MMO Week in Review: Ascendancy, Horizons, and U44

It was a surprisingly big patch week for the MMORPG genre: Elder Scrolls Online pushed out Update 44, Elite Dangerous launched its Ascendancy patch, and Albion Online dropped its quarterly release, Horizons.

Meanwhile, PlanetSide 2 merged its EU servers, we took a deep-dive into Wayfinder, Final Fantasy XIV previewed its Crossroads patch, Path of Exile 2 delayed its early access into December, and New World tried to convince people that MMO group dungeons are somehow an extension of the solo experience.

And disturbingly, we found out that indie MMO Embers Adrift hasn’t gotten a dime from its payment processor since June, prompting the team to push the game F2P on Steam while it stabilizes.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Design Mockument: Exploring alternatives to the typical MMO trinity - Here's a fun thing for you: I swear that way, way back before the game launched, there were documents from the Guild Wars 2 design team that explained how the…

New World Aeternum says multiplayer PvE and PvP let you ‘continue your solo experience alone in a crowd’ - Earlier this morning, Amazon sent over an interesting press release about New World that included a batch of "most asked" questions with dev answers specifically focused on "the single-player experience…

MMO Hype Train: Wayfinder is a genuinely good little RPG – but a missed opportunity to be an MMO - Look at that: I don't always talk a big talk -- sometimes I actually end up playing the game I said I will. Like a year-plus later. BUT STILL. I've…

LOTRO Legendarium: How should LOTRO handle ‘the levels issue?’ - Legacy of Morgoth comes out next week for Lord of the Rings Online, and I'm generally excited for it. I wasn't initially, since desert zones aren't my thing, but after seeing some…

Embers Adrift says Digital River has been stiffing it since June, so it’s going temp F2P and heading to Steam - Embers Adrift has some good news bad news - good news for players, but bad news for the studio, which is apparently being screwed over by its payment processor. In…

Casually Classic: Looking back at my 20+ year journey in World of Warcraft - When was the first time you ever heard of World of Warcraft? As a fan of the three Warcraft RTS titles, I became aware of this title around March or April…

Pantheon extends pre-early access testing through December 1, with ‘record numbers’ showing up - With under two months to go until Pantheon launches into early access, you would think that studio Visionary Realms would be going all-out with details and promotion. And while that…

War Thunder marks 12 years with a new cinematic trailer and events that award free tanks - Today, November 1st, marks the 12th anniversary for War Thunder, which means Gaijin Entertainment is ready to celebrate big time with some events, a spicy new trailer, and of course,…

NetEase’s Destiny Rising officially enters closed alpha today – here’s how to sign up - If you are among those Destiny players who really wanted a Destiny game on your phone, then your moment is fast approaching, as NetEase has officially kicked off the Destiny…

Final Fantasy XIV’s Crossroads patch brings new story, raid content, and quality-of-life November 12 - Today saw another Live Letter broadcast from Final Fantasy XIV, which was once again all about the MMORPG's first post-Dawntrail content update, Crossroads, along with a release date for the…

Post-sunset, The Wagadu Chronicles team says it considered and rejected open-sourcing the game - One of the saddest sunsets of 2024 affected Kickstarted afrofantasy The Wagadu Chronicles. The MMORPG was Kickstarted by players for nearly $200K all the way back in 2020 and bolstered…

Soulframe deep-dives the changes to its next pre-alpha build and discusses multiplayer feature plans - The pre-alpha "preludes" build of Soulframe is headed for its seventh iteration, and this update is a pretty beefy one as it changes several aspects of the action RPG, which…

Massively Overthinking: Have you ever been booted from an MMORPG group because your class wasn’t the meta? - Earlier this month, when some World of Warcraft players were protesting massive nerfs to specific classes, MOP reader Sloth explained the problem superbly: The issue isn't the nerfs as much…

Active Matter is a PvPvE ‘mind-bending tactical hardcore shooter’ heading for closed beta by year’s end - If there was any doubt about what the new bandwagon in multiplayer gaming is, let the arrival of another upcoming PvPvE extraction game dissolve any illusions. This time around, Gaijin…

Ubisoft stealth-launches its NFT figurine PvP tactical battler Champions Tactics - Last year we first reported on Ubisoft's third attempt at making NFTs and gaming work with the creation of Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles, a self-described "competitive turn-based RPG" that would…

Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s November looks overstuffed and underseasoned - Ah yes, November. The month of my favorite feasting holiday! Pokemon Go is hoping to deliver a feast of its own this month, but... well, you know where this is…

Throne and Liberty launches Phantom Tracker’s Star season and battlepass as it fights RMT - In the wee hours of this morning, Amazon pushed out another patch for Throne and Liberty: The 1.5.0 update launches the new battle pass for the Phantom Tracker's Star season, which…

Embers Adrift’s devs discuss the Digital River payment fiasco and temporary F2P shift - Earlier this week we had the unfortunate duty to report a serious legal and financial crisis for Embers Adrift developer Stormhaven Studios: The company says its payment processor, Digital River,…

Vague Patch Notes: Solipsism and what it means for playing MMORPGs - We've been talking for the past couple of Vague Patch Notes columns about the fact that MMOs are, as a genre, defined by having other people around that you cannot…

City of Heroes rogue server Rebirth delays its next patch to 2025 – but it features full-color costume customization - The teeny City of Heroes rogue server Rebirth updated players on its Issue 7 patch yesterday - and it's good news and bad news. The bad news is that The…

Elite Dangerous launches its Ascendancy update and teases a brand-new player colonization system - While today marks the big release of Elite Dangerous’ oft-delayed and much-anticipated revamp to the powerplay system along with the early access for the exploration-focused Mandalay ship, players are even…

Star Citizen pushes alpha 4.0’s engineering gameplay features back over game stability concerns - Star Citizen has long promised players the chance to become an engineer aboard a starship along the "road to 4.0" that CIG has been taking as it heralded the gameplay…

World of Warcraft previews Patch 11.0.7’s Siren Isle, testing this week - World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary patch has been out barely a week now, and Blizzard is already talking -- and testing -- the next content patch for this fantasy MMO.…

EVE Online’s multiplayer mobile-only 4X strategy game EVE Galaxy Conquest officially releases - Are you ready for a second mobile game from the EVE Online universe? Stop answering, it's already happened: Say hello to EVE Galaxy Conquest, a new free-to-play 4X strategy title…

Fntastic is hosting a map-making contest for its revised prop hunting game, and no, players won’t get paid - Remember last month when developer Fntastic said it wouldn't use volunteer labor to build its upcoming prop hunting rehash game Items? The studio is going to be leveraging its community's…

Nightingale suffers second round of layoffs in two weeks as staff say the game’s early access will continue - Last week, we covered some unfortunate news for co-op sandbox Nightingale when we learned that its studio, Tencent-backed Inflexion, had abruptly closed down its UK subsidiary, axing multiple developers. At…

Perfect Ten: The 10 types of tanks in MMORPGs - I've been thinking a fair bit about player archetypes lately, and that also means that I've been thinking about the variants within roles. While it is entirely true that the…

RIP Harry Potter Magic Awakened – NetEase officially killed it off last night - It’s never easy to say goodbye to an MMO – especially one that you’ve personally spent every day playing since launch. Of course, we’ve known about and been prepared for…

Corepunk says it’s a month and a half behind schedule, but early access is on track for November 26 - If you've been following the Corepunk's development over the last few years, you surely know that the team is running behind where it expected to be at this point. This…

Bill Roper’s upcoming cowboys vs. Cthulhu game, Codename: Skinwalkers, has itself a trailer - Well now, cowpokes, looks like you got one of them there trailers to check out if'n y'all fancy playin' a fast gun in the Old West takin' on all manner…

Star Citizen player reports CIG is making him sign an NDA before getting a refund - We've chronicled the weird steps players have needed to take to get refunds from Star Citizen numerous times before, but now it looks like there's a fresh wrinkle added to…

WoW Classic readies Season of Discovery Phase 6 for November 21 - WoW Classic isn't done with Season of Discovery quite yet, as Blizzard announced that it's bringing Phase 6 to the experimental server on November 21st. The centerpiece of this patch…

Sony didn’t just sunset Concord – now it’s closing Concord’s studio, Firewalk - The news just keeps getting worse for Sony's Concord: The company is closing down not just the remains of the game but its entire studio, Firewalk. Readers will recall that…

The Division 2 revamps its seasonal content and adds new gear in the Shades of Red update - Year 6 Season 2: Shades of Red has arrived today in The Division 2, and with it comes an all-new way for seasons to play out as well as some…

Choose My Adventure: Throne & Liberty’s endgame blends genuine fun with intense social requirements - One could be forgiven for thinking that headline was written by somebody who just discovered MMORPGs can be grindy, but I promise that's not the case here. What I am…

Hands-on with Lynked Banner of the Spark, an adorable roguelite with base building, crafting, and co-op - I typically gravitate towards intense, heart-pounding, combat games that go in hard and never let up. But every once-in-a-while, a game comes across my radar that piques my interest without…

PlanetSide 2 is abruptly (and happily) merging its European servers into one today - There are two kinds of merges in the MMO genre. There's the kind of merge a studio does to a game that was supposed to perform and didn't and now…

Path of Exile 2 delays early access to December 6 over account-linking database demons - If you were thinking that Path of Exile 2 was moving very quickly toward its early access on November 15th, you weren't wrong: Just before midnight EDT last night, Grinding…

Elder Scrolls Online’s U44 arrives to shake up the PvP meta and introduce two new companions - As promised, today is launch day for Elder Scrolls Online's update 44 - at least if you're on PC or Mac - and this update is absolutely packed with features…

US Copyright Office rules libraries can’t access old games remotely because of ‘market harm’ and recreational use ‘risk’ - If you were hoping to research out-of-print video games and wanted to get access to a copy remotely, that's been made difficult thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),…

WarCraft III Reforged’s temporary 2.0 version update on an internal PTR sparks rumors of a revival - Four years ago, Blizzard gave the world Warcraft III: Reforged. It was... not good: Our own Eliot referred to it in his first impressions piece as "someone's monkey's paw wish,"…

Tarisland’s arrival to Steam is met with low player numbers and mostly negative review scores - Part of Tarisland's big shiny launch of Blight Dragon Elegy was the MMORPG's arrival to the Steam store, so that means it's time for us to take a peek to…

Albion Online adds new open world objectives, Outlands portals, and content in today’s Horizons patch - Look! Look to the horizons! Do you see? There, rising with the grand golden sun? It's new content arriving to Albion Online! Today players sup on the spread of new…

Wisdom of Nym: Contrasting the storytelling of Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI - We've just started what may be the second major arc in Final Fantasy XIV... maybe. Like, the developers are understandably reluctant to commit to "and now it's time for another…

Fractured Online’s free-to-play shift gets a start date of November 20 - Fractured Online fans now know when "soon" will be for the MMORPG's transition over to its free-to-play model: Dynamight Studios has announced the monetization model shift will land on Wednesday,…

Star Citizen players raise the alarm over internet spaceship nerfs that conveniently favor newer options - Generally, official forums for games are unhappy places in the best of times, but backers of Star Citizen are getting vocally resistant to ship nerfs that, from all accounts, appear…

The studio behind Kickstarted MMO Past Fate releases a co-op survival side project called Tuonela - Generally, when a development studio elects to release a second side project while still working on a primary game, especially a Kickstarted MMO, that second game is pretty poorly received,…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Massively OP Podcast Episode 491: World of Warcraft’s Buckosaurus problem

The Stream Team: Soaring into the open beta test of Monster Hunter Wilds

The Stream Team: A parade of pumpkins plus a maze in the annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival

The Stream Team: Tinkering with multi-ton nuclear walking tanks for funsies in MechWarrior 5 Clans

The Stream Team: Seeking out crash sites and settlements to loot in Elite Dangerous

The Stream Team: Finding Balance in Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds

The Stream Team: Diving into the Warframe 1999 demo

The Stream Team: Gorses, goonicorns, and more Mogloween in AQ3D

The Stream Team: The Hallowed Nights of Don’t Starve Together

The Stream Team: Helping a new Dark Knight learn 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.