August turned out to be a month full of industry moves, good and bad. It was the month that saw the start of the Epic/Apple legal feud, an attempt at organizing Blizzard workers following a dust-up over staff pay, Daybreak’s buy-up of Cold Iron Studios and its Alien MMOFPS, and Krafton’s announcement that it was closing North American TERA developer En Masse.
Plus, LOTRO dropped Rohan housing, DDO suffered a nasty rollback, Crowfall hit beta, FFXIV Reflections in Crystal went live, CCP launched EVE Echoes, we all got a hands-on with New World, and Guild Wars 2 added underwater skimmer mounts and put a name on the Cantha expansion: End of Dragons.
And then the whole genre suffered a blow when Meridian 59 developer Brian Green passed away.
Read on for the whole list from August of this past year.
TOP NEWS STORIES OF AUGUST 2020
LOTRO and DDO hand out additional compensation for VIP accounts
Diablo Immortal offers a slightly gussied-up ‘new’ trailer
TennoCon 2020: Warframe’s infested open world Heart of Deimos launches August 25th on all platforms
Ashes of Creation shows off gathering, spell effects, and a dungeon in its latest livestream
Little Orbit offers Fallen Earth rebuilding update, say it’s temporarily ‘low priority’
Camelot Unchained works on giants, pretty trees, wyverns, and replacing Ben Pielstick
New World wraps up ‘density test,’ and the community is impressed
Blizzard staffers agitate against poor worker pay as Activision-Blizzard rakes in billions
Activision-Blizzard Q2 2020: Year-over-year revenues are up for the first time in six quarters
No, Lord of the Rings Online Classic isn’t going to happen, Standing Stone says
Fallout 76’s Colossal Problem patch lives up to its name as the communuty melts down over massive building bugs
GDC Summer 2020: How Niantic adapted Pokemon Go gameplay in the time of COVID-19
GDC Summer 2020: Immersive multiplayer storytelling with Disney’s Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge
‘Our mentors are leaving in droves’: Blizzard staff are organizing to demand better compensation
Blizzard staffers confirm ‘honor point system,’ further exposing the company’s wage disparities
Elder Scrolls Online will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X – with backward compatibility
GDC Summer 2020: Unionizing the video games industry
Final Fantasy XIV launches new 5.3 microsite, hits 1.2M active players (with caveats)
New executive order could ban US transactions with Tencent – potentially bad news for gaming [Updated]
LOTRO and DDO re-enables character transfers, Wayfinder suffers three-week rollback [Updated]
GDC Summer 2020: What online gaming can (and should) learn from social media’s trainwrecks
GDC Summer 2020: Gachapon reward models in (mostly) free-to-play games
Guild Wars 2 is adding new underwater functionality for Skimmer mounts August 25
EA shareholders overwhelmingly reject excessive executive pay in latest vote
After a brief delay yesterday, Valiance Online has kicked off its one-week open beta
Daybreak has acquired Cold Iron Studios and its Alien MMOFPS [Updated]
ArtCraft on Crowfall’s beta release today, Eternal Kingdoms, the newbie experience, and much more
Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.3, Reflections in Crystal, is live today
Shocking almost no one, Dragon’s Prophet was yeeted off Steam
Meridian 59 and Storybricks’ Brian Green has passed away at only 46
Albion Online’s Rise of Avalon is live with its unique new (and deadly!) roads network
ArtCraft says ‘the purpose of Crowfall is to destroy’ the themepark model
City of Heroes Homecoming confirms NCsoft talks continue, plans new name, domain, and launcher
CCP and Netease’s mobile MMORPG EVE Echoes is officially live on Android and iOS
Star Citizen is on track to breaking sales records in 2020 as it passes last year’s $47.7M
NCsoft Q2 2020: Lineage 2M drives revenue as Aion and Lineage flag and Guild Wars 2 rebounds
Pearl Abyss Q2 2020: EVE Online is doing great, NA/EU drives 48% of company revenues
Epic Games is suing Apple (and probably Google too) over its payment monopoly
Epic Games could lose almost $50M every month the Fortnite Apple/Google lawsuits go on
Ubisoft ousts its seventh manager in sexual misconduct investigation
Vendetta Online pretty much just went free-to-play last night
The $420K ArcheAge class action lawsuit settlement is finally paying out
TERA and Closers studio En Masse Entertainment is closing its doors (but the games will survive)
Apple’s retaliatory measures against Epic Games threaten Unreal Engine, not just Fortnite
Activision takes heat for poor female representation in its games over the last decade
CIG basically just released a preview of Squadron 42’s roadmap progress
Did Amazon just sign on to be Lost Ark’s western publisher?
Players petition for better servers as LOTRO’s second wave of instability continues
Ashes of Creation will now self-publish in EU/CIS regions, says its split with My.Games was amicable
Epic-Apple lawsuit filings reveal Epic’s pre-suit efforts at securing competing payment options
Population Zero’s playerbase dwindles into single-digit territory as the devs confirm ‘light’ content for August
Elder Scrolls Online’s Stonethorn dungeon DLC and update 27 are live for PC and Mac today
Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons expansion takes us to Cantha in 2021
MMO designer Raph Koster talks about what makes the subscription model a success
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is launching on October 27
Champions Online and David Brevik pay their respects to Chadwick Boseman
Apple officially terminates Epic’s dev account, cutting Fortnite iOS and Mac players from future updates
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF AUGUST 2020
The Game Archaeologist: Clone Wars Adventures, the Star Wars MMO everyone kinda forgot
Jukebox Heroes: The ultimate guide to MMORPG music
TennoCon 2020: The creepy charm of Warframe’s broken frame, Xaku
Wisdom of Nym: What it means to be good at Final Fantasy XIV content
Massively Uplifting: Good deeds don’t take the summer off for Bungie, Niantic, and Trolls in WoW
Not So Massively: First impressions of StarCraft II’s co-op prestige system
Choose My Adventure: The absurd tsunami that is AdventureQuest 3D
Perfect Ten: Ten things to do when you just want to chill out in an MMO
Desert Oasis: Our guide to playing Black Desert’s season servers
LOTRO Legendarium: The pros and cons of Rohan housing
Jukebox Heroes: It’s time to turn your MMO’s music back on
GDC Summer 2020: How Astroneer’s crafting balances cognitive load for the player
Wisdom of Nym: Just before patch 5.3 for Final Fantasy XIV
Flameseeker Chronicles: How Guild Wars 2 can improve underwater combat
Choose My Adventure: Shopping for classes in AdventureQuest 3D
Tamriel Infinium: Six more things to love about The Elder Scrolls Online
GDC Summer 2020: Accessibility shouldn’t be a dirty word in online gaming
Vague Patch Notes: Balance in MMOs is overrated
Into the Super-verse: Early impressions of Valiance Online
First impressions and hands-on with Razer’s left-handed Naga MMO mouse
Wisdom of Nym: Impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s Reflections in Crystal content
The Soapbox: Stubborn MMO players are sleeping on autoplay mechanics
Perfect Ten: 10 great tropical areas to visit in MMOs
Vague Patch Notes: How platform considerations impact MMOs
Massively Overthinking: Mixing and matching the best crafting systems in the MMO ‘verse
WoW Factor: All I want from Shadowlands is the pre-patch
The Game Archaeologist: Flagship’s Mythos
Jukebox Heroes: Great tunes from Destiny’s first soundtrack
The Daily Grind: What’s the most annoying ‘dark pattern’ in MMO gaming?
Fight or Kite: Early thoughts on Crowfall’s lively beta, necromancy, and alts
Wisdom of Nym: Impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s Reflections in Crystal storylines
Hands-on with New World’s war mode: All the fun you can have blowing up a fortress of lumber
Choose My Adventure: Determining the strengths and weaknesses of AdventureQuest 3D
Into the Super-verse: Marvel’s Avengers feels like Marvel Heroes by way of Destiny
Massively on the Go: Everything we know about Pokemon Go’s new mega evolutions
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs we intentionally avoid
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft has no good excuses for not having housing
LOTRO Legendarium: Ranking LOTRO’s expansions from worst to best
Jukebox Heroes: The best of Blade & Soul’s soundtrack
First impressions: New World has the foundation of what could be a great game
Wisdom of Nym: What does Final Fantasy XIV’s final 5.3 stinger imply?
ALL 2020 YEAR-IN-REVIEW POSTS SO FAR
MMO Year in Review: A new New World (January 2020)
MMO Year in Review: A ‘colossal’ announcement (February 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Gaming’s pandemic disruption (March 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Elyon’s pivot, Elyria’s fizzling storm (April 2020)
MMO Year in Review: ‘Technical clownshows’ for PSO2 and ESO Greymoor (May 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Solidarity (June 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Lord of the Rings Offline (July 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Business business business (August 2020)
MMO Year in Review: FFXVI, ArcheAge 2, and the Bethsoft buyout (September 2020)
MMO Year in Review: The Shadowlands delay (October 2020)
MMO Year in Review: Shadowlands’ arrival (November 2020)
MMO Year in Review: When Daybreak and Albion got bought out (December 2020)
