamers was the game's cartoony visuals.…
EVE Online blockchain spinoff Project Awakening rebrands as EVE Frontier ahead of ‘founder access’ - You had to figure that CCP Games wasn't going to keep calling Project Awakening that forever, right? Indeed it was not, and as of today, the company is now calling…
A year after vaporizing industry trust, Unity abandons runtime fees, raising subscriptions instead - A year ago this week, the doofuses running Unity surprise-announced they were adding new per-install and runtime fees with multiple tiers designed to leech money from developers and publishers who…
New World’s Aeternum open beta on PC and console has officially begun - As planned, New World's Aeternum open beta has officially launched as of noon EDT today, welcoming all players on PC and console to test out the controversial revamp of the MMORPG…
Storyboard: Who gets to be the hero of an MMORPG? - When Guild Wars 2 launched, there was a contingent of people who were very, very annoyed about Trahearne. There were a lot of players who felt like he was being…
Throne and Liberty answers ‘top questions’ about its business model - While MMO fans continue to wait for the September 26th early access and October 1st launch for Throne and Liberty, NCsoft did address a few "top questions" from the community…
Massively Overthinking: When the big five MMORPGs have five big expansions in the same year - By the time you're reading this article, Black Desert's Land of the Morning Light Seoul has officially launched on PC, and it marks an important moment: All five of the…
Early access survival sandbox Nightingale just released its huge Realms Rebuilt update - September 12th just keeps cooking, and now it's serving up the long-promised overhaul update for early access survival sandbox Nightingale. Realms Rebuilt officially goes live this afternoon, with its completely…
Black Desert Console confirms next season server and Dosa class will arrive October 2 - If you're a player of Black Desert Console who has been feeling a little bit neglected, then Pearl Abyss would like to share a video message that hopes to assuage…
Soulframe discusses combat tweaks, dungeon updates, and a first pass at cosmetics for its next pre-alpha - The fantastical multiplayer RPG Soulframe is headed towards Prelude 6 - aka its next test build - which is cause for Digital Extremes to put together another video digest that…
Vindictus revamped eight of its 25 playable characters in this week’s patch - I'm always surprised and pleased to see that Vindictus must still be making money as Nexon is still cranking out updates for the 14-year-old Mabinogi-spinoff MMO. The latest patch, which…
Vague Patch Notes: Leveling in MMORPGs is cool because it’s finite - No matter what you do, leveling in an MMORPG is going to be too fast. It's also going to be slow. It is the very model of a Goldilocks problem:…
LOTRO previews its first Legacy of Morgoth expansion zone, Ambarûl - Lord of the Rings Online officially has begun promoting its fall expansion, Legacy of Morgoth, with a series of preview streams hosted by Senior World Designer Matt "Scenario" Elliot. [AL:LOTRO]In…
Crimson Desert shares about an hour of new gameplay footage as it makes its way to TwitchCon - Sure, there were plenty of gameplay reveals as part of its Gamescom presence, but that doesn't mean the sneak peeks are over for Crimson Desert, as IGN has some more…
Ghostcrawler makes the case for slower leveling in his upcoming MMORPG Ghost - The vast majority of MMORPG fans have yet to experience any part of Fantastic Pixel Castle's upcoming MMORPG simply known as Ghost through any means other than studio head Greg…
Guild Wars 2 players are building absolutely INSANE houses with Janthir Wilds’ homesteads feature - I've only just unlocked my new player house in Guild Wars 2's Janthir Wilds and haven't dug my claws into the feature, but for the thriving GW2 community, the homestead…
Perfect Ten: The 10 crafting and gathering professions you find in every MMO - Despite the common perception that MMORPGs are only about smashing, slicing, and blasting foes to oblivion, these games typically offer a whole lot in the "creation" department as well. Players…
Former Sony exec suggests breadless game devs eat cake, Ubisoft investor demands more layoffs - You know, if you let gaming execs talk long enough, they all but hang themselves without your having to do anything - at least, that's the takeaway from Chris Deering's…
Ubisoft confirms offline mode for The Crew 2, The Crew Motorfest during Motorfest’s year 2 reveal - Ubisoft is celebrating the first anniversary of The Crew Motorfest (aka The Crew 3) by essentially promising not to do it dirty the way the studio did The Crew 1.…
World of Warcraft’s first season for The War Within is officially underway - It's the dawn of a new season in World of Warcraft, as last night kicked off Season One of The War Within, which effectively opens up some additional things for…
Rumor: Star Citizen fans uncover a trademark filed by CIG for a potential third game - The plot is either thickening or getting muddier depending on how one reads this latest bit of news uncovered by Star Citizen fans, as a couple of followers of the…
Elder Scrolls Online’s update 44 promises PvP, companions, and new content, plus TES Castles launches on mobile - ZeniMax Online Studios took the wraps off Elder Scrolls Online's update 44 last night, showcasing the long-promised new companions and PvP update that the community has been waiting for.[AL:ESO] "If…
Guild Wars 2 presents PvP Push pre-test plan as plushies pounce your purse - As promised, the prototype beta for Guild Wars 2's new PvP mode, Push, is kicking off this afternoon, open to everyone as of 3 p.m. EDT today through 8 p.m.…
DC Universe Online marks 85 years of Batman with another Batman Day mini-celebration - Few comic book superheroes are as enduring as Batman, with the character still standing as an icon in multiple fandoms for 85 years. Naturally that means DC Universe Online is…
Choose My Adventure: Once Human brings impressive atmosphere and routine survival beats - Sometimes I have to wonder why people like the games they like. That's not to suggest that there's something inherently wrong with people - taste is subjective after all -…
SWTOR and SWG Legends fans mourn the death of James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader - Star Wars fans joined cinema and theater fans last night to mourn the loss of James Earl Jones, whom nerds knew best as the sonorous void of Darth Vader. The…
Roblox unveils plans for more revenue sharing, 100-player open worlds, and expanded AI tools - Games creation and hosting platform Roblox unveiled some big plans during its Roblox Developers Conference this past Friday, with the promise of more tools, more access, more revenue sharing, and…
SAG-AFTRA union secures AI protections with multiple studios including ARK dev Studio Wildcard - The strike initiated by voice actors in the SAG-AFTRA union this past July is beginning to yield some positive results for voice actors who don't want their performances used to…
Marvel Heroes emulator file project releases a new build with multiple gameplay elements - Last year we reported on the arrival of emulator files for Marvel Heroes appearing on Github, effectively letting fans begin the process of reviving the much-loved MMOARPG from its 2020…
Destiny 2 plans two ‘medium-sized’ expansions and four free content updates through early 2026 - With today marking the official 10th anniversary of the first Destiny - and the future of Destiny 2 still feeling pretty wobbly thanks to bad executive moves - Bungie has…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s unavailable NPC jobs - Something interesting is going to happen when Final Fantasy XIV adds Beastmaster to the game as a limited job. No matter what weapon the job uses, it's going to leave…
LOTRO devs tease housing estate system, reveal a ‘SMITE-like’ project abandoned a decade ago - In a dev video this past week, Lord of the Rings Online's lead designer said that plans for that MMO in 2025 are "in a much better state" than what's…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 484: September MMO mailbag show
The Stream Team: Diving into Nightingale’s Realms Rebuilt update
The Stream Team: They might be giants in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Diving into the Wells of Enshrouded
The Stream Team: Progressing the plot in Cat Quest III
The Stream Team: Completing Queen Ayrenn’s ratification ceremony in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Friday the 13th in AQ3D includes a pirates vs. ninjas war
The Stream Team: Subduing a V Rising rift
The Stream Team: Visiting the Strayborough Deadwalk with friends 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.
