Since the year we went independent as MassivelyOP, we’ve been taking time at the end of the year to recap every month as a capstone on everything that happened to the MMORPG genre, all in one place, as a reminder to both us and our readers. Next year, MOP turns 10 years old, which means this is actually the 10th time we’ve done these! So let’s do it again: As we did in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, let’s wind our way back through our 2024 MMO coverage, one month a day for the next 12 days, to consider what happened and carry it with us into 2025.
Far and away the biggest MMORPG news of January broke early on: NCsoft finally granted a license to operate City of Heroes to the Homecoming group that had already been doing so for the last several years, making the game legal and reviving it in a big way.
We also saw the arrival of megastar Palworld, the first whispers of Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road, and the release of World of Warcraft’s Seeds of Renewal. Unfortunately, January also heralded the first of many major rounds of layoffs for game devs in 2024. Those layoffs also included the president of Blizzard, who was replaced by Johanna Faries.
Here’s the whole recap from January of this past year, from our top news stories of the month to our best editorials.
TOP NEWS STORIES OF JANUARY 2024
Job listings suggest Sony’s Horizon MMO aka Project Skyline is actually happening
Following Bobby Kotick’s exit, former ABK devs call out his toxic management and Overwatch 2 sabotage
Square-Enix’s new president mentions blockchain and generative AI in new year letter
Korea’s FTC fines Nexon $8.9M over MapleStory’s deceptive gear upgrade probabilities
VR MMO Zenith’s next patch is a literal do-or-die moment: ‘We’ve been operating at a loss’
NCsoft has officially granted a City of Heroes server license to the Homecoming crew
Hearthstone is sunsetting its Duels Mode in April, Blizzard has announced
City of Heroes Homecoming talks funding, the City Council, and the impending content drop
Final Fantasy XIV Tokyo Fan Festival: Pictomancer, lady Hrothgar, and release ambiguity
Former Activision-Blizzard exec files lawsuit that alleges the studio fired him for being old and white
Unsurprisingly, City of Heroes Homecoming saw a massive playerbase spike this past weekend
WildStar roleplayers open and develop a socially-minded rogue server called Genesis Prime
Nexon’s Vindictus is killing off all of its PvP systems in two weeks
Unity sheds another 1800 workers from all of its departments in latest layoff round
Nexon Korea hosts ’emergency livestream’ over recent MapleStory cube manipulation fine
Steam welcomes ‘legally murky’ AI games, voice actors guild forges controversial AI deal
Dungeons & Dragons Online makes tons of content free or nearly free for the franchise’s 50th birthday
Temtem closes its competitive esports tournament and associated Showdown standalone PvP side game
Hi-Rez just officially announced SMITE 2, soft-launching into beta this year – but SMITE will stay online
RuneScape and Old School RuneScape will close their official forums on March 28
Tibia-inspired MMO Ravendawn launches today – without the NFTs of its sister game
World of Warcraft’s Seeds of Renewal update is set to go live tonight
Ubisoft talks up its subscription services and making gamers ‘comfortable’ with not owning titles
Lord of the Rings Online’s 2024 roadmap includes an expansion, new hobby, and kinship ‘refresh’
City of Heroes Homecoming saw 4431 peak concurrent players this past weekend
Final Fantasy XIV wraps up Manderville weapons and readies for Dawntrail with patch 6.55 today
APB Reloaded is sunsetting its console versions – in fact, the Xbox server is already permanently offline
Epic and Apple appeals are rejected by the Supreme Court, making the original 2021 ruling final
Guild Wars 2 studio says no accounts involved in new social engineering claim were compromised by CS
Palia will reduce its beta release cadence – but not its content quantity – in 2024
Blizzard’s maintenance-moded Heroes of the Storm is getting another patch – with hero buffs
Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road chapter takes players back to Oblivion’s best city on June 3
Pokémon-like Palworld launches early access today, aims to be ‘the best game ever’
GDC’s 2024 industry survey: Game devs weigh in on AI, layoffs, unionization, RTO, and more
EVE Online plans two expansions, Vanguard tests, returning events, and a 21st anniversary in 2024 roadmap
Riot Games laid off over 500 people last night, and no we don’t know what it means for the Riot MMO
Star Trek Online 31st season, Both Worlds, has launched for PC – here’s the new trailer!
Blizzard revives Overwatch 2 esports with the newly announced Overwatch Champions Series
Kritika Global is officially shut down on Steam today while Kritika Zero heads for release tomorrow
ArenaNet opens up more job postings for Guild Wars 2 and its still-developing unannounced project
The Day Before studio claims to be the target of misinformation and a hate campaign
Palworld tops 2M concurrency on Steam as the Pokémon company ‘intends to investigate’
Microsoft lays off 1900 workers: Blizzard sheds Mike Ybarra, its survival game, and its customer support in one day
The Final Fantasy XIV live-action TV series is apparently dead in the water
Avatar franchise mobile MMO Avatar Reckoning has been canceled after split from Tencent
Hawaii-themed zombie survivalbox Fractured Veil finally makes its early access release to mixed reviews
Chronicles of Elyria begins alpha testing… a feedback form
Former Bungie legal exec: ‘The company will never love you back, but if you let it, it’ll kill you’
Mad World’s Steam launch is more like Sad World
Johanna Faries is the new president of Blizzard following Mike Ybarra’s ouster
Tencent-backed Chimeraland is shutting down at the end of March
Phantasy Star Online 2’s latest update adds more story and raises the level cap as SEGA America begins layoffs
Hasbro is selling the Dungeons & Dragons IP – and Tencent is the potential buyer
Wayfinder studio Airship Syndicate is laying off a dozen staff as execs reduce their own pay
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF JANUARY 2024
Wisdom of Nym: What Final Fantasy XIV’s fan festival needs to accomplish
Choose My Adventure: Villagers & Heroes starts off feeling like a different game
Progress Bar: Another go-round with cozy ‘MMO’ Palia, this time on the Switch
End-of-Year Eleven: All the upcoming MMOs to watch in 2024 and beyond
Well Fed: An introduction to our MMO kitchen and MOP’s new Well Fed column
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are still just games you rent
Casually Classic: Analyzing WoW Classic’s 2024 roadmap
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2023
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2024
MassivelyOP’s complete 2023 awards recap and debrief
Into the Super-Verse: Reflecting on City of Heroes, back officially at long last
Not So Massively: It’s okay that Redfall is just okay
The Game Archaeologist: The Sims Bustin’ Out, the online Sims game nobody remembers
Wisdom of Nym: The highs and lows of Final Fantasy XIV’s 2024 Tokyo fan festival
The Soapbox: Hearthstone is probably in for another boring year in 2024
Choose My Adventure: Villagers and Heroes starts to click and become routine at the same time
Casually Classic: 12 quality-of-life improvements coming with Cataclysm Classic
End-of-Year Eleven: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures in 2024
Leaderboard: What was the best *new* MMO of 2023?
Into the Super-Verse: Rediscoveries I made diving headlong into City of Heroes Homecoming
Four Winds: Catching up with Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis
Leaderboard: What was the most overrated MMO of 2023?
Massively Overthinking: The 2023 MMO trainwrecks (almost) nobody noticed
The Daily Grind: What MMOs are you no longer anticipating at the top of 2024?
Vague Patch Notes: The real question every MMO has to answer
Fight or Kite: Harry Potter Magic Awakened’s winter seasonal event has its claws in me
LOTRO Legendarium: Brainstorming new hobby ideas for LOTRO
Wisdom of Nym: Dreaming about Final Fantasy XIV patch 6.55 during the day-long downtime
Vitae Aeternum: The ups and downs of New World’s revamped story
Choose My Adventure: Returning to Genshin Impact in 2024
Perfect Ten: The weirdest weapons from MMOs of yore
Into the Super-Verse: What City of Heroes needs now is not more endgame content
Massively Overthinking: The slowest and fastest combat in MMORPGs
Vague Patch Notes: What City of Heroes Homecoming means for the wider MMORPG industry
Leaderboard: What’s the most vulnerable Daybreak MMO in 2024?
LOTRO Legendarium: Digging into LOTRO’s 2024 roadmap, from U39 to the Baharbêl expansion
Wisdom of Nym: Impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s petite patch 6.55
Choose My Adventure: Genshin Impact is slowly working its charms on me
Perfect Ten: The 10 most utterly bizarre Final Fantasy XIV NPC names
Vague Patch Notes: Early access is just game development as performance art
Working As Intended: How to mod City of Heroes Homecoming the easy way
Massively Overthinking: Open world difficulty and puzzles in MMOs
Into the Super-Verse: Gearing up as a newcomer to City of Heroes Homecoming
Tamriel Infinium: The history of Elder Scrolls games (before and after Elder Scrolls Online)
Fight or Kite: Warhaven’s pre-season 2 is super fun but perilously unbalanced
The Game Archaeologist: Dragon Ball Online, the MMO that never made it to the west
Interview: Survival MMO Age of Water on monetization, sandbox play, and the Q1 early access launch
Wisdom of Nym: The franchise references for jobs in Final Fantasy XIV
The Soapbox: Casuals and soloers need challenging MMO content too
Choose My Adventure: Genshin Impact is a perfectly lovely single-player RPG
Perfect Ten: Why MMOs should never ditch text chat
