I don’t know about you folks, but I feel as if I’m barely treading water when it comes to keeping up with all the MMO news from the last week. It’s damn hard to convince yourself MMOs are in trouble when we’re looking at ESO Blackwood, PSO2 New Genesis, Lost Ark, Crowfall, Elyon, Albion Online, LOTRO update 30, and Aion Classic – even if things are a bit of a mess.
Plus, there’s the deluge of stuff coming out of E3 and E3-adjacent events, like Diablo II Resurrected’s launch date, Book of Travels’ early access plans, Sea of Thieves’ collab, and Elder Scrolls Online’s next two DLC.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
MOP’s quick and dirty guide to finding the perfect MMORPG for your tastes - Probably one of the most commonly asked questions both here on Massively OP and in various MMORPG discussions everywhere else too is simply, "What MMO should I play?" We're not…
E3 2021: Diablo II Resurrected launches September 23 following open beta; preorders are live now - We've known that Blizzard was working on Diablo II: Resurrected since the big reveal at BlizzConline, but it wasn't a sure bet when it was launching. Now we know: At…
E3 2021: Elder Scrolls Online announces Waking Flame and Deadlands, Fallout 76 plans Steel Reign and The Pitt - The Xbox-plus-Bethsoft E3 games showcase held a bit of news for MMO players, if you can rip your eyeballs away from Starfield long enough to get caught up! First, Elder…
E3 2021: Sea of Thieves kicks off season three with Pirates of the Caribbean collab A Pirate’s Life - I can't be the only person who's been watching Sea of Thieves' lack of content lately and wondered what the heck Rare is doing over there. It turns out it's…
PSO2 New Genesis wrestles with server lag and unhappy players post-launch - So, how has your time in Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis been? Personally speaking, I've enjoyed myself quite a bit but also have experienced a great deal of lag,…
Tiny MMO Book of Travels hits early access August 9 with its ‘chapter zero’ release - Well here's a happy weekend announcement for MMO fans: Book of Travels has just revealed that it's launching into early access on August 9th, further compounding your game choices this…
Secret World Legends’ community organizes fourth anniversary events - With Funcom seemingly doing the absolute bare minimum to keep the lights on over at Secret World Legends, it's a sad commentary on the state of the game that it's…
Lost Ark’s technical alpha dissolved into a technical mess, but it’s sorted out now - We are still grappling with the realization that Lost Ark is actually going to be launching here in the west this fall. However, if the current state of the alpha…
Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance offers up a co-op loot grinder later this month - Old school console players may well know the name "Dark Alliance," as it was a pair of console action RPGs that came out in the early 2000s. Now the name…
Warhammer Eternal Crusade is sunsetting on September 10 - So who remembers Warhammer Eternal Crusade? I sure had forgotten all about it. When last we checked in on it, it was 2018 and already the subject of a "whatever…
New World’s Summer Game Fest video addresses player feedback, content, and pay-to-win - As part of the Summer Game Fest this week, Amazon's New World team has delivered a deep-dive into the game with a new video that dips into the game's lore…
Fallout 76 ends Nuclear Winter battle royale mode, offers a free trial - While you'd think that the end of a nuclear winter would, y'know, be a good thing, it's bound to disappoint some of Fallout 76's ardent fans. That's because Bethesda just…
Elyon schedules second closed beta for August - Did you miss out on the first closed beta for Elyon this past May? You're going to get another crack at trying out this fantasy MMO before it releases later…
Massively Overthinking: Abysmal MMO launch experiences - Elite Dangerous' Odyssey launch has been a stark reminder to me that not all launches and launch experiences are the same. To hear some gamers tell it, Odyssey is an…
Crowfall lowers its buy-to-play price and details its optional VIP sub - Ahead of Crowfall's launch this July, ArtCraft is announcing a reduction in its box price and reveals its full subscription plan. "Crowfall is unveiling its innovative VIP membership, and lowering…
Four Winds: Everything you need to know about Amazon’s Lost Ark - Raise your hands if you've been eagerly waiting for Lost Ark. Now give me a high five because as announced earlier today, it's finally coming to the west under Amazon's…
Lost Ark launches this fall as an Amazon-published free-to-play title; founder packs are now live - The news won't shock anyone who's been watching Lost Ark inch its way across the world the last few many years and who noticed Amazon's quiet partnership with Smilegate last…
Neverwinter devs explain why they’re squishing the whole game down to level 20 - Neverwinter's release and announcement cadence the past few weeks has been confusing, to say the least. Now that the last chunk of Sharandar is out the door, at least on…
Stick and Rudder: Launch impressions of Elite Dangerous Odyssey - On June 3rd, 2020, Frontier Developments made an announcement that had fans of the Elite franchise excited for new possibilities. After decades of being confined to the cockpit of various…
Palia devs say pre-alpha will be under NDA, won’t talk monetization except to rule out crowdfunding ‘at this time’ - On this week's podcast, Justin, Carlo, and I argued over how to say Palia. The Singularity 6 devs have settled it: It's PAY-lee-ah. That's just one of the nuggets of info…
Kickstarted VR MMORPG Ilysia has launched its closed alpha 1 - It's been a bit slow in coming, but the first prong of Ilysia's closed alpha is finally live for backers. MMO players will recall that it was the second-largest successful…
Aion Classic is really happening in the west, and it’s launching in ‘the Americas’ on June 23 - [AL:Aion]We've been covering NCsoft's release of Aion Classic overseas and the teases and hints that it's been leveling at the western playerbase for a while now, but as of today,…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMO prisons where you can do the time of your life - Chillin' in the clink. Spending time in stony lonesome. Thrown into the slammer. Checking in to the big house. Doing (perfect) 10 to life in the hole. Learning the ropes…
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is officially live today - The fabled day has arrived: Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis launches globally today everywhere as planned. Last year brought the western launch of the base game after almost a…
Albion Online is officially live on mobile today – check out the goofy live-action trailer! - My phone had a very important message for me when I got up today: Albion Online is installed; you pre-registered for this app, and now it's installed on your device.…
Choose My Adventure: Star Wars Galaxies’ legacy questline is so boring - Level 22. That was the arbitrary block between me and wearing armor in Star Wars Galaxies. Not level 10. Not level 15. Not level 20. Not even a weird number…
Casually Classic: The WoW Classic vanilla era is over, and I won’t miss it - With the launch of World of Warcraft Classic's Burning Crusade this past week, the door has been (mostly) closed on what is now being called the "Classic era" -- or what…
Black Desert teases the arrival of ‘a new tide’ and enters a crossover with Bugatti across all platforms - *WHOCK! WHOCK! WHOCK!* Oh, don't mind that noise, that's the sound of Black Desert trying to hammer the square peg of Bugatti into the round hole of its game world.…
Neverwinter’s Odious Court, the last chunk of the Sharandar plotline, is live today - [AL:NW]It's finally patch day for Neverwinter: The Odious Court, the third and final episode of the game's Sharandar arc, is launching today across multiple PC platforms. "This new episode brings…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Three better ways Guild Wars 2 could have wrapped up The Icebrood Saga - It’s easy to be critical of a game when it lets us down. In some ways, it’s equally easy to fall into the trap of denying the flaws in a…
Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood launches on console today – here’s the new trailer - While PC, Mac, and Stadia fans are already deep in Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood chapter, but console fans are only just getting their first go-round today as the chapter has…
LOTRO’s Update 30 releases with a new raid, zone, and storyline - Do us a favor, yeah? Poke your neighborhood Hobbits out of their food-induced comas and tell them that Lord of the Rings Online has just put out its latest adventure…
World War II Online turns 20, tweaks sub, plans Steam launch and UE4 conversion - Cornered Rat Software's MMO World War II Online is 20 years old, believe it or not, and still under development "so as the create the next 20 years," the team…
Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV considers World of Warcraft a ‘mentor’ for the game’s relaunch - If you need to know the degree of regard that Final Fantasy XIV's director and producer Naoki Yoshida has for World of Warcraft, a recent interview with the man gives a clear…
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating about the mechanics of Final Fantasy XIV’s Sage way too early - Here's what we know so far about Final Fantasy XIV's Sage: It'll be a healer. Specifically, it's going to be a barrier healer, as part of the sorting of every…
Not So Massively: Iron Harvest’s Operation Eagle expansion soars high - The lead-up to the release of Iron Harvest 1920's first expansion was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me (insomuch as you can ever apply that term to something…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 325: The bards sing of Palia
The Stream Team: Canoe racing and milk fountains in ARK: Genesis 2
The Stream Team: Rescuing a prisoner of the mind in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Celebrating Splendid Summer and Pride in Trove
The Stream Team: SWTOR’s Revenge of the Shroud
The Stream Team: Beginning Elder Scrolls Online’s Blackwood for real
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.
