Any week that Justin goes on vacation is contractually obligated to be a big week in the MMORPG world, and so it was this week. Flying under the radar for some reason was the huge announcement that Throne & Liberty is introducing a housing system in September, plus BitCraft just introduced player housing this week. Hope you like housing because MMO studios finally figured out there was glue left in that bottle.
Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 unveiled its first three new elite specs, Dual Universe announced a sunset, FFXIV set a date for Promise of Tomorrow, we strolled through Soulframe, Last Epoch was bought out by Krafton, and then we took a look at MMO gaming on Linux.
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
Progress Bar: Soulframe’s Preludes 10 offers artistry, annoyance, and a lot of potential - I think a lot of my feelings about the pre-alpha build of Soulframe can be summed up by the fight against the boss Garren Rood. This is the second major…
Guild Wars 2 provides a closer look at the Troubadour, Galeshot, and Luminary elite specs - As was foretold (scheduled), Guild Wars 2 heralded (announced) its first three elite specs for Visions of Eternity, and now ArenaNet has regaled us (livestreamed) more about these upcoming new…
Throne & Liberty is getting player housing and battlegrounds in September - In any other dev video, the the fact that an MMO is getting a new weapon - orbs - would be the headline news, but Throne and Liberty actually have…
Guild Wars 2 formally reveals the Troubador, Galeshot, and Luminary elite specs - As we noted yesterday, ArenaNet is planning to slow-roll its deep-dives on the Guild Wars 2 Visions of Eternity elite specs, starting today. While we've already got a load of…
Krafton just gobbled up Last Epoch studio Eleventh Hour Games as fans freak out - Stop me if you've heard this one: An indie studio making a multiplayer game that you love just got snarfed up by a megacorp with some baggage. This time, the…
Kickstarted MMORPG Dual Universe is sunsetting, but it’ll live on through player-hosted servers - We're sorry to report this afternoon that sci-fi MMORPG Dual Universe is sunsetting in August - sort of. "Today, we are announcing the closure of the Dual Universe MMO server,"…
WoW Factor: Forget World of Warcraft patch 11.2 – I can’t wait for Legion Remix - I don't know about you, but my World of Warcraft schedule is rapidly filling for the rest of this year and well into 2026. We've got several currently running events…
ZeniMax Online devs say Microsoft layoffs eliminated critical MMORPG staff and institutional knowledge - It's not going to surprise anyone with a functioning sense of empathy that Microsoft's immense cuts to employees across its gaming division have deeply affected the lives of those laid…
LOTRO Legendarium: How to cope with LOTRO burnout - Even hard-working Hobbits must retire, from time to time, to a quiet place and recharge their batteries. [AL:LOTRO]I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online more or less continually --…
Final Fantasy XIV’s The Promise of Tomorrow arrives on August 5 – here’s the new trailer - The Final Fantasy XIV playerbase has just about two weeks left to go until the game's next patch arrives; this morning hosted the latest Letter from the Producer LIVE with its…
Blizzard’s Diablo IV finally secures government approval to be published in China - It may have been a while since you thought about Blizzard and China together in the same sentence, but it's a big deal that the latest monthly approval process for…
Dune Awakening is still fighting an endless stream of exploiters – now it’s had to disable family sharing, too - As the summer marches along, one constant has remained for Funcom's MMORPG Dune Awakening: Some people are dirty cheaters ruining the game for the rest of us. The studio has…
Warframe of Mind: How Warframe could really improve its onboarding from a mechanical perspective - So I didn't really talk about it in the Warframe of Mind TennoCon reaction column earlier this week, but one of the things that was revealed during TennoCon was the…
Fight or Kite: I MMO on a Linux PC and you can too - We’re going to try something a little bit different this time around in Fight or Kite, largely because I’m doing something a bit different now: gaming on a newly built…
Black Desert overhauls combat on PC, celebrates summer on console, plans mobile server merge - MOP's Carlo burst through our newsroom wall like the Kool-Aid Man, slammed his hand on a desk until it splintered, and bellowed out like a barbarian, "Black Desert combat changes…
Massively Overthinking: Are ya winning, son? - Let's talk about winning. MMORPGs are not supposed to be about having won. There's no way to finish an MMORPG that never ends. You can't really beat the game. It…
Sandbox MMORPG BitCraft just rolled out its new player housing system and co-op crafting - It's move-in day over in early access MMORPG sandbox BitCraft as Clockwork Labs has officially introduced player housing. "We are excited to finally release the first version of housing!" the…
MOBA battle royale Supervive officially releases out of early access with transformative 1.0 update - It's been something we've kept eyes on a couple of times, and now it has arrived: Theorycraft Games' colorful battle royale MOBA Supervive has now officially left early access and…
Indie VR MMO Eldramoor successfully funded on Kickstarter for over $171,000 - Kickstarter still has some juice left in it, at least when it comes to MMORPGs: Eldramoor fully funded this morning with over 1000 backers pledging $171,000 and change to make…
Vague Patch Notes: Effective video game boycotts that don’t suck - Our recent Daily Grind topic about boycotts got me thinking about how boycotts are actually supposed to work, which is ironic because what prompted the topic in question wasn't actually…
Some clown tried to attack Stop Killing Games with a bogus claim arguing time is money - There is a rule in the EU that petitions like the ones that Stop Killing Games has been spearheading have to disclose sponsor payments. This is a reasonable stipulation to…
After almost six months offline, Fallen Earth is finally showing some signs of life - It's been a long, long wait for Fallen Earth players, but they're finally on the cusp of getting back into their beloved MMORPG sandbox. Readers will recall that APB Reloaded…
Albion Online is struggling with fresh DDOS attacks – again – ostensibly from banned RMT botters - Albion Online players will already know that the game has been suffering from DDOS attacks for the last few days - and Sandbox Interactive appears to have a pretty good…
Blue Protocol Star Resonance opens beta test signups for NA, EU, and SA gamers - As promised and teased and dragged out probably a lil bit too long, Blue Protocol Star Resonance has officially opened its closed beta sign-ups as of this morning, specifically aiming…
LOTRO took nine extra hours to deploy U45 as DDO addresses ongoing transfer issues - Standing Stone Games had quite a Wednesday, and not the good kind. As Lord of the Rings Online players will know, the servers were meant to return at 1 p.m.…
Dune Awakening deploys fixes and more rock islands in the Deep Desert to build on - You know that a patch for a game is pretty teensy when its developers put in a bit of goofiness into them. That certainly seems to be the case for…
New World abandons plan to port Asian, Australian, and South American players to US servers - Earlier this week, New World made what has unfortunately become a routine announcement as the MMORPG shrinks post-Aeternum: It was conducting yet another round of server merges. But this time,…
Out of Time is an unhinged Epic Games-backed co-op roguelike launching in September - Earlier today, Manticore Games dropped deets on a brand-new unreleased title called Out of Time. The studio is describing it as a co-op action roguelike set in a world that's…
Multiplayer RTS Stormgate will leave early access without achieving 1.0 or finishing core game modes - Stormgate, the multiplayer RTS that is the most well-known of StarCraft II's would-be spiritual successors, has announced that it will remove its early access tag on Steam with its next…
It’s 2025 and 23-year-old MMORPG Final Fantasy XI is actually dealing with server congestion - You aren't really surprised when it turns out that one of the biggest MMORPGs on the market is having congestion issue, and that's exactly what the Asura server is dealing…
Lord of the Rings Online’s U45 is live today with updates to monster play, birding, Hunters, and Burglars - Update 45 aka Allies & Adversaries is arriving to Lord of the Rings Online today with new PvP content for those player-versus-monster folks out there. We know you exist; we…
Perfect Ten: 10 MMO memories that stick out the most in my mind - Aside from recalling my most embarrassing days (of which I have quite a few), I do wish that my memory were better than it is. There are so many great…
Splitgate 2 is unlaunching back into beta and cutting staff following poor player reception - If you watched the Summer Game Fest this year, you may remember 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx deciding to get on-stage announcing the surprise launch of Splitgate 2 while wearing…
Old School RuneScape brings new regions, bosses, and skill activities with Varlamore The Final Dawn - It's been all that Jagex has been talking about over the past several days, and now it's finally here. Varlamore: The Final Dawn has officially arrived to Old School RuneScape…
Pax Dei clarifies its optional subscription benefits as it eyes full release this autumn - Back in May, Pax Dei outlined its plans for an optional subscription monetization model, which would provide players the ability to own plots of land as well as some other…
Lost Ark’s Welcome to Paradise patch lands today with the skin book and about a billion solo modes - Amazon is 3 for 3 this week as its third MMORPG, Lost Ark, is officially releasing its Welcome to Paradise patch this afternoon. "This update introduces the new Paradise progression…
War Thunder studio Gaijin just bought a ‘multi-million-dollar’ player-built island in Fortnite - So here's a weird double crossover story for your Wednesday morning: The company best known for War Thunder just poured a ton of money into the Fortnite ecosystem, marking firsts…
Wayfinder studio Airship Syndicate sees fresh layoffs even as mod update is imminent - Ah, here's a big bummer: We're finding out today that Wayfinder studio Airship Syndicate has suffered yet another round of layoffs. GameDeveloper.com counts at least three former devs posting about…
Interview: Albion Online’s head of ops on the newbie experience, streamlined leveling, and more - It’s been a little more than a hot minute since I spent any considerable time in Albion Online. That’s not to say that the MMO hasn’t been on my mind…
PSA: Defiance is implementing Easy Anti-Cheat tomorrow, ensuring 32-bit players can’t play at all - This story is probably going to annoy and please you in equal measures, which may be why Fawkes' Games held off so long on doing it: The studio is implementing…
Choose My Adventure: Defeating Pantheon Rise of the Fallen’s three potatoes raid boss - Yes indeed. I did it. I successfully delivered three potatoes to an NPC in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Now I get why that looks extremely stupid written down in…
Morhaime-backed multiplayer extraction RPG Wildgate has shot out of early access into launch - Wildgate has officially arrived this morning, bringing a bright and cozy sci-fi vibe into the co-op extraction RPG shooter space thanks to studio Moonshot Games and publisher Dreamhaven (yes, Mike…
Wisdom of Nym: Which Final Fantasy games have material to draw from for Final Fantasy XIV? - It's easy to feel as if Final Fantasy XIV has a functionally infinite well of material to draw from, and it was especially easy back when the game first relaunched.…
New World’s team talks gearing, farming, business models, and (maybe) a Victorian monster DLC - Amazon is back with another New World video, this one with a Q&A on season nine, which is launching next week. Although really, the questions are more focused on the…
RIFT’s second real patch of the summer include a new cape and halo – with more en route - Remember how excited RIFT veterans were when Gamigo piped up this summer with Summerfest, Unicornalia, and a promise that it was "but the start" of its plans for the game,…
World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Classic is live and someone already made it to 90 - It wasn't so long ago that World of Warcraft was bringing fans through Mists of Pandaria Remix as if the developers were worried everyone would be annoyed at the launch of Cataclysm. Perhaps…
Warframe of Mind: Taking stock of the Old Peace after the TennoCon reveals - One of the most stereotypical phrases in any kind of ongoing fiction is that everything you thought you knew is wrong. To be clear, that's not to say that it's…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
The Stream Team: Meandering through Mossmere, AdventureQuest 3D’s new starting zone and story
The Stream Team: Peeking in to the closed beta of 2-D MMOARPG Drakantos
The Stream Team: Ending the Reign of Madness in Dungeons and Dragons Online
The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming hits the battlegrounds of Star Wars Battlefront II
The Stream Team: Taking the Panther Clipper Mk2 for a shakedown flight in Elite Dangerous
The Stream Team: Some more Guild Wars 2 Season 3 shenanigans
The Stream Team: Dishing on Warframe and TennoCon Ten
The Stream Team: Snagging the new summer ship from Star Trek Online’s Risa
The Stream Team: Celebrating the summer with Monster Hunter Wilds’ Flamefete event
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.
