After weeks of needling, Amazon finally delivered a roadmap for New World this week: The studio is introducing what it’s calling “seasonal worlds,” the first of which will revolve around a throwback open PvP ruleset.
Meanwhile, Corepunk officially launched into early access after years of delays, we pondered the popularity of the MMORPG genre, Throne & Liberty teased a new weapon, and we deep-dived WoW Classic Classic.
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
Casually Classic: WoW Classic Classic is more than just another hit of nostalgia - Out of all of the things that I didn't expect to be on my 2024 MMO bingo sheet was "Getting absolutely sucked into a re-release of WoW Classic." Yet ever…
New World drops a roadmap, season 7 outline, and new ‘seasonal worlds’ plan - Our anxious calls for a roadmap have finally been answered: Amazon has finally granted New World fans a peek into the future of the game now that Aeternum is fully…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s Crossroads story beats are decidedly odd - While I definitely have enjoyed the content we have gotten in Final Fantasy XIV's latest patch so far, it's also very decidedly an x.1 patch so far. The custom delivery…
Corepunk has officially launched into early access - Last night, Artificial Core officially launched Corepunk - though not without one final delay to cap off years of them. It's tradition, at this point, right? "A top-down isometric title…
Perfect Ten: Lessons from unsuccessful MMORPGs that I wish designers would learn - I have been writing about this genre for far too long now and seen far too many games with genuinely good elements completely fail to catch on and ultimately sunset…
Vague Patch Notes: MMORPGs are more popular than you think - Last week, I ended the Vague Patch Notes column with something of a tease suggesting that maybe, just maybe, MMORPGs are not an unpopular genre or a genre that doesn't…
WoW Factor: A World of Warcraft housing wishlist - To the surprise of basically no one who is at least passingly familiar with me over the past several years, I am indeed still on my World of Warcraft housing…
LOTRO Legendarium: 10 additional helpful tips for your LOTRO journey - Every so often in this space, I like to share helpful tips and tricks to make your Lord of the Rings Online experience more enjoyable. As I've personally discovered, even…
Rumor: Ubisoft is developing a cozy MMO with voxel-based building mechanics - Did you think that the "cozy multiplayer game" trend was dying out? That would mean all it needed was for one major publisher who gets to be late to the…
Not So Massively: The dizzying complexity of ZeroSpace’s beta - With Stormgate struggling off the bat and Immortal: Gates of Pyre turning to the blockchain dark side, ZeroSpace is looking like the last, best hope for a StarCraft II spiritual…
Intrepid Studios says Ashes of Creation’s current build ‘is the worst that Ashes will ever be’ - Ashes of Creation has once more provided some gameplay footage from within Alpha Two, only this time the footage is about a side of PvE and discussion about what Intrepid…
Elite Dangerous details its new Cobra Mk V ship and its upcoming colonization gameplay feature - Last month, Frontier Developments decided to drop a surprise in the laps of Elite: Dangerous players by finally announcing the all-new space colonization system that will let players establish and…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s Wild Area was a resource sink event - Advertising Pokemon Go's Wild Area last weekend as being on the same level as Go Fest or the Go Tours was another major misstep for Ninatic - unless you were one…
Lord of the Rings Online dev defends the ‘meandering’ nature of the Shire - Over the years as a Lord of the Rings Online fan and columnist, I've noticed that whenever the discussion of the game's zones comes around to the Shire, it proves…
Palworld teases a collaboration with Terraria in 2025 - Palworld is a survival game in which you collect a number of not-Pokeymans, run around a map harvesting things, put those not-Pokeymans to work harvesting other stuff, and have yourself…
Ship of Heroes spent its fall working on everything from difficulty sliders to an auction hall - Crowdfunded superhero MMORPG Ship of Heroes is still trucking along in development, I'm happy to report today, and the latest bits are recapped in Heroic Games' October/November dev blog. "In…
NetEase Q3 2024: Stocks perks up in spite of revenue dip, NetEase cuts Worlds Untold loose - Over the last couple of years, NetEase has been pumping money into a long list of western developers with big names attached to them, including Worlds Untold, BulletFarm, Second Dinner (Marvel…
Old School RuneScape heralds Leagues V release with cinematic trailer and time-limited subscription discount - Today marks the official launch of Leagues V: Raging Echoes in Old School RuneScape, and Jagex is rolling out the red carpet with a new cinematic trailer for the game…
Have a look at the teaser for Secret Level’s New World Aeternum-themed animated episode - Way back in August, Amazon announced a "new adult-animated anthology series" called Secret Level, developed under Amazon's own Prime Video label. The idea was to release 15 episodes based at…
Lost Ark’s Holiday Awakening update lands tomorrow morning with the new Buzzling Island - Hope you're ready for Lost Ark's November update because it's dropping early tomorrow morning just ahead of the holiday. It's even called Holiday Awakening. How convenient is that? At the…
Choose My Adventure: Red Dead Online is a multiplayer buried treasure - There's nothing quite as bad in gaming as wasted potential. There are no shortage of MMOs, MMORPGs, and multiplayer games that reached for the stars but ended up falling short,…
New World’s new free trial on console comes with a bunch of caveats - Buried in the big roadmap and season servers announcement from New World yesterday was the revelation that Amazon is also preparing a free trial to rope in new players for…
Final Fantasy XIV opens the Ultimate version of Futures Rewritten and adjusts abilities in PvP - There's another new layer of content laid atop Final Fantasy XIV's Crossroads patch, and this one is for those who are looking for the next high-tier instance challenge. Today sees…
Throne and Liberty is getting a new weapon next week: the spear - It's the year of the spear for NCsoft MMORPGs, apparently, as a second title in the company's stable is now introducing a new spear weapon: Throne & Liberty. It'll be…
Whatever happened to RvR MMO Crowfall? (2024 edition) - In the annals of MMORPG history, Kickstarted MMORPG Crowfall seems destined to be remembered for its impressive crowdfunding totals, imaginative character designs, strong developer pedigree, and a shockingly rapid crash-and-burn…
Warcraft III Reforged 2.0 has been another buggy mess, Warcraft I and II remaster art draws criticism - They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but there was some hope held among Blizzard fans when the studio confirmed the Warcraft III Reforged…
Diablo Immortal launches Eve of Unmaking this week – and a new backlash mechanic - Diablo Immortal is preparing for its next big patch because what could ever go wrong popping in a patch right before Thanksgiving? The core of the update is the new…
Fight or Kite: Skygard Arena blends Final Fantasy Tactics and Into the Breach - It’s no secret around MOP offices that I am semi-obsessed with board games as of late. It’s a problem, honestly, as my gaming budget has significantly shifted weight from primarily…
Tarisland’s top raids are seeing a completion rate under 20 percent, Tencent says - Tencent is plunging onward with Tarisland development: Last week, we got an abbreviated roadmap consisting of, well, December its winter event layout, but today, the company has released a dev…
Niantic admits to using Pokemon Go player data to train an AI-powered 3-D map tool - If all you thought you were doing when playing Pokemon Go was enjoying a fun AR mobile title, think again. You were also helping developer Niantic feed an AI model…
Dauntless’ big Awakening revamp arrives December 5 along with a confirmed Steam release - [AL:DNT]It's been teased, detailed, talked about, and planned for summer while wholly missing that mark. It's the Awakening update for the multiplayer critter hunting RPG Dauntless, and it finally has…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 495: EverQuesting for a sequel
The Stream Team: Going to the doctor in V Rising
The Stream Team: Manning a multiplayer spaceship in the full release of Void Crew
The Stream Team: Knocking the stuffing out of Party Animals on Turkey Day
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming takes in some high-level Helldivers 2 action
The Stream Team: Putting a new Shadow Cat through its paces in MechWarrior 5 Clans
The Stream Team: The great Battle’s Eve feast in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Checking out Caliban and clearing nodes in Warframe
The Stream Team: Thanksgiving dinner with AdventureQuest 3D
The Stream Team: Post-holidays with family 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.
