Blizzard dominated the MMO headlines this week, though not really for good reasons, as UK regulators blocked Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard buyout and the company rushed out its financials to counter stock hits. Unfortunately, the numbers weren’t good for Blizzard, as its revenues looked good only against Q1 2022 (which was its worst quarter in over a decade) and it lost 40% of its monthly active users – essentially wiping out all the gains of the last nine months. The mess prompted World of Warcraft players to wonder what the heck Blizzard can do to pull the game out of its slump.
Meanwhile, Mad World stumbled at its launch, Aion Classic Europe finally arrived, Throne & Liberty appeared to have confirmed its delay, we examined New World’s first season in detail, and another MMO studio earned boos for swapping forums for Discord.
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
WoW Factor: Dragonflight wasn’t a hit – so now what? - All right, let's be real and acknowledge that the recent Activision-Blizzard earning report did not say outright that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was an out-and-out dud. But it doesn't have to…
Activision-Blizzard Q1 2023: ABK revenues are up as Blizzard MAUs fall back down to reality - Activision blinked:Â Activision-Blizzard wasn't supposed to release its Q1 2023 financials until tomorrow after the bell, but it's just done it this morning out of the blue, presumably attempting to ward…
Vitae Aeternum: Analyzing New World’s disappointing first season - It's now been a few weeks since the launch of New World's first season, Fellowship and Fire. I wanted to give it some time to settle, but I think I've…
UK regulators block Microsoft’s buyout of Activision-Blizzard - Multiple outlets are reporting this morning that Microsoft's buyout of Activision-Blizzard has been blocked in the UK. The Competition and Markets Authority aka CMA determined that the merger of the…
Amazon is shutting down New World’s and Lost Ark’s forums next week in favor of Discord - Yesterday, I said in MOP's work chat that the New World team deserved kudos for being one of the few major MMO studios pumping out weekly videos with the top…
Mad World’s free-to-play launch stumbles out of the gate and misses its Steam release target - Yesterday was supposed to be the big day for Jandisoft's MMORPG's full release as Mad World has officially made its full free-to-play launch, and we're sorry to report that, much…
Block of Activision-Blizzard merger is ‘darkest day’ for Microsoft in the UK, Brad Smith argues - Following the UK's Competition and Markets Authority block of Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard buyout earlier this week - and the rushed dump of the latter's middle financial report on Wednesday - consumers…
NCsoft’s Throne & Liberty announces another round of Korean testing in May - NCsoft has finally emerged from its promotional slumber on the Throne & Liberty front to announce that the next Korean beta test will begin on May 24th and run through…
Fractured and Gamigo finally confirm their split as Dynamight says it’s reclaimed ‘the rights of Fractured Online’ - Until yesterday, Fractured Online's website hadn't had a single update since before Christmas, when the game basically imploded in a blast of publisher shenanigans and bizarre comms all around. Readers…
LOTRO Legendarium: On the occasion of Lord of the Rings Online’s sixteenth birthday - Sometimes the passage of time triggers disheartening moments when we feel things slipping away from us. The internet seems to nastily delight in prompting these dismaying realizations when posters go…
Idea Fabrik, the company behind Hero Engine and The Repopulation, disappears from the internet - The beginning of this year saw a sad but perhaps unsurprising development for the Kickstarted sci-fi sandbox MMO The Repopulation when the workers contracted by Idea Fabrik quit the project…
Ashes of Creation shows off Alpha Two’s updated mage archetype in latest livestream - The excruciating but inexorable march to Alpha Two continues for Ashes of Creation as the game's devs have once more come together for a look at new gameplay from the…
Star Wars The Old Republic celebrates the launch of Star Wars Jedi Survivor with a free mini-pet - One of the bigger gaming releases over this past weekend has been EA and Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to the acclaimed Jedi: Fallen Order, which has led…
World of Warcraft shares patch notes for Embers of Neltharion and the May Trading Post rewards - Patch notes! Get your patch notes here! Piping hot patch notes for World of Warcraft! You want some Embers of Neltharion notes! Right here, direct from the development team to…
Desert Oasis: Returning home to Black Desert Online - Back in October of 2020, I penned a column about the worst week I’ve ever had in Black Desert. The series of unfortunate events necessitated a break; it ultimately burnt…
New World is finally letting players create multiple characters on a single server - Earlier this week, following the merge of 11 New World servers, MOP's New World columnist Tyler noted that he'd joined an unusual club: the group of New World players who'd…
MapleStory is deleting a whole character – Jett – after 11 years in the global version - I'm having a hard time remembering the last time an MMO developer deleted an entire class from an MMO. The NGE, maybe? Regardless, it's what Nexon's doing in MapleStory right…
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs you know you’re done with - A few podcasts ago, Justin and I fell into a discussion about MMOs we knew we were done with. Not games we hate or left in a huff over a…
RuneScape-inspired exercise game WalkScape aims to enter closed beta this summer - One thing that's been rough for the MMOARG genre is developers getting the game parts to work with walking parts. But someone's trying to tackle the genre in multiple ways…
Whatever happened to Kickstarted sci-fi PvP sandbox Dual Universe? - It's time once more for all of us to collectively recall a title, wonder whatever happened to it, and then root around for answers to the question that usually lead…
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen recounts April’s pre-alpha testing and dates next pre-alpha for May 13 - The word "pre-alpha" is going to appear a lot in this latest news story from Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. That's because the April newsletter is out, and it has…
Vague Patch Notes: Can the gaming industry move on from high school, please? - So this weekend had at least one incident that was, I'm not remotely sorry to say, exceedingly funny. If you've been paying any attention to Twitter, you know that Elon…
Albion Online previews Knightfall’s content and quality-of-life perks - The Albion Online comfy chair welcomes you back to another video with Sandbox Interactive game director Robin Henkys, this one zeroing in on the Knightfall patch already heralded on the…
Perfect Ten: 25 text-based MMOs and MUDs that are worth playing in 2023 - Wanderlust hits even the most content MMO adventurer from time to time, and while there are worlds a-plenty to visit, sometimes it is easy to feel that one has "seen…
Warframe of Mind: A sneak peek preview of Warframe’s The Duviri Paradox - After years of TennoCons, folks can see that Digital Extremes is no stranger to introducing new concepts to Warframe, from fishing to flying to what's behind the frames. However, The…
City of Heroes’ Homecoming drops i27p6 patch with Storm Blast and new story arcs - Just a few weeks ago, we covered the testing of a brand-new patch on the City of Heroes Homecoming rogue server, one that included the very much wanted Storm Blast…
Cliff Bleszinski is apparently interested in a LawBreakers revival - For three blissful years now, no one has had to give any thought to LawBreakers outside of those of us who remember this bizarre industry. Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinski had…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s May lineup embraces Niantic’s bugs - As I noted in my last Massively on the Go column, for the entire month of May, this column will not be covering Pokemon Go, as Niantic is continuing to refuse to address…
Casually Classic: Eight legacy MMOs to satisfy that old school craving - It was just five years ago in 2018 that MassivelyOP formally recognized an interesting and heartening trend in the MMO space: the rise of legacy MMOs and progression servers. Oh…
Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis gets housing, a new enemy type, and cel-shaded visual options in June - Apparently, the June update headed to Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is sizeable enough that developer Sega is calling it "ver. 2" or the "ultra evolution update." That might…
Choose My Adventure: Endgame in Neverwinter nearly rocks my Bard’s face apart - So as that headline suggests, I made it to level 20 in Neverwinter. That's not really too surprising to regular players, I imagine - the leveling curve in this game…
New World addresses PvP, mounts, and solo content as merges begin this afternoon - Amazon game director Scot Lane and live lead Katy Kaszynski helm another episode of New World's Forged in Aeternum this week - outside, standing up, and absent fan-favorite creative director…
Diablo IV promises ‘a level of agency never previously offered’ - Diablo IV may not be serving up Burger King's Whoppers, but it too is promising that you can have it your way. Blizzard's upcoming online ARPG behemoth includes "a level…
Aion Classic has officially launched in its third region: Europe - It's another launch day for Aion Classic as the throwback version of the game already live in South Korea (since 2020) and North America (since 2021) finally launches in Europe…
That NetEase lawsuit against Blizzard turns out to have been a… bizarre clerical error? - Yesterday, we - and just about everyone else in the industry - picked up a Wowhead story about a lawsuit being lodged by NetEase against Blizzard in a Shanghai court…
The Daily Grind: How could Blizzard make World of Warcraft more appealing to former players? - Eliot's column about World of Warcraft feeling like a dead mall struck a chord with our commenters, many of whom agreed with the feels - and were pretty sad about…
Wisdom of Nym: We don’t need another Final Fantasy XIV – we already have one - First of all, this one's for Bruno. He usually doesn't read these, but maybe he'll like this one. So we all know at this point that Final Fantasy XIV is…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 419: Dining at the MMO news buffet
The Stream Team: Tumbling in to the new week with more Fall Guys
The Stream Team: Diving into Warframe’s Duviri Paradox
The Stream Team: Ambush at AQ3D’s Treefern Camp
The Stream Team: Picking flowers and possible fights in New World’s Springtide Bloom event
The Stream Team: Mired in Dungeons & Dragons Online Kobolds
The Stream Team: Moving on to Makeb in SWTOR
The Stream Team: Breaking the Weapons in Final Fantasy XIV
The Stream Team: Starting Season 2 of Guild Wars 2’s Living World
The Stream Team: Singing for Lord of the Rings Online’s sweet 16th birthday
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.
