Turbine founder Johnny Monsarrat reminisces about the early days of MMO development
It's good now and again to take a look back at how things used to be to really appreciate where we are now, and...
Saturday Night Live takes a jab at The Division 2’s love of talking at you
Sometimes you just can't get an NPC to shut up in a video game. Sometimes you can't get multiple NPCs to shut up. And...
Black Desert has 18M registered players as Pearl Abyss counts $1B gross sales
If you're still reeling over the news that Black Desert is unceremoniously deleting its battle royale mode, Shadow Arena, from the game tomorrow, take...
EVE Online has banned a CSM member (and real-world politician) over an NDA breach and insider trading
Who wants some EVE Online political drama to cap off the afternoon? CCP Games announced today that it has removed a member of the...
Kakao is permanently killing off Black Desert’s battle royale mode, Shadow Arena, this week
Dang, this was not the outcome we were expecting here: Kakao has announced it is outright sunsetting Black Desert's Shadow Arena mode. On Wednesday,...
MMO Week in Review: The myth of the BioWare magic
If you were hoping that if BioWare just kept its head down and buffed up Anthem, it could avoid the trainwrecks of some other...
The Daily Grind: What gives you cause to forgive MMO studios or publishers?
There are a lot of reasons people have to dislike NCsoft as a publisher. But oddly enough, if you're a fan of WildStar who has sworn...
Make My MMO: Oath is the latest MMORPG to launch on Kickstarter
This week week in MMO crowdfunding, a new Kickstarter contender has entered the ring! The game is called Oath, and Ready-Up Studios is asking...
Valve and ZeniMax are among the publishers under EU investigation for illegal geo-blocking
A number of major games publishers are under a spotlight cast by the European Commission for breaking EU competition rules. Valve, ZeniMax, Bandai Namco,...
Betawatch: Ashes of Creation shares notes on nodes
The developers behind Ashes of Creation aren't about to let a little thing like delays prevent them from telling you a bunch of details...
NantG says it’s handing Z1 Battle Royale back to Daybreak – it’s not sunsetting, but there were layoffs
Yesterday, we broke the news that Z1 Battle Royale looked to be in serious trouble based on developers stating publicly that they'd been laid...
Lawful Neutral: The future of MMO game design in a streaming gaming world
It’s been an interesting few weeks for gaming. We saw the announcement of Google’s game streaming service, Stadia, and then Apple’s subscribe-to-access game service,...
Massively Overthinking: If an MMO item is buyable with gold, does that excuse its presence in the cash shop?
This week's Overthinking topic comes from longtime MOP reader and commenter Sally Bowls. It's about monetization, but it's a nuanced argument we don't see...
Rumor: Z1 Battle Royale, H1Z1’s PC version, seems to be in big trouble as devs confirm layoffs
Note: We'll be updating this piece at the end with the latest, and we've also put out a second piece here with NantG's statement.
It...
MMO Business Roundup: Prince Harry vs Fortnite, China’s big thaw, Gamigo’s new acquisition, and industry transparency
Welcome back to another edition of the MMO Business Roundup, random bits of industry news that are interesting but probably not worth their own...
Hyperspace Beacon: I wasn’t going to talk about Anthem, but I think I should
Like everyone else working in or around the gaming industry, I read Kotaku's Jason Schreier's exposé on BioWare's development of Anthem. And like many...
BioWare internal memo vows to address studio disarray, says Kotaku’s Anthem exposé was ‘traumatizing’
On Tuesday this week, Kotaku published a devastating exposé of BioWare, interviewing 19 people in the know to reveal a state of "crisis" in...
Classic EverQuest GDC panel reflects on development, design, and nostalgia
There are not many MMORPGs that have the well of 20 years of experience to draw from, which makes a game like EverQuest pretty...
PUBG creator on moving away from battle royale to the next big thing
It's likely that 2018 will be remembered as the year of battle royale in the gaming industry. But it's 2019, and game developers need...
Kotaku’s Anthem exposé unmasks a studio in ‘crisis’ – and BioWare’s response is alarming
Kotaku has another lengthy expose up today, this one homing in on Anthem. Author Jason Schreier interviewed 19 Anthem (and Anthem-adjacent) developers to paint...
