I have not had a good 2024. I have, in fact, had the absolute opposite of that. I feel like I exist now through a thick gauze, scented strongly of rot and sores, a veil of misery pulled over every facet of my existence. Which makes this column very easy to write, because basically anything that manages to penetrate that foul barrier between me and the world qualifies as a pretty big surprise! And you know, a lot of things actually managed to!
“Wait, was Eliot serious with that intro or was he doing all of that as a bit?” I’m glad you asked!
Anyway, there’s a lot of debate to be had over surprise, especially as some of these things are going to be more or less surprising to other people but not necessarily to you or to me, and that runs into the question of whether or not something that’s supposed to be surprising but you saw coming qualifies as a surprise or not. We’re going to sort that out with… this list. These are the eleven most surprising things from 2024 in the MMORPG, MMO, and MMO-adjacent space. Let’s go.
1. World of Warcraft is finally getting housing
On some level, I feel bad marking this as a surprise for this year because it is surprising, but it’s also the most substance-free announcement you can possibly get apart from those “announcement for an announcement” announcements. Heck, it’s even more annoying when you know you’re being a mark for housing, and you also know that World of Warcraft spent most of this year alternately scoring and flubbing on multiple at-bats, something we will talk about in our story roundup next week. But I am a mark for this, and it feels like a major win that this is finally happening. I am happy we are finally getting housing in WoW, and I did not see it coming.
2. City of Heroes is back, legitimately
I think anyone who had been listening to the staff behind the scenes of the Homecoming server knew that an official license from NCsoft was something that these folks have been trying to make happen. They were saying so for years. But I honestly did not expect it to ever happen, personally. I knew it was something on the list, but I figured that the reality was that it would never actually be anything beyond a “we want this to happen” with a shrug and a sigh. Yet… here we are. City of Heroes has an official server again. We won. Twelve years of waiting, and we won. It happened.
3. Cryptic gets sold off for scrap
Speaking of long history… this isn’t just because I’m worried about the future of Cryptic’s games, although I am. This is a very different outcome from when, say, Sony Online Entertainment got spun out into Daybreak. Cryptic was a solid performer running evergreen games for a long while, and now it’s gotten carved up and killed. That’s a real loss to the industry. Maybe it was always going to happen in some fashion, and we know it’s not a unique tragedy when a studio has years of success and still finally comes to an end, but. Still.
4. So many constant layoffs
I don’t need to dwell on this, do I? This year has seen rampant, horrid, unrelenting layoffs across the sector, from so many different companies and always for bad, short-sighted reasons. And maybe the existence of layoffs isn’t a surprise – every year has layoffs, after all – but the sheer scale of 2024’s layoffs after what was already a couple of rough years seems to have shocked even industry insiders.
5. Raph Koster’s new game is unveiled
And then we swing right back into the good with Stars Reach, the long-in-development and long-teased game from Ralph Lobster Raph Koster that isn’t supposed to be a direct sequel to anything else but may just bear some DNA from the man’s prior efforts. Will it be good? Great? Mediocre? We don’t know yet. But if there was a single game in this industry to serve as a gigantic potential “hey, we’re entering new territory” signpost, this would be it.
6. Concord, more like Gone-cord
I’m honestly not trying to be mean here making fun of Concord. Succeeding, but I’m not trying to. This game was very much put forth as a game doing what the other big hero shooter on the market failed to do, but what it really did successfully was fold basically instantly. Which is unusual! Normally you’d think that with this much money and inertia behind it, the game would at least get a little time to find its footing, but no, Sony killed it so quickly after launch that it felt like an accident it even launched at all. Just a baffling product misfire.
If you’re wondering why other games that crashed and burned this year aren’t on here, it’s because this one was a surprise. We’ve got our big stories roundup next week. Chill.
7. Gigantic comes back
Definitely not on my (or I suspect almost anyone’s) bingo card for 2024, seeing Gigantic come back after its original short run was a pretty big shocker. It’s a shame that the title doesn’t have much more juice in the tank beyond just being back, but sometimes that’s enough. We have a real graveyard of games that just couldn’t go for a long while, so it’s always nice to see one of them get a second chance.
8. Palia was saved by Daybreak
The fact that Palia came out of the gate and made only a small splash wasn’t exactly surprising. It’s the sort of thing where you can guess how the next several installments go and you know how this story ends, and it was definitely heading to a worrisome place, with multiple rounds of layoffs and weird obfuscation of its beta status as the remaining devs tried to shore it up on multiple platforms. But then… the game got saved, and of all the potential saviors in the world, it was Daybreak that swooped in. Not something that I would have expected. Whether or not that solves larger issues with the gameplay loop or anything, we’ll see; at least Daybreak seems pleased with its finances so far. Either way, it was nice to see that it didn’t just coast into the crash.
9. ArcheAge sunsets
There are things to be said about ArcheAge, but more substantive critiques should be another day, for I wish to memorialize and not critique the game that we’ve lost. Not only did the original sunset all over and then get a death sentence for the Korean version, but the sequel seems to be going in weird directions as well. It seemed like the game was a reliable mid-tier performer even if it never reached the heights it seemed to want, but then… woosh. Out the door.
10. Microsoft finally gets Final Fantasy XIV and blows it
The years on end that there had been far too much ballyhoo about Final Fantasy XIV on Microsoft’s console finally came to an end… only for Microsoft to make the game arbitrarily way more expensive on the console. What else can I say but yikes. Not a good look, and it basically wound up serving as a win for the studio while making Microsoft look… eh, honestly, about the same way Microsoft already looked this year. But it didn’t help.
11. Jagex was sold for the fourth time in eight years
Look, are we absolutely certain that everything is entirely above board here? Is someone possibly laundering money with these deals? Is someone else in the room with Jagex right now? Blink twice for yes. Yeah, it’s maybe the least surprising issue in this whole list but when this somehow keeps happening you have to start finding yourself asking crucial questions about what’s going on. Check in the desk. Something important is always hidden in the desk.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten usually takes an MMO topic and divides it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. And per tradition, we’re cranking this column up to eleven with our annual special features in the End-of-Year Eleven!
