It was a weird but packed week for MMORPGs and not-so-massively titles: Gearbox announced it’s bringing back fan-favorite Gigantic, Nightingale sailed into early access, and Myth of Empires and Last Epoch both fully launched. Meanwhile, we’re anticipating Guild Wars 2’s Realm of Dreams this week, and Daybreak is bringing back a hybrid fan event called Fippyfest in June.
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
Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure: The Realm of Dreams episode launches February 27 - The third quarterly chunk of Guild Wars 2's Secrets of the Obscure finally has a name and a date: It's called The Realm of Dreams, and it's launching in just…
First Impressions: Gigantic resurrects as a B2P no-cash-shop Rampage Edition on April 9 - Gigantic still stands out in my mind as the only MOBA game that I ever enjoyed. Ever. I loved its art style. I loved its approachable game beats. I loved…
LOTRO Legendarium: 10 ways LOTRO was vastly different at launch - While I would argue that Lord of the Rings Online has grown in a remarkably cohesive way since its launch, what we have here in 2024 is quite different than…
Nightingale’s early access launches to mixed Steam reviews, performance hotfixing, and a growing playerbase - With the first 24 hours of Nightingale's early access release almost behind it, we're doing the usual thing where we collect overall initial impressions and recount how things have started…
Survivalbox Nightingale pivots on co-op design, promises offline mode ‘as soon as feasible’ - Just three days into its early access release, Tencent's Nightingale is already backtracking on its always-online philosophy: Inflexion has announced that it's working on offline play much sooner than planned.…
Kickstarted OARPG Last Epoch officially launches as players overwhelm its servers - Can we properly claim Last Epoch as a "win" for our crowdfund-centric Make My MMO column? Well, we're doing it anyway, as the OARPG has made its way to launch…
Corepunk boss says early access launch in 2024 is ‘very realistic’ - Now that fans know Corepunk's next alpha test phase is being pushed into late April, there are likely a lot of questions in people's minds, which brings us to a…
Vague Patch Notes: What does the future of MMORPGs look like? - A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about the history of MMORPGs as a market and PC gaming in general, suggesting at the end that we'd next talk…
Crema Games says it is ‘still working on Temtem’ following Temtem Swarm backlash - If you're just a wee bit anxious about Temtem these days, what with a new spinoff being announced after the last spinoff didn't work, the good news is that the original…
Daybreak announces Fippyfest 2024, an in-person and digital event celebrating EverQuest - Not two days ago, we covered the news that Daybreak is planning to host both an EverQuest-centric development panel and a player meet-and-greet at this year's PAX East, and we…
Massively Overthinking: Are MMOs suffering from shrinkflation? - So last week we bought some Girl Scout cookies from a neighbor kid, and I was surprised to find out they were only $5 - they've barely gone up in…
Netmarble’s Paragon spinoff Paragon: The Overprime is slated for sunset on April 22 - We're sorry to report today that another one of the Paragon revivals is slated for execution. A little backstory is in order here: Paragon was an Epic Games MOBA from…
Titan Forge’s EVE War for New Eden board game closed out a successful Kickstarter with $682K - The EVE Online-themed board game has finished out its Kickstarter this week, pulling in roughly $682,000 US from backers - not that there was ever much question that it'd fund…
Sea of Thieves – and season 12 – launches on the PlayStation5 on April 30 - A week ago during Microsoft's Xbox podcast, we learned that multiple Xbox titles would be un-exclusived and set loose on the PS5 and/or Nintendo Switch - among them, multiplayer pirate…
Fight or Kite: Harry Potter Magic Awakened’s February update nerfed dailies and degraded the UI - Over the holiday and new year’s break, I spent the vast majority of my free time in mobile MMO Harry Potter: Magic Awakened. Because it's a mobile game, it's just…
Into the Super-verse: Missing in City of Heroes is part of what makes it hit - It seems like we're never going to be done talking about City of Heroes at this point, and clearly I am here for this. (Bree isn't making me write these…
WoW Classic dev explains sharding and layering strategies for Season of Discovery - As WoW Classic left #NoChanges abandoned on the side of the road hundreds of miles ago, the legacy server trekked on to forge its own path with the current Season…
Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls Online proves the worth of a small story arc - It was the other day in Elder Scrolls Online's Northern Elsweyr that I stumbled upon a disgraced rogue that used to run a pit of criminals before she was ousted.…
Skull and Bones’ first season arrives next week – here’s the trailer - Weathering a fierce barrage of mixed and negative reviews, Ubisoft's Skull and Bones is hoping to sail into more favorable waters next week when its first season arrives on February…
Ultima Online plans a New Legacy beta by summer ahead of the launch this fall - So, where is the long-delayed Ultima Online New Legacy? We actually have something of an answer for you this time: Broadsword says it's aiming for a beta by this very…
Xbox’s Phil Spencer insists Microsoft’s mass-layoffs position it for future growth, somehow - Everyone just loves Phil Spencer these days, right? Oh, right, all the layoffs. Probably not, then. But according to a recent interview with Game File, Spencer is quick to argue,…
Star Wars The Old Republic releases a teaser trailer for its upcoming lovey-dovey Date Night missions - We're not sure how many Star Wars: The Old Republic fans had "repeatable cinematic romance missions" on their bingo cards when the MMORPG traded hands to Broadsword, but Date Night…
Desert Oasis: Black Desert has grown so much in its 3333 days of life - Black Desert is celebrating 3333 days of operation today. That's a little over nine years, with plenty more in store. The Scholar class just released, there's a whole new region,…
Cozy multiplayer sandbox Palia heads to Steam early access on March 25 - If you've been watching Palia's journey through F2P open beta early access and wished you could just play the game through Steam instead of through Singularity 6's launcher, then your…
Survival sandbox MMO Myth of Empires launches its 1.0 build on Steam today - Myth of Empires is flinging open its doors today - right now, in fact - as the sandbox survival MMO launches on Steam at noon EST for the sale price…
Perfect Ten: 10 problems that really hurt The Secret World - For whatever reason, The Secret World is one of those games that people keep going back over mentally, an MMO that still collectively has our attention and imagination even when…
PlayStation boss demands ‘accountability’ on Bungie’s spending and development timelines - The relationship between Destiny 2 developer Bungie and Sony PlayStation appears to be continuing to fray if statements from Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Hiroki Totoki are anything to go by,…
City of Heroes: Homecoming i27p7 is live with newbie improvements, new story arc, and new powersets - A month and a half ago, City of Heroes came back when the Homecoming servers got the official license from NCsoft. A month ago, the team celebrated by bringing Issue…
Project Gundalf is an upcoming ‘next generation massive’ MMOBA title headed for release in 2025 - Do you dream of playing a MOBA on a more massive scale? Then you may be intrigued to learn about the code-named Project Gundalf, a self-described "next generation massive PvP…
Helldivers 2 is suffering from success as servers crumble under a flood of record-breaking player numbers - At this point, most gamers' social and news feeds are probably being hit by a lot of references to Helldivers 2, the co-op multiplayer shooter from Arrowhead Studios. That isn't…
Temtem studio reveals another new co-op multiplayer spinoff: Temtem Swarm - Kickstarted critter-collection MMO Temtem is having yet another go at a spin-off title, this one a "bullet-heaven" co-op title called Temtem Swarm. Readers will recall that Temtem was one of…
Choose My Adventure: The Wagadu Chronicles is off to an extremely rough start - Early access games are one of those things where you pretty much are buying something broken. It's like antique shopping for video games except there's no patina or history to…
Tencent’s Victorian gaslamp survivalbox Nightingale finally hits early access today - Noon-o-clock Eastern time today: That's when survivalbox Nightingale finally arrives to early access, and $29.99 will get you a copy and the download rush begins. We've been keeping an eyeball…
Stormgate studio plans to sell company stock to its players in order to raise marketing funds - Normally when a company "goes public," it generally means that its executives are beholden to the whims of an investor board that almost exclusively wants to see its stock value…
Microsoft’s layoffs will result in over 800 cut Activision-Blizzard jobs in March - As Microsoft workers reel from news of impending mass-layoffs of 1900 employees, we've received more clarity on which specific Activision-Blizzard teams are being slashed to the bone by new owner…
Bandai Namco reports YoY sales drop, admitting Blue Protocol JP ‘significantly fell short’ - Bandai Namco has disclosed its fiscal-year third quarter financial reports, and it looks like things are not going well for the developer and publisher, as its operating profit for its…
The Soapbox: Why I’m OK with ‘missing’ attacks in City of Heroes - The other day in the MassivelyOP work chat, we were talking about City of Heroes. Shocking, I know. But I've mentioned before that I never played the game while it…
Wisdom of Nym: How long until Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion based on patch 6.57? - I wasn't really thinking about Final Fantasy XIV's patch 6.57 in any real detail because... of course I wasn't. There are some things I just do not think about all…
The Wagadu Chronicles plans quality-of-life, sailing, pets, and a new partnership in 2024 roadmap - Early access for sandbox MMORPG The Wagadu Chronicles has not exactly had one of the most auspicious starts, with "Mixed" user reviews and absolutely abysmal numbers on Steam, while the…
Skull & Bones offers free trial as its middling reviews tread water - Even though the swashbuckling era of Skull & Bones is finally among us after numerous delays doesn't mean that it's smooth sailing for Ubisoft's pirate simulator. This so-called "AAAA" game…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 458: PlanetSide 2 in limbo
Battle Bards Episode 231: Caravan Stories Part 2
The Stream Team: Retrieving magical vineyard gems in Dungeons & Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming takes a look at Nightingale
The Stream Team: The continuing cat-ventures of Cat Quest II
The Stream Team: Stuck in Guild Wars 2’s Secrets of the Obscure grind
Choose My Adventure: The Wagadu Chronicles is off to an extremely rough start
The Stream Team: Spreading the Star Days love in Warframe
The Stream Team: Witch It real good!
The Stream Team: Returning to the roulette runs in Final Fantasy XIV
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.
