The MMO industry isn’t slowing down as the summer progresses. This week was headlined by the news that Pearl Abyss is trying to sell CCP Games, EVE Online, and its baggage train of assorted in-development games that are sucking down all of EVE Online’s revenue.
We also saw Chrono Odyssey’s weekend beta travails, the launch of BitCraft’s early access, City of Heroes’s first major update of the year, and the preview of Final Fantasy XIV’s Promise of Tomorrow. Plus, World of Warcraft launched Legacy of Arathor and then immediately announced Ghosts of K’aresh. Pay attention to WoW!
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
Pearl Abyss has apparently put CCP Games – and EVE Online – up for sale - According to reporting on Korean financial news site Money Today, CCP Games - and therefore EVE Online - are back on the market. Readers will surely recall that Korean games…
World of Warcraft previews its next major update, The Ghosts of K’aresh - With World of Warcraft having just deployed its most recent update, you might assume that the game is going to kick back and let everyone enjoy the patch for a bit...…
Sandbox MMORPG BitCraft Online has officially released to Steam early access - It's been a bit of a bumpy last leg to get to this point, but after a few delays, the crafting and exploration sandbox MMORPG world of BitCraft Online has…
A new RIFT patch is percolating for next week – the first for the MMO since 2022 - Here's a pleasant shocker for mid-2025: RIFT is preparing to bring an actual patch to bear on June 24th. The Ghar Station reports that Gamigo's actually been working on a…
Vitae Aeternum: New World’s latest seasonal server is anything but hardcore - One of my biggest frustrations with the current state of New World is that the open world has lost most of the challenge that originally made the game special in…
MMO Hype Train: Dune Awakening stumbles, trips, and sometimes sprints in its early experience - It does seem appropriate that for a series about the fight over a planet filled with a rare resource, Dune Awakening has played tug-o'-war with the interest of MMO gamers…
Dungeons and Dragons Online releases paid Dhampir race, opens Chill of Ravenloft expansion preorders - Dungeons and Dragons wasn't content to just roll out a patch today; it also launched preorders for its next expansion. But as you'll quickly see, they kinda go hand in…
Vague Patch Notes: Control archetypes in MMORPGs are dead, but also they aren’t - Recently, we got a very fun podcast question from Merp asking if control/debuff archetypes in MMORPGs were dead. This is a good question! It's such a good question that I…
‘Anti-P2W’ MMO Lionhearts is on Kickstarter selling duchies and duke titles for $10,000 - A few weeks back, we covered a new-to-us strategy MMO, Lionhearts - a game effectively spun out of a Roblox game by indie studio Credenzio. And now, the game has…
The modder behind Final Fantasy XIV’s problematic PlayerScope mod says he’s ‘permanently and irreversibly deleted’ its files - Last January we reported on the existence of an extremely troubling mod developed for Final Fantasy XIV and known as PlayerScope, which effectively let gamers mine personal information about the…
LOTRO Legendarium: What should Lord of the Rings Online’s kinship refresh include? - It does seem as though Standing Stone Games has been talking about a "kinship refresh" for Lord of the Rings Online for years now, doesn't it? It's right up there…
Fractured Online’s revamp will swap prefab player housing to a fully modular building system - It's not every day that an MMO launches twice and closes down twice and then launches again after being bought by another company and flooded with money and development, but…
Gachapwned: The hollowness of gacha MMO shutdowns and the way you lose - Sunsets are a reality in our line of coverage. They're not a constant, of course, but there are a lot of MMORPGs that do not make it to the decade…
ARK: Survival Ascended launches its ‘first full expansion,’ Lost Colony - The next chapter for ARK: Survival Ascended is here (sort of), as the sandbox's "first full expansion" arrived yesterday on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation with Lost Colony. Players can purchase…
Chrono Odyssey’s beta is underway with no NDA, lots of bugs, and the promise of more invites and capacity - Eager fans hoping for a crack at the Chrono Odyssey beta this weekend are finally getting their wish as the event is finally underway. Well, some of them are. "The…
Final Fantasy XIV previews patch 7.3, The Promise of Tomorrow, in its latest live letter - The latest Final Fantasy XIV live letter has showed off the game's next patch: patch 7.3, The Promise of Tomorrow, is slated for early August release and will contain the conclusion…
Dune Awakening’s future plans include a beefy July patch and the start of DLCs - Dune Awakening was one of the more impactful launches this year, but can Funcom keep momentum and interest in the survival SANDbox going? That's the hope behind a recent AMA…
MMORPG sandbox BitCraft will launch early access tomorrow after all, not next week - We're back and forth and back and forth on BitCraft's $30 early access: It's been undelayed and is now launching tomorrow. Readers will recall that the game was originally meant to…
Massively Overthinking: Finding flow states in MMORPGs - In this week's Massively Overthinking, I want to talk about flow in MMOs - the psychology concept, not zone or progression design flow. Here's Wikipedia's definition: "Flow in positive psychology,…
Greg Street explains how Project Ghost’s proc-gen blue zones will give Grizzly Hills vibes without the expense - Episode the third of Fantastic Pixel Castle's aptly named Ghost Stories has arrived today, allowing studio boss Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street more space to discuss his upcoming MMORPG, codenamed Project Ghost.…
Star Wars Galaxies Legends kicks off Empire Day and Pride events and adds three new houses - You might not realize it, but Star Wars Galaxies rogue server SWG Legends is actually first out of the gate with its Independence Day celebrations this year. Of course, it's…
Once Human officially begins renting out ‘version 1.0’ of its custom servers with the latest update - The power is now in the hands of Once Human players as the option to rent custom servers for the survivalbox has officially moved out of its "early access" period…
Lord of the Rings Online welcomes players to the new tropical Midsummer Festival island - Say hello to Lord of the Rings Online's new Midsummer Festival that's sending you to the brand-new tropical island of Furtherholm! LOTRO officially kicked off this year's Midsummer Festival today,…
Defiance’s new handler revives 2014 7th Legion DLC with its new faction and dynamic events - Gamigo-backed Fawkes Games is apparently going to just keep on pumping out old Defiance DLC now, if its last few updates are anything to go by. So far, we've had…
Here’s how Albion Online’s newbie experience is changing with June 30th’s Abyssal Depths - Right now, if you create a new character in Albion Online and try it for the first time (and you should if you never have since it's easily the biggest…
World of Warcraft activates Legacy of Arathor, explains Pandaria Classic’s celestial dungeons - Don't let the double decimal points in the update fool you: World of Warcraft's latest content drop is anything but insignificant. Legacy of Arathor went live last night, bringing the…
Bungie delays Marathon from its original September 23 release date - September 23rd might seem like it's a long way away, but it gets closer one day at a time, and it was getting closer than the developers at Bungie would…
Aion Classic 4.0 is live with the Luminess class, level cap bump, new dungeons, and the anniversary celebration - As promised, NC America has officially launched what it's calling Aion 4.0 today. Specifically, it's a celebration of Aion Classic's fourth birthday since its North American launch in 2021 and…
Guild Wars 2 has finally added the bird people you always wanted. No, not really. But kinda. - ArenaNet has heard your years of pleas for bird people, Guild Wars 2 fans, and it is delivering. No, you're not getting playable Tengu. But you are apparently getting some…
City of Heroes Homecoming’s i28p2 Legacy is live with the Kallisti Wharf revamp and two new powersets - Last month, City of Heroes Homecoming emerged from a long content drought with news of a big patch that quickly turned controversial. As of today, that patch - Issue 28:…
RuneScape Dragonwilds patches in magic today as Jagex commits to the survivalbox with a huge roadmap - Jagex's co-op survivalbox RuneScape Dragonwilds was the darling of the industry for a hot minute when it was announced and launched into early access in the span of a few…
Path of Exile’s Secrets of the Atlas launch is marred by DDoS attacks and console certification hang-ups - This past Friday saw the Secrets of the Atlas update go live for OARPG Path of Exile (original taste, not early access flavor), and unfortunately the weekend release was one…
NCsoft drops an eight-minute gameplay preview for new MMORPG Blade & Soul Heroes - If you blinked during the Summer Game Fest 2025 hoopla earlier this month, then you may have missed that NCsoft announced yet another new game in the Blade and Soul…
Viral Roblox game Grow a Garden surpasses Fortnite’s player concurrency over the weekend - Last month we reported on Grow a Garden, the wildly popular game made in Roblox crafted by a teenager and now managed by shameless adult-owned companies, the title itself basically…
Tree of Savior Neo is an all-new version of the MMO for PC and mobile devices - It is our duty to inform our readers that there will now be a third version of Tree of Savior to keep tabs on: There's the version run by IMCGames,…
Wisdom of Nym: What if Final Fantasy XIV stops adding new jobs? - One of the constants that underpins the speculation that lots of players, including me, have about Final Fantasy XIV's future expansions - beyond the assumption that there will be further expansions…
Multiplayer turn-based RPG Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era pushes early access back to later this year - Last August we first got word that Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, a prequel to the original turn-based RPG with several multiplayer features added on, was in development…
Stars Reach shows off recent visual updates and player-built structures - Playable Worlds' Raph Koster has been busy taking snapshots from within Stars Reach, apparently. That's the gist of his latest personal blog post, which is the digital equivalent of looking…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 522: Progressing through character progression
The Stream Team: Harvesting the Elderwood in Palia
The Stream Team: Dungeons and Dragons Online’s Soul Survivor
The Stream Team: Flying some new (but not really) missions in Elite Dangerous
The Stream Team: In the belly of the beast in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Mending reality tears in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: I like big batteries in Astroneer’s Elevated update
The Stream Team: A first-ever run through the spooky halls of R.E.P.O. for the Sunday streamers
The Stream Team: Trekking to the tradepost in Dune Awakening
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.
