World of Warcraft raised eyebrows this week as it began selling a $90 specialty mount that is unabashedly pay-to-win thanks to its baked in features. It wouldn’t have been a great look in general, given that $90 is around the same price as the “epic edition” War Within expansion, but it was especially bad as it rolled out the same day that Microsoft, which has laid off 2500 games workers just this year, boosted its CEO pay by 63%. So yeah, happy 20th birthday, WoW.
Meanwhile, we checked in on New World, learned the Dauntless studio was secretly bought by a blockchain outfit, welcomed the Brighter Shores closed beta, cheered for the proper launch of Wayfinder, and fretted over the state of Corepunk.
And of course, this week is Halloween – so we’ve rounded up all the MMO Halloween events we can find! Believe it or not, they still haven’t all started, so we’ve got a few more to add this week.
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
Halloween festivities across the MMO world, 2024 edition - It's weird we keep meeting like this every single year a week before October 31st, right? A strange and unusual coincidence, perhaps even a conspiracy? Wait... wait I'm hearing that…
One week into Aeternum, how is New World doing? Here’s what we know - Let's take stock of New World Aeternum one week into launch, shall we? Or at least of what we can know for sure, which is limited since we don't have…
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO world you don’t control - Last week in Vague Patch Notes, I attempted to lay out my thesis for what it means when we say MMOs require other people. Now I need to start drilling…
World of Warcraft is selling a $90 dino mount to ‘celebrate’ its 20th birthday - The Warcraft franchise has been around for 30 years, and so maybe you feel like you have just ridden on as many bats, gryphons, wyverns, and hippogryphs as you could…
So now we know: Dauntless dev Phoenix Labs was bought out by a blockchain company last year - Back in 2023, we were dismayed at the news that Dauntless and Fae Farm studio Phoenix Labs was being crushed with a nasty round of layoffs just after a supposed…
Brighter Shores’ closed beta begins behind an NDA as player trading is delayed - Brighter Shores, the new MMORPG from Jagex co-founder Andrew Gower, officially enters closed beta this week - but you won't be hearing much about it as it's locked up tight…
MMO Hype Train: Is Corepunk really ready for prime time? - Whenever I'm looking at a new MMORPG, there are two important hurdles it must cross to be of interest to me. The first is whether the whole concept of it…
Neverwinter reassures fans after layoffs: ‘We are still fully committed to the ongoing development’ - No matter how you look at it, this is a devastating time for Cryptic fans as mass layoffs are effectively dissolving the once-prominent MMO studio. However, not all is lost,…
Rumor: Guild Wars 2-themed digital CCG is called Lion’s Arch Guild Wars Arena – and it’s coming to Steam - Those sneaky sleuthy Redditors appear to have uncovered something that ArenaNet and NCsoft appear to be preparing to unveil. A SteamDB update shared by Redditor DwingRD has uncovered a new…
Design Mockument: Alternate trinities in MMORPGs and the challenge of other roles - The trinity has been a truism of MMO design now for about as long as it wasn't. I came up during the small times when if you mentioned an MMO…
Lord of the Rings Online is still working on closed server transfers, believe it or not - Oh look at that: Hell is freezing over. That must mean that Lord of the Rings Online's team is actually making progress on allowing transfers from closed legacy worlds after…
Dungeons and Dragons Online’s new server is running smoothly, but some items are missing - It was an inauspicious start for Dungeons and Dragons Online's new premier 64-bit server, as the Cormyr shard experienced some of the worst slideshow lag ever seen since Anarchy Online…
Conan Exiles disables its brand-new living settlements following disappearing thrall bug - The great Conan's muscles giveth, and the great Conan's muscles taketh away... at least until the thralls at Funcom can get their act together to assemble a fix for a…
MMO Business Roundup: Lockboxes, SAG-AFTRA, child safety, and another ABK union rally - Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! It's a bit of good news and bad news this time around, so let's start things off with what…
Massively on the Go: Hands-on with Super Mario Party Jamboree’s online modes - If you were somebody who thought Super Mario Party Jamboree's new modes might be Fall Guys-esque, I'm sorry to report that it isn't the case. Maybe part of that feeling…
Throne and Liberty’s Halloween event, Haunted Harvest, is finally here - So there's some good news and bad news with Throne and Liberty's Halloween event. The bad news is that it was delayed a day; it was supposed to launch yesterday,…
Destiny Rising talks down fears of a stamina mechanic after a UI screenshot makes the rounds - Earlier this month, NetEase officially confirmed the existence of Destiny: Rising, a mobile version of the looter shooter that was initially leaked by Bungie devs - and a game that…
DC Universe Online finally launches a native Xbox Series X|S client - Are there any more worlds (or galaxies) for DC Universe Online to conquer? There must be because Daybreak's superhero MMO rolled out a new console release this week with the…
Fallout 76 previews its upcoming four-person Gleaming Depths raid and playable ghouls - First and foremost, it is important to note that no matter how much you might want to, you will not automatically be as insanely charismatic as Walton Goggins playing the…
Dungeons and Dragons Online’s new 64-bit server was offline all night thanks to build problems - So Dungeons and Dragons Online's Cormyr server launch yesterday did not exactly go to plan. Readers will recall that Standing Stone Games launched the new server, the game's first-ever 64-bit…
Blizzard’s BlizzCon-substitute ‘what’s next’ stream for the Warcraft franchise airs next month - As World of Warcraft is throwing a 20th anniversary rager to end all ragers this week, it's totally not confusing at all for Blizzard to also be talking about the…
Nightingale patches in Halloween and confirms layoffs at Inflexion’s UK subsidiary - It's patch day over in co-op sandbox Nightingale, and it's a good patch too as it includes the game's Halloween event. "Head on over to the Abeyance Realm and talk…
Diablo IV lets you send a ‘real toxic bouquet’ to a friend (or enemy) for Halloween - Leave it to a game that once figured out how to combine 11 herbs and spices of KFC with the 11 torments of hell itself to come up with another…
NCsoft MOBA Battle Crush will sunset in November without ever leaving early access - With all the bad news out of NCsoft this week - and MMORPG players' fixation on the fate of NCsoft's core MMORPGs - it would've been easy to skip over…
Perfect Ten: 2024’s MMO soundtrack themes ranked from worst to best - Try not to whip your head around all suspicious-like to check out the past 10 months, but 2024 has been a bonanza for MMO and online RPG releases. Sure, many…
Fntastic pulls the plug on Escape Factory crowdfunding, shifts instead to another prop hunt game - If we're all very honest, the crowdfunding drive for The Day Before developer Fntastic's obstacle course platformer Escape Factory was very likely never going to cross the finish line. But…
No Man’s Sky launches its spoopy 16th expedition, The Cursed, just in time for Halloween - Well now this is a treat: While most MMOs have a Halloween event these days, it's not quite as common to get an entire update that fits perfectly with the…
World of Warcraft DPS players stage group finder protests over recent balance changes - When World of Warcraft kicked off its latest patch, it was ostensibly focused on the MMORPG's 20th anniversary, which is pretty understandable. However, there are a subset of players who…
World of Warcraft launches the ‘biggest anniversary in the history of Azeroth’ today - As promised, Blizzard is kicking off the big 20th anniversary celebration for World of Warcraft this afternoon. Is it actually WoW's 20th anniversary? Well, not yet; it's technically not until…
Choose My Adventure: The final push to level cap in Throne & Liberty - This is probably one of the few times in my personal history with Choose My Adventure when I hit the level cap in the game I'm playing for the month.…
Not So Massively: ZeroSpace is the last hope for multiplayer RTS fans - All right, that headline is a bit of hyperbole, but it does reflect how I'm feeling right now. A bit over a year ago, I listed off three promising multiplayer…
Tarisland begins Season One and adds new content with the release of Blight Dragon Elegy - The PC and mobile MMORPG already had a launch with Season 0, but now it's counting to one and putting out a major content update. Tarisland's Season One update, aka…
Rumor: Nintendo is running a 10K player test for its secret Switch MMO - A huge test for a not-so-secret Nintendo Switch playtest is underway by the company itself -- and this could have significant implications for the massively multiplayer gaming space. Earlier this…
NCsoft Korea confirms restructure and layoffs, renames Throne & Liberty team to Studio X - Last night, we covered the disturbing industry news that NCsoft was planning a major restructure of its Korean branch owing to the long-obvious fact that it's seen poor revenues over…
Wisdom of Nym: The dark side of role quests in Final Fantasy XIV - I haven't been shy talking about liking the role quests that are currently available in Dawntrail. Indeed, I think that Final Fantasy XIV has finally hit on a good tone…
Ashes of Creation players spill the beans about pre-alpha testing as verbal and written NDAs lift - If you've got Ashes of Creation targeted in your gaming news and social feeds, then you probably woke up to a deluge of information about the game's most recent pre-alpha…
Hi-Rez’s Realm Royale Reforged and Divine Knockout will be sunsetting in February - The top of October spelled some worrisome portents for Hi-Rez studios as the company announced layoffs as well as team reductions for the original SMITE and Paladins. Now it looks…
Albion Online players are not happy with new P2W bundles that fast-track skill learning - Last week, Albion Online decided to offer up something new for players to purchase: warden mastery packs, a series of four new bundles with some of the usual goodies -…
Wayfinder officially launches today on PC and PS5 after a year of early access - It's launch day for multiplayer OARPG Wayfinder, which means it's patch day too for this game that's come such a long way over the last year. Readers will recall that…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 490: What’s old is new again
The Stream Team: Checking out the spooky haunts hiding in Throne & Liberty’s Halloween event
The Stream Team: Into The Crucible in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Fun with farming and questing for the crafters in Enshrouded
The Stream Team: The further escapades of two cats dressed in pirate costumes in Cat Quest III
The Stream Team: Planting lightning rods in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Racing to ratification in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Boogie oogie oogie-ing in Headbangers Rhythm Royale’s Battle of the Dancers
The Stream Team: Seasonal farming sturdysquash in Astroneer
The Stream Team: Back to Jade Stoa and other Final Fantasy XIV shenanigans
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.
