The fact that Elder Scrolls Online’s new content has “worm” in the title is probably the least of its worries: This week, ZeniMax Online Studios revealed the game’s first season of fresh content along with a rather convoluted annual-pass business model that has MMO players wondering whether they’re being asked to pay more for less. You guys worry about that; I’m still trying to figure out why the first season is plural.
In other MMO news, WoW Classic began taking Mists of Pandaria Classic test opt-ins, LOTRO launched a fifth 64-bit server thanks to the wild player demand, and we’re witnessing a changing of the guard over at Albion Online as longtime game director Robin Henkys relinquishes his post.
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
Elder Scrolls Online lays out its new seasonal cadence, annual content passes, and Seasons of the Worm Cult - Just ahead of the new year, ZeniMax Online Studios worried the Elder Scrolls Online playerbase with the announcement that the studio would go into the MMORPG's 11th year with a…
MMO Hype Train: Is Equinox Homecoming for real or is it a pony fever dream? - I have long gone on the record saying that I truly appreciate it when a creative work -- especially TV, movies, and video games -- bucks the tired trends and…
Lord of the Rings Online whips up a new tropical island for this year’s Midsummer Festival - One of Lord of the Rings Online's younger festivals is about to get a major upgrade in 2025. The Midsummer Festival, which came following Update 27, previously confined players to…
Classic Guild Wars is teasing 50+ unlocked weapons and minipets in next week’s anniversary patch - As we noted last week, classic Guild Wars is turning 20 years old this month, and ArenaNet is not letting the date of this seminal MMO slip by unremarked. No,…
Why I Play: V Rising is an MMO you can win - We've got a couple weeks to go until we can play V Rising's next major update, Invaders of Oakveil, which is hitting on April 28th. And I'm looking forward to…
The First Descendant previews new content arriving April 17, jiggle physics coming in May - Season 2 Episode 2 for The First Descendant is already well underway, but next week will be bringing more to the looter shooter when a patch on Thursday, April 17th,…
Did The Matrix Online stop us from seeing a major character in The Matrix: Resurrections? - Morpheus did not appear in The Matrix: Resurrections when it released a couple years ago, which seemed a little odd. Of course, what's also odd is that it did feature…
Ultima Online’s second update for New Legacy is here with new tameables and the Forsaken Bloodline dungeon - Broadsword hasn't been overly chatty about Ultima Online's New Legacy alternative ruleset server since it launched last fall, but the studio has been busy indeed: The roadmap in January suggested…
Enshrouded announces Thralls of Twilight, launching May 2025, as it celebrates 4M players - If you're one of the 4,000,000 people who've already bought into the Enshrouded hype, then this week has been a good one for you. That's because Keen Games has teased…
New World’s revised Coral Divide outpost rush map test will run for a week starting April 15 - Are you ready to kick the tires of the Coral Divide outpost rush in New World? Then you've got a set of dates to keep in mind because Amazon Games…
V Rising launches a new site and trailer for its Invaders of Oakveil update - Is it possible that the real invaders of Oakveil were the thralls we made along the way in V Rising? No. That doesn't even pretend to make sense. But the…
World of Warcraft has opened signups for Mists of Pandaria Classic - No, you haven't just wandered through a dodgy portal: Blizzard is pushing the World of Warcraft Classic progression servers on to Mists of Pandaria this year, and if you wanted…
Massively Overthinking: The one about open-world randos in MMOs - MOP's Chris is fast becoming my muse: It was his remark about Marvel Heroes that inspired this week's Massively Overthinking. "Some of the best fun I had in that game…
Tomo Endless Blue is a new anime survivalish MMO (kinda) from new studio Onibi - Former MMO and MOBA devs have unveiled a new MMO today: It's called Tomo: Endless Blue, and it's launching on Steam next year. It's coming to us from studio Onibi,…
Ship of Heroes calls attention to its ‘gorgeous’ visuals and how they serve game design as donations reopen - One would expect that a game set in a sci-fi superheroic setting would have a lot of dynamic things to look at, and Ship of Heroes is certainly making that…
Casually Classic: How Burning Crusade brought us some of WoW’s best starting zones - There's certainly been a rise of chatter among the WoW Classic community these days regarding The Burning Crusade. This is partially because of a pent-up demand for a return to…
Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra criticizes Diablo IV’s roadmap: ‘I’m not sure where Diablo is going’ - Just because Mike Ybarra is no longer with Blizzard doesn't mean that the former studio president has closed the book on his opinions about how the studio is being run.…
Vague Patch Notes: The problem with level scaling in MMOs - Last week, as I talked about the problems with horizontal progression, long-time commenter Rick Mills asked if I would write a column about level scaling and the problems with that.…
Ubisoft’s legal response to The Crew class action argues players don’t own the games they buy - Readers may remember that a pair of gamers have been pursuing Ubisoft to court via a class action lawsuit over The Crew's sunset and store removal, arguing that the move…
Lord of the Rings Online launches another 64-bit server, Grond, as it begins testing Update 44 - Over a month after Lord of the Rings Online opened its greatly hyped 64-bit servers to new characters and transfers, SSG has opened up an additional realm to help with…
Fawkes is running another Defiance stress test April 11, having rebalanced the cash shop ‘pain points’ - So, how did the Defiance stress test last weekend go? Well enough that Fawkes Games, which picked up the game from Gamigo to open new servers later this month, is…
Embers Adrift prepares its ‘Rekindled’ Steam version with an auction hall and crafting revamp - It's been a long journey for MMORPG Embers Adrift. The Kickstarted indie MMORPG actually appeared to be doing well enough for itself until last year, when Stormhaven Studios told players…
Albion Online’s longtime game director, Robin Henkys, is stepping down - Earlier this week, MOP's staff just happened to be discussing some of the unusual cadence and developer video stuff going on over at Albion Online studio Sandbox Interactive - and…
Path of Exile 2 devs admit to ‘firing from the hip’ with ‘blatant’ mistakes in Dawn of the Hunt - Grinding Gear Games continues to find itself on the back foot with regard to Path of Exile 2 and its disastrous Dawn of the Hunt release, which has arrived with…
Why I Play: It’s not too late to get into Monster Hunter Wilds - I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw the update for Monster Hunter Wilds and thought, "Man, I'm so behind!" Heck, it's weird for me to read MOP's Chris' (excellent) coverage…
Perfect Ten: The accursed MMORPG dungeons of no return - So it came to be that I did face my Judgment, and I sat between that greatest of all Game-Masters o'er all the online games, and she did declare: "Lo,…
These are the servers that will be merged together in Pantheon Rise of the Fallen today - Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen was generally toying with the idea of merging servers last month, and today server merges are indeed moving forward that will ultimately see the number…
World of Warcraft readies Patch 11.1.5 for April 22 with leveling boosts and a Nightfall scenario - World of Warcraft's next big content update is still on the far horizon, but that doesn't mean that the fantasy MMO is going to twiddle its thumbs until it gets…
PlanetSide 2 fans are upset over a botched NA server merge that apparently increased player ping - PlanetSide 2 fans in North America who have been waiting months for the merge of the North American servers were supposed to finally get their wish this week - but…
Tibia’s first new class in 25 years, the Monk, is live today – and the game is live on EGS too - Back in February, Tibia's announcement of the new Monk class - the first new class to the ancient MMORPG in 25 years - was cause for many raised eyebrows, as…
Here’s what Diablo IV is doing in 2025 that isn’t the expansion you wanted - Are you looking for a roadmap from your favorite OARPG? Maybe not usually, but you're probably pretty curious what Blizzard has in store for Diablo IV, especially after the studio…
Choose My Adventure: Sylvan’s Cradle encapsulates the good and the bad of Nightingale - As directed by you fine poll-completing folks, I dived face-first into Nightingale with a singular purpose: power through the Sylvan's Cradle zone, clearing out POIs and completing story beats along…
Not So Massively: Has the OARPG genre left me behind? - For some time now I've been thinking that I really want to sink my teeth into a new Diablo-style action RPG. I crave the satisfaction that can only come from…
Amazon says Throne and Liberty’s Wilds of Talandre ‘brought a significant influx of both new and returning players’ - A new piece on Forbes this week sheds some light on how Throne & Liberty is doing since its launch in the west last fall - and more specifically, since…
Path of Exile 2 plans tweaks to monster life, Huntress class, and map size after latest patch rouses player anger - Usually a big content patch for a game would make people pleased, but the Dawn of the Hunt update for Path of Exile 2 has not sparked joy, with players…
The Spiral of Vul contested dungeon is live in EverQuest II’s GU128 Lure of Darkness today - EverQuest II fans, get yourselves ready for launch day as GU128 aka Lure of Darkness is finally live today after a few weeks of life on the public test server.…
Martial arts MMO Havenhold talks up its 14-day cyclical gameplay as it heads to April 17 closed beta - Last June we first caught wind of Havenhold, a self-described "multiplayer conquest adventure" MMO (aka an MMOACT) that promised a blending of PvE co-op, PvP conquest, and a whole lot…
Wisdom of Nym: First impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s Seekers of Eternity story content - Let's start at the very beginning, as The Sound of Music informed me that is a very good place to start: This column will have spoilers in it. If you…
Game company stock values in multiple markets start to tumble in the wake of US tariffs - With US President Donald Trump's imposed trade tariffs throwing the global economy into turmoil and stoking fears of another Great Depression in the US, the games industry is also beginning…
Project Ghost’s first dev stream video and Q&A shows off the Wychwood zone - How high is Fantastic Pixel Castle's Project Ghost on your hype list these days? It may rate a spot or two higher after you see the studio's first-ever dev stream…
Marathon unveils gameplay details and September 23 release, Destiny 2 preps Codename Frontiers - It was very easy to assume that the reprise of Marathon, Bungie's in-development PvPvE extraction shooter, was in very real danger of not releasing; all fans got for years were…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 513: The MMORPG PvP theme show
The Stream Team: Taking some first steps into Welkin’s Reach in Nightingale
The Stream Team: It’s Just Business in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: What can top playing as pigs in Split Fiction?
The Stream Team: Diving back into hell with a buddy in Helldivers 2 co-op
The Stream Team: A Legacy Damned in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Having your Elder Scrolls Online birthday cake and eating it too
The Stream Team: The further training with friends in a Final Fantasy XIV return
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.
