It was a helluva week here in the MMO genre, and it wasn’t just because Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker finally hit early access and was slammed with so many people that it saw outages and congestion resulting in compensation. It was also because ArcheAge was successfully rehomed with Kakao, Funcom’s DUNE MMO reared its head, Gamigo’s parent company invested in Daybreak’s parent company, EverQuest II launched its 18th expansion, New World planned an endgame gear revamp, and Activision-Blizzard kept on being terrible. Plus, we checked back in on Elite Odyssey, pondered the console future of LOTRO, and took a peek at Guild Wars 2’s siege turtle mounts.
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
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker early access is underway in spite of some server outages - The time has come, after the delays and the false starts. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is live in early access right now, barring something unusual happening this morning. That means players…
Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s siege turtles and updated End of Dragons elite specs - We are finally in the home stretch for Guild Wars 2's upcoming End of Dragons expansion! With less than three months to go, ArenaNet is currently treating us to one…
LOTRO Legendarium: OK, let’s talk about Lord of the Rings Online on console - I'll admit it: When EG7 acquired Daybreak back in 2020, I was very dismissive of the report that mentioned a console edition for Lord of the Rings Online. I figured…
Activision-Blizzard is suddenly laying off more QA, won’t be at The Game Awards - Yes, Activision-Blizzard is in the news again: Raven Software, one of the studios behind games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone, is apparently…
New World bans botters, begins testing winter event, plans unpopular endgame gear system - Christmas -- or some variation thereof -- is coming to New World as the game's first holiday. Yesterday, Amazon announced that it was putting up a new build on the…
Final Fantasy XIV breaks Steam concurrency record, offers free sub time as queue compensation - If it isn't already obvious, Final Fantasy XIV has a lot of people trying to play the new Endwalker expansion, which opened up to early access for those who pre-ordered…
Kakao tackles ArcheAge’s relatively minimal launch issues, opens Snowfang Isle - We are now past day one of Kakao's operation of ArcheAge, and by most accounts things appear to have gone generally pretty well, apart from the last-minute delays this week.…
Angry Halo Infinite players prompt tempory closure of the Halo subreddit as devs outline and address updates - There are apparently enough players angry about the state of Halo Infinite's multiplayer open beta that it has caused the entire Halo subreddit to shut down until Monday as a…
Guild Wars 2 shares an overview of End of Dragons features and deep-dives new legendary weapons - As planned, Guild Wars 2 held a Guild Chat livestream last night that provided an overview of some gameplay features that fans can look forward to when End of Dragons,…
Vague Patch Notes: There’s nothing wrong with being a niche MMO - So Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen doesn't want to be seen as a niche game. Visionary Realms' recent interview saying so was clearly bewildering to a lot of MMO players, but…
Star Citizen grants a close look at the MISC Odyssey and other in-production vehicles in latest video - Not every ship in the world of Star Citizen has to be about combat. Sometimes you just want to board a big boat and explore the world. That's where the…
Whatever happened to anime MMORPG Blue Protocol? - We've all been twiddling our thumbs wondering what's going on over in Japan regarding Blue Protocol, the anime-styled MMORPG from Bandai Namco. We know that the game has been undergoing…
VR MMO Zenith readies beta for this month, launch for early next year - Fly, fist-bump, and fight your way through virtual reality this month thanks to Zenith's first beta test. This VR MMORPG, flush from a huge infusion of capital, is welcoming players…
Massively Overthinking: The best MMO music of 2021 - We've decided to pull back our MMO music awards this year and make the decision a little less formal, partly because of how hard it is to really grapple with…
NCsoft’s cross-platform mobile and PC MMO Lineage2M is live in the west today - How many Lineages is too many Lineages? Some day we'll probably find out, but it is not this day. This day, NCsoft has launched another one: It's Lineage2M, and it's…
Titanfall enters maintenance mode as it’s removed from digital storefronts - For those who were curious about trying out Titanfall, the online FPS from Respawn Entertainment, we've got some particularly unfortunate news. The studio has announced on Twitter that the game…
Lost Ark posts Sorceress preview trailer, addresses gender-locked classes - Amazon and Smilegate have dropped yet another video for the long-delayed Lost Ark, this time featuring the Sorceress class. She's one of the 15 classes planned for the initial western…
Final Fantasy XIV posts a new tribute to Endwalker from Sia ahead of early access - All right, now Square-Enix is just flexing. Yes, this is official now. Why? Because there's a new music video on the game's official YouTube page from Sia. Yes. Sia did…
Treasurers of states invested in Activision-Blizzard join the call for leadership changes - In mid-November, we reported on a group of shareholders joining the calls for change at Activision-Blizzard leadership, led by the Strategic Organizing Center Investment Group, the activist shareholder group that…
Wisdom of Nym: The Final Fantasy XIV cookbook is a fun addition to fans’ culinary library - This is not going to come as news to anyone who has played the game before now, but Final Fantasy XIV has a lot of food in it. That's kind of…
Rumor: Is Gamigo’s secret new MMO really Dynamight Studios’ Fractured? - Over the last few weeks, Gamigo has been teasing a new MMORPG on a placeholder website called Uncertain Folder - a game with a gruesome demonic theme. While the studio…
World of Warcraft opens up the public test realm for patch 9.2, Eternity’s End - It's going to be a while before World of Warcraft is ready to let players enjoy patch 9.2 on the live realms, but if you don't mind a shifting melange of…
Funcom’s DUNE MMO is still happening, just picked up a co-developer: NUKKLEAR - Yesterday I happened to be working on an article looking back at our predictions for the year when I stumbled across one about Funcom's DUNE MMO. I lamented that Funcom…
Gamigo’s parent company just became a key investor in Daybreak’s parent company - You know, when I was joking on the last Massively OP Podcast that Gamigo was becoming Daybreak, I didn't mean it should literally buy Daybreak. But that is kinda what's…
EverQuest II’s Visions of Vetrovia blew up on the launchpad (but it got better) - You may be totally excused for not noticing that a major MMO expansion launched yesterday, because it kind of didn't. EverQuest II: Visions of Vetrovia technically went live in the…
Neverwinter’s Of Dragons and Influence milestone is live on all platforms today - As a capstone for 2021, Neverwinter has dropped the third and final slice of its fall battle pass, Echoes of Prophecy, on PC and console as of today. This particular…
ArcheAge retools fresh start server plan, drops notes for massive day-one patch, teases 2022 plans - Got everything in the ArcheAge AMA committed to memory? Good because Kakao's already moving on with new dropped dev blogs on what to expect from the western relaunch tomorrowday. First,…
End-of-Year Eleven: The biggest MMO surprises of 2021 - Why do I love covering MMORPG news year in and year out? If I'm honest about it, I'm usually in this for the surprises. Pleasant surprises, that is. I love…
One of Activision-Blizzard’s key workers alliance organizers just left the company – and the gaming industry - We regret to inform you that Bobby Kotick is still the CEO of Activision-Blizzard at the time of this writing. What has changed, on the other hand, is that Jessica…
Gamigo just abruptly sunsetted its brand-new MOBA Skydome - If you're currently wondering what Skydome is, well, that was part of the problem. Skydome was a multiplayer 4v4 MOBA hybrid from Brazil's Kinship Entertainment that Gamigo launched into early…
Epic MMO Battles, post-apocalyptic edition: Fallout 76 vs. Fallen Earth - It just struck me over this past weekend that we post-apocalyptic fans are now blessed with two solid and intriguing online RPGs to enjoy. As a fan of both Fallout…
Fight or Kite: Naraka Bladepoint is battle royale but with grappling hooks - Welcome back to the Monday after a holiday (at least in the US). Hopefully you were able to enjoy your family, friends, or game time. If not, well, here we…
Wisdom of Nym: What to expect from Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker early access - Well, it's finally happening. No more unexpected delays, we've got our maintenance time set, and we've gotten everything ready that we could possibly have ready to go. It's time for…
Stick and Rudder: Checking up on Elite Dangerous Odyssey after eight updates - When I originally wrote my impressions about Elite Dangerous: Odyssey earlier this year, I noted that the game was broken, but broken could be fixed. I also contend that the level…
Visionary Realms rebuts the idea that Pantheon Rise of the Fallen is a niche game - The devs at Visionary Realms feel pretty strongly about where Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen fits in to the whole MMORPG universe, as evidenced by the inaugural episode of the…
New World’s Thanksgiving weekend rollback cost some players days of trading - One might have hoped that Amazon could get New World back in shape long enough to allow all the devs a festive Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, that was not to…
WildStar’s Nexus Forever allows for basic combat, leveling, and housing - The next phase of WildStar resurrection project Nexus Forever is kicking in this week, with the team's leader warning testers that they may lose saved data due to the switch.…
The Daily Grind: Do you have hope for World of Warcraft in 2022? - Phew. It's been a rough, rough year for World of Warcraft players. With sparse content releases for Shadowlands, an unknown future direction for the retail version, and an enthusiasm drop-off…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 349: Make mine Marvel
The Stream Team: Slicing up the Sahvyt with the refreshed chain blades in Dauntless
The Stream Team: Checking out Conan Exiles’ People of the Dragon
The Stream Team: Starting AQ3D’s Sandsea story back up
The Stream Team: Meeting with Neverwinter’s Lord Neverember
The Stream Team: One last run of roulettes in Final Fantasy XIV before Endwalker
The Stream Team: Seeing (and snuggling) Guild Wars 2’s siege turtles
The Stream Team: The siren call of corrupting gear in Path of Exile’s Scourge
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.
