It was a wild week for MMORPGs here in early January – and kind of a lot of it happened at the end of it. On Friday, EG7/Daybreak announced the closure of the studio whose staff it just set to work on PlanetSide 2 last year, leaving the fate of that game unspoken and in limbo. Then, Raph Koster announced that Stars Reach will run a Kickstarter in February – the first big Kickstarter the core MMORPG genre has seen in a while. And we even got a big infodump out of Lord of the Rings Online, which is aiming to open new 64-bit servers for voluntary player transfers this spring.
Finally, we polished off our awards season and holiday content with our annual roundtable and debrief. Congratulations to all of our winners!
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
Raph Koster’s Stars Reach MMORPG is launching a Kickstarter in February – and could launch as early as 2026 - Raph Koster and Playable Worlds announced during their fireside chat this evening that they're launching a Kickstarter campaign for sprawling sci-fantasy sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach. "Playable Worlds has announced the…
Enad Global 7 shuts down Toadman and lays off staff at Piranha Games, potentially affecting PlanetSide 2 - We have the unfortunate duty to report that the layoffs within the games industry will apparently continue until funny line improves. Enad Global 7, the Swedish company that took ownership…
MassivelyOP’s complete MMO 2024 awards recap and debrief - As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, today we're going to recap our annual awards and other articles from the end of 2024. We gave…
MMO Hype Train: Could 2025 be the Year of Dune Awakening? - I'm going to lay out my cards on the table because I think that honesty is germane to what we'll be talking about today: I'm not really a fan of…
Elder Scrolls Online reveals the Fallen Banners DLC and update 45 with a starter zone revamp and console mods - ZeniMax Online Studios previewed two things for Elder Scrolls Online last night - and no, neither of them was a chapter, as the studio has sworn off chapters (for now?)…
Lord of the Rings Online’s lead explains how the new 64-bit servers are going to work - After sparking some unintended (but predictable) drama over a half-formed announcement of new 64-bit servers coming this year to Lord of the Rings Online, Standing Stone Games' Executive Producer Rob…
End-of-Year Eleven: All the upcoming MMOs to watch in 2025 and beyond - As we turn the page on another fascinating year of MMORPG history, we cross into fresh territory. What lies ahead? Surprises, disappointments, and endless potential, my friends. And while we…
WoW Factor: The ‘tactical era’ of World of Warcraft dungeons kind of wasn’t - One of the things that I like to do, in both this column and elsewhere, is push back against myths that have grown up around World of Warcraft while they…
EverQuest and EverQuest II released full 2025 roadmaps – and of course, new expansions are coming this fall - It's roadmap week over in the land of EverQuest, as Daybreak's Darkpaw Games has delivered roadmaps for both Original Flavor EverQuest and New Coke EverQuest II. (Hey, New Coke was…
WoW Factor: Ranking all 10 of World of Warcraft’s expansions from worst to best - Now that I've played through the entirety of The War Within, I have some strong opinions where this expansion lies in the grander tapestry of World of Warcraft. But why…
Chrono Odyssey is now taking newsletter signups that promise ‘early access to upcoming events’ - It's been a couple of months since we've heard much of anything out of Chrono Odyssey, Kakao and Npixel's upcoming fantasy MMO that's eyeing a global launch in the latter…
V Rising thwarts vampire hunters to sell over five million units - Don't count a vampire down and out just because it died once upon a time. Stunlock Studios announced that its survival horror game V Rising just crossed five million units…
In latest shareholder call, Ubisoft continues to be cagey about Tencent negotiations - The latter half of last year saw persistent rumors about Ubisoft's efforts toward stabilization, as the founding Guillemot family and the company's largest stakeholder, Tencent, allegedly debated taking the company…
Blizzard invites fan to celebrate 30 years of Warcraft at a world tour of gatherings - Sydney. Sao Paulo. Seoul. Toronto. Boston. London. These six cities all have something in common: They are not Albuquerque. Also, they are all hosting a special gathering with Blizzard developers…
Brighter Shores plans to merge combat professions, update gear, and add new upgrade trees - Last November brought the MMORPG Brighter Shores into early access with some distinct design choices, chief among them being combat professions that are specific to larger zones or "episodes." It…
PSA: Star Citizen followers raise the alarm over continued conflicting refund policy messages - If you've been following the discussions around Star Citizen, you might have seen the topic of the sandbox's refund policy come up, perhaps even with claims that the policy is…
Warframe studio Digital Extremes donated $10000 to support California wildfire relief efforts - This week, we've been covering the devastation in Southern California as multiple wildfires are rampaging through Los Angeles, destroying tens of thousands of homes and buildings and leaving around half…
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2025 - For our next Massively Overthinking roundtable of the 2024/2025 transition era, we're looking ahead not with predictions but with something a whole lot more fiddly and personal: hopes and fears.…
Tibia-inspired MMO Ravendawn announces a full mobile version - Ravendawn, the sandbox MMO that drew inspiration from the classic tile-based Tibia, has been quite the busy beaver in year since its launch. And now it looks to be expanding…
Whatever happened to crafting sandbox A Tale in the Desert? - It's been a couple trips around the sun since we last checked in with 2003's A Tale in the Desert, an old MMO that's famous for being one of the…
Splash Damage pulled the plug on online shooter Transformers: Reactivate - Transformers is a franchise that's had a surprisingly difficult time breaking into the online sector, and it looks like its luck isn't changing any time soon. IGN reports that Transformers: Reactivate…
Tower of Fantasy’s Forging a New World update arrives later this month - Online gacha RPG Tower of Fantasy aims to start this year with a literal blast of content when its 4.6 update comes out later this month. Forging a New World…
Leaderboard: What was the most overrated MMO of 2024? - It's pretty much a given that every year when we announce our MMO of the year, someone's going to hop into the comments and say, "Well actually, that MMO is…
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2024 - Welcome to the worst article I have to write every year. I mean, nobody is really making me do it. But I still feel I have to write it; I…
Vague Patch Notes: No, authenticity does not make video games successful - On December 12th, 2024, The Game Awards had its annual awards show, and the award for Game of the Year was presented by Larian Studios head Swen Vincke. Vincke, coming…
Final Fantasy XIV reruns its free login campaign for lapsed users and issues a new remix album - It's time once again for lapsed players of Final Fantasy XIV to take an opportunity to peer back in and see what's new in Eorzea for a limited time, as…
Multiple game studios and even the Fallout TV show are impacted by the devastating California wildfires - If you're paying any attention to the current US news, you know that large parts of dense Los Angeles, California, are under siege by five wildfires that are consuming whole…
World of Warcraft is hiking subscription prices in Australia and New Zealand - Who doesn't like paying more for things? Wait. Sorry. The answer to that is "everyone," and so you can imagine that residents of Australia and New Zealand are not exactly…
City of Heroes Homecoming offers a brief roadmap with two major updates planned for 2025 - While City of Heroes Homecoming's license from NCsoft was big news last January, regular readers will know that after the initial rush of players died down, the game actually quieted…
Creature capturing MMO Untamed Isles resumes development after being bought up by a blockchain studio - It's been almost three years since we heard anything out of Untamed Isles, a cute-looking creature capturing MMORPG from developer Phat Loot Studios that first entered our notice back in…
Leaderboard: What was the (next) best *new* MMO or MMO-adjacent game of 2024? - Longtime readers of MOP will know that when we give out our MMO of the year award, we do not limit it to just brand-new titles. We haven't done so…
Ship of Heroes collects its dev progress through 2024 as it still eyes launch this year - Among the MMOs we've suggested you should keep your eyes on in 2025 is Ship of Heroes, which is looking to make its release in the second quarter of this…
Destiny 2’s Revenant Act III update arrives to disgruntled players and tumbling Steam numbers - This week has brought a new content update to the looter shooter of Destiny 2, but if player sentiment is anything to go by, this patch is not bringing joy.…
World of Warcraft’s Undermine update is up on the test server – let the datamining begin - If you've long waited to go to the Goblin capital in World of Warcraft, your chance is now here. Not on the live game just yet, but the Undermine(d) patch…
Finally: Co-op looter-shooter Wayfinder arrives on Xbox on January 28 - It's been a bit of a wait for Wayfinder fans who do their video gaming on Xbox Series X|S to get their hands on the game, but considering how much…
Gaming psychologist believes 2025 will bring ‘a new era of safety by design for our digital playgrounds’ - We've written more than a few times about the effect of harassment, hate speech, and other toxic behaviors in MMOs and online gaming spaces - a trend that doesn't appear…
City of Heroes Homecoming expands today with the addition of the Victory server - A year ago when NCsoft first granted City of Heroes Homecoming the license to operate officially, the devs made clear that they would be creating a "city council" of likeminded…
DC Universe Online celebrates 14 years with another Anti-Monitor event and launch of new event system - Superheroic MMORPG DC Universe Online has been kicking around for 14 years this week, and that means it's time for players to celebrate with the return of the Anti-Monitor event,…
Marvel Rivals breaks down Season 1’s updates and features as Nexus Mods removes weirdo political content - Fans already know that team hero shooter Marvel Rivals is headed for its first full season on January 10th, but now players are getting a few more specific details thanks…
Choose My Adventure: Why I’m playing RuneScape this month (and not Pantheon) - Even though I do my best to follow the will of the polls for Choose My Adventure, there are some times when I have to make an executive decision. Either…
Star Citizen’s chief strategy officer publicly resigns from his post at CIG - This news will either be part of another slate of bad omens for developers working on Star Citizen or is just another shuffling of executives that ultimately has no impact…
Casually Classic: What does WoW Classic’s future look like? - Welcome to 2025, WoW Classic fans! What began as a somewhat reluctant legacy version of this MMO a little over five years ago has ballooned into an entire sub-franchise of…
Fight or Kite: The PvP MMOs we’re watching in 2025 - Today we arrive at the first Fight or Kite column of the newest quarter of the century, and while I can’t speak for other PvPers out there, I find myself…
Tencent pushes back against its classification as a Chinese military company by the US government - Supposedly the Chinese megacorp Tencent is up to more than just working in video games if the US Department of Defense is to be believed, as the government body has…
Heroes of the Storm’s next patch brings back Brawls – permanently – after nearly five years - As has now become almost a regular habit, another patch has gone up the test realm for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's ostensibly maintenance-moded MOBA. Like the patches that have…
Not So Massively: Holidays in The First Descendant are truly the blurst of times - When I first tried The First Descendant, I hit a brick wall over the fact that I didn't enjoy playing the two freebie characters I was given early on, and…
Albion Online’s smuggler-filled Rogue Frontier update is coming in less than a month - While other MMOs are sluggishly dusting off the Christmas cookie crumbs from their eggnog-stained sweaters, Albion Online already is back at work and ready to crank out its first big…
Wisdom of Nym: What happened with Final Fantasy XIV’s spread-out patch 7.1? - So to preface this particular column, I want to make something clear: There's no conspiracy going on with Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.1. I did a whole column about how…
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen hits a new concurrent player high, opens a new server to compensate - While Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's early access release might not be for everyone right now, it's certainly right for a respectable number of MMORPG fans, as this past weekend…
PlayerUnknown has aspirations of creating a metaverse over the course of three interlocked game releases - Yep, that word is being used by a big name developer again. But then that big name developer is Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, the guy whose game PUBG created an entirely…
Steam saw more games released in 2024 than any other year prior - We are once again being reminded that Valve's Steam platform is the biggest player in town when it comes to digital storefronts: Fresh data from SteamDB show that more games…
Diablo III reruns the Light’s Calling theme for its Season 34 starting January 24 - Thematically speaking, fighting the legions of Hell with the power of divine light kind of makes sense, even if a world like Sanctuary sees demons get blown up by things…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast: The 500th episode and writer roundtable
The Stream Team: Returning to survival MMO Once Human
The Stream Team: The Age of Rage in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming starts its new year with some New World dungeons
The Stream Team: Strapping back into some multiplayer MechWarrior 5 Clans action
The Stream Team: Living the Guild Wars 2 Season 3 life
The Stream Team: The secrets of Warframe 1999’s secret lair
The Stream Team: On the hunt for furniture in V Rising
The Stream Team: Seeking some superhero fights in the first full season of Marvel Rivals
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.
