So Path of Exile 2 isn’t an MMORPG, but should count as an MMO? Well, Steam has it flagged that way, so you can go fight with Steam and Grinding Gear about it, but we’ll be enjoying its multiplayer elements regardless, as the game is officially live in early access with well over half a million concurrent Steam players.
Meanwhile, XLGames is killing off ArcheAge in Korea now too, Elder Scrolls Online bizarrely canceled next year’s capstone anniversary meetup with no explanation, EverQuest launched The Outer Brood expansion, and we got hyped for Stars Reach. Plus, we counted off the 11 healthiest MMORPGs as we head into 2025.
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
End-of-Year Eleven: The healthiest live MMORPGs going into 2025 - One of the biggest factors when choosing a potential MMO to enjoy is how "healthy" it is. In other words, is the online game bursting with life and future potential?…
Elder Scrolls Online’s 10th anniversary fizzles as ZeniMax cancels its North American meetup - Hope you weren't planning on attending the big anniversary bash finale for The Elder Scrolls Online because ZeniMax Online Studios just abruptly canceled it. Readers will recall that last December,…
Casually Classic: Ranking WoW Classic’s six starting zones - Part of the sheer fun of fresh start servers and going through WoW Classic again is becoming reacquainted with that old and welcome friend, the original starting zone. When World…
Now XLGAMES is sunsetting the Korean version of ArcheAge too - Well, Korean players could probably see the writing on the wall when Kakao/XLGAMES shuttered ArcheAge here in the west earlier this year, but now it's officially happening in ArcheAge's home…
Classic EverQuest’s 31st expansion, The Outer Brood, is live – and so is a brand-new EverQuest book - As promised, EverQuest's 31st expansion officially launched last night, unleashing The Outer Brood on classic EQ players in its 25th year of existence. The expansion includes six new zones, raids,…
MMO Hype Train: My growing obsession with Stars Reach - As much as I respect Raph Koster for all of his passion and pioneering of MMORPGs, I've rarely crossed paths with his games, notably Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. We've kind…
Marvel Rivals’ free-to-play launch hits over 400K Steam players, solid reviews, and purchase problems - For a game that most gamers might have brushed off as "Overwatch at home," NetEase's newly released free-to-play team shooter Marvel Rivals appears to be making a pretty big splash…
SpaceCraft is an online sci-fi exploration and building sandbox headed for early access next year - If you like interstellar travel, space exploration, and sci-fi empire building, and you're willing to take a chance on a smaller game in early access, then your boxes may be…
Design Mockument: In defense of visual ability customization in MMORPGs - I will never know who it was working behind the scenes at City of Heroes who first had the idea to let players customize their powers in the game, but…
CCP does not want you calling its blockchain game EVE Frontier a blockchain game - The side projects of EVE Online are bursting with news today, as the integrated FPS EVE Vanguard has decided to open up its testing for curious players and blockchain game…
Path of Exile 2 warns of launch queues and server issues as preorders surpass one million - Man, I wouldn't want to be an RPG or MMO launching right about now because everything's about to get wrecked by Path of Exile 2. "We’ve just reached 1 million…
Massively Overthinking: The top three MMOs we played in 2024 - I know from experience that when I list out the MMOs I want to play in a given year, it is an aspirational list. What I actually get around to…
Dauntless showcases some of the new weapon abilities landing with today’s Awakening update - Today is the day when Dauntless finally gets its long-awaited Awakening update, which brings a whole bunch of new things to the co-op hunting RPG's table. Ahead of the new…
Vague Patch Notes: Nostalgia isn’t the problem with pining for your MMO past - So it hasn't been long since World of Warcraft launched a new set of WoW Classic servers, except this time it's WoW Classic Classic, which is just... really dumb. Not…
Lost Skies preps its Worlds Adrift-esque island creator tool for a Steam launch next week - Back in the spring of 2023, the studio behind the defunct MMO Worlds Adrift Bossa Games popped back on the scene with a new game that sorta looks like Worlds…
Throne and Liberty’s Call of the Spear is live with the new spear weapon and dimensional trials - As promised, Throne and Liberty is patching up morning with the Call of the Spear update. If you've been following New World or Lost Ark for a while, you know…
NetEase formally unveils its cute new solo/co-op game ANANTA (fka Project Mugen) - NetEase and studio Naked Rain have a big announcement this morning: The cute anime traversal-oriented game it's been teasing under the codename Project Mugen finally has an official name and…
MMORPG vet Rich Vogel says the games industry is recovering more slowly than he expected - Rich Vogel may not have a huge profile with MMO players, but he probably should: He's been involved with the business end of MMORPGs since the days of Ultima Online,…
Deceive Inc. developer dissolves after hitting a ‘breaking point,’ but the game will stay online for now - We've got some disheartening news for anyone who was enjoying the spy vs. spy team shooter Deceive Inc.: Developer Sweet Bandits announced on its forums yesterday that it is no…
DC Universe Online’s new leadership teases new content format and event system in 2025 - We don't know whether anyone but us has noticed this, but Daybreak is having one hell of a week with content or announcements for every single one of its MMORPGs,…
Final Fantasy XIV community institutes new world first rules after players use add-ons to cheat (again) - For players who claim to have the highest levels of skill in Final Fantasy XIV, it's extremely fascinating that members of this facet of the MMORPG's community can't seem to…
Lord of the Rings Online opens up Mines of Moria on the 64-bit progression servers - For Lord of the Rings Online players on the Mordor and Angmar servers, it's 2008 all over again. That's because SSG is unlocking the first expansion, Mines of Moria, on…
Ubisoft is shuttering XDefiant already, along with multiple studios – around 277 workers affected - Dreadful news for XDefiant fans and Ubisoft workers tonight: The game is closing down permanently, and several hundred Ubisoft employees are being laid off. Ubisoft made the announcement this evening:…
Fallout 76 just launched its ‘most demanding content’ ever with the Gleaming Depths raid - Remember earlier this fall when Bethsoft surprised everyone by announcing raids for Fallout 76? Well, you can fight over whether these four-person content runs constitute a raid or just a…
Torchlight Infinite dev just launched Go Go Muffin, a ‘cozy fantasy MMO’ for mobile - Do you know the muffin MMO? Well, you're about to. Torchlight Infinite developer XD Games is calling its new F2P mobile game Go Go Muffin a "cozy fantasy MMO on…
Not So Massively: ZeroSpace’s MMO-inspired Galactic War and other PvE modes - Welcome to part two of Not So Massively's in-depth impressions of the recent open beta of multiplayer RTS ZeroSpace. In my first piece, I covered the incredible complexity of ZeroSpace's…
Choose My Adventure: Starting life as a Jem’Hadar in Star Trek Online - So, first thing's first: I wasn't really able to spend excessive time in Star Trek Online this weekend. It was not just a holiday weekend but also my birthday weekend,…
Black Desert teases the arrival of firearms for PC and mobile, adds extra turkey time on console - There are a lot of unique ways to attack foes in Black Desert, from otter pirates to giant bladed hula hoops to pipe smoke (yes we're being reductive here but…
New World has enlisted rapper T-Pain and other influencers for a ‘T-Party’ Aeternum stream today - If you can remember back to the fall of 2021 when Amazon's New World first launched, it was pretty bewildering: Amazon had New World advertisements literally everywhere, with streamers, influencers,…
Pokemon Go is testing a monthly reward program that caps out at $500 a month - MOP's Andrew has been covering Pokemon Go's many problems - including whaling problems - in his Massively on the Go column for the last few years, but I suspect that…
Tencent’s upcoming multiplayer survival title Light of Motiram earns criticism for its Horizon-like appearance - If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Sony's Horizon series of games should probably be blushing brightly and curling up into a cute little embarrassed ball at the…
Wisdom of Nym: The myth of Final Fantasy XIV’s budget - Let's put this front and center just to start things off because I'm annoyed: Final Fantasy XIV is not a game that is single-handedly funding all of Square-Enix but never…
The Diablo franchise boss seriously suggested that ARPGs should be called ‘Diablo-likes’ - Another member of the Blizzard C-suite has opened his mouth on social media again, but at least this time it isn't to say something actively villainous. Rod Fergusson, senior vice…
Warhammer Online Return of Reckoning introduces its own homemade dungeon and new event - Who says you can't teach an old MMORPG dog new tricks? That's definitely the case for the Warhammer Online rogue server Return of Reckoning, which has introduced some all-new content…
Black Desert brings the Awakened Dosa to console, announces native PS5 and Xbox Series builds - For once in the weekly Black Desert news cycle, the console version of the sandbox MMORPG gets center stage as the game's most recent update has brought the Awakened Dosa…
Pantheon lists its 22 early access launch servers opening on December 13 - With launch day for Pantheon's early access coming in just a couple weeks on December 13th, potential players are running out of time to prepare for the coming of this…
Elite Dangerous players brace for the worst as the last Thargoid Titan makes its way to Earth - The past two years have seen a long and drawn-out fight between the players of Elite: Dangerous and the alien force of the Thargoids, which has somewhat recently seen players…
Corepunk clears ‘significant technical issues’ and gets its in-game cash shop functioning - Corepunk has apparently managed to get two important things working better: the game itself and the way it gets players' money. That's effectively the synopsis from Artificial Core's Discord announcement…
Dauntless players express frustration over Awakening update’s mechanics and monetization - The Awakening update for Dauntless has instead proven to be a nightmare, as the co-op monster slaying RPG's overhauls to weapons, armor, progression, and monetization have gone over like a…
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Update 7.6 arrives December 10 with name releasing, improved visuals - Star Wars: The Old Republic's last big patch of 2024 now has a release date: Tuesday, December 10th. [AL:TOR]Broadsword confirmed that Update 7.6 will be coming out next week with…
Path of Exile 2 wrestles with database issues and half a million Steam concurrent players - So how did your early access to Path of Exile 2 go? Because in the macrocosm sense, it was an extremely busy start to the OARPG's life, with hundreds of…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 496: Go ahead Corepunk, make our day
The Stream Team: Coming back to Dauntless to experience its Awakening
The Stream Team: Hobgoblins and A Cabal for One in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: I put on my robe and wizard hat in Enshrouded…
The Stream Team: Engaging in adorable co-op gunplay in AK-Xolotl
The Stream Team: Making Mr. Quiggles in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: On the Gold Road again in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: It’s finally time for AQ3D Frostval fun!
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.
