Blizzard’s art savant Samwise Didier is retiring after more than three decades at the studio
Thirty-two years is a heckuva run at any studio, especially when you've been one of the artistic inspirations for some of that studio's most...
Betawatch: The Wagadu Chronicles heads to early access on December 4
It's happening, folks: The Wagadu Chronicles is heading into early access on December 4th, just like the headline says. That means you'll get your...
MMO Business Roundup: Gaming addiction, GTA6, Ubisoft layoffs, Epic v. Google, and more
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. There's been a lot this week, so we'll keep 'em brief!
Addiction: A woman...
Former Trion boss Scott Hartsman cautions studios to reconsider live service games
Former Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman has a few words of advice for any studio contemplating the creation of a live service game: Maybe...
Vague Patch Notes: BlizzCon 2023 wasn’t a disaster, but it needed to be better
The last live BlizzCon in 2019 was not a great show, but it was fundamentally a hype festival for Blizzard just like they've all...
Raph Koster has been warning about the death of games innovation longer than most MMOs have been alive
Veteran MMO developer Raph Koster is no stranger to talking about money in gaming. Our own readers will recall that all the way back...
Wayfinder suffers layoffs as Digital Extremes transfers the game fully to Airship Syndicate
Wayfinder hasn't even properly launched out of early access and it's already suffering layoffs. According to Polygon's unnamed sources, Tencent-owned Digital Extremes laid off...
Nexon Q3 2023: Nexon’s getting a new CEO as its PC MMOs like MapleStory drive absurd revenue growth
Owen Mahoney is out at Nexon - and Junghun Lee is in. That's the key bit of news coming out of the company's Q3...
NCsoft Q3 2023: Mobile MMOs, not the classic PC titles, are dragging NCsoft down
If you were hoping that NCsoft's financials might perk up in Q3 after a full year of downward incline, I'm afraid I'll be disappointing...
Pearl Abyss Q3 2023: Black Desert’s Land of the Morning Light pulled PA out of its slump
MOP readers might recall that three months ago, the news for Pearl Abyss was looking a bit on the grim side, as the Korean...
The Daily Grind: Have graphics ever actually turned you off from an MMO?
Graphics are weird. They're pretty vital to the vast majority of games, including most MMOs, but it is possible for a game with objectively...
The Overwatch League appears to be dead after six seasons
The Overwatch League appears to have lived up to its nickname, as it's yet another Overwatch L in light of the news that it...
The Epic Games Store is apparently still not profitable for Epic Games
It's now been five years since Epic Games launched the Epic Games store with an eye toward dethroning Steam, as epitomized by the fact...
Xbox announces plans for AI-based gamedev tools that generate game dialogue and quests ‘at scale’
The invasion of generative AI text and large language model (LLM) tools like ChatGPT into game development and design has gotten the backing of...
Former SWTOR lead Damion Schubert urges devs to prioritize accessibility in MMOs
When you think of the strengths of Star Wars: The Old Republic as a game, does "accessibility" every come to mind? According to one...
Blizzard president confirms a focus on mobile and live service games, briefly discusses studio’s ‘new era’
The tide of change is continuing to slip its way across the shores of Blizzard, which is the general tone of a BlizzCon interview...
Blizzard suggests World of Warcraft is ‘pretty well positioned’ for a console port
World of Warcraft coming to consoles almost seems like a no-brainer, considering MMORPGs being playable on a gamepad is hardly beyond the pale -...
Legends of Aria’s crypto-spinoff nearly loses IP rights, promises pre-alpha this year
Yep, this one's back on our collective radar again. We're sorry. However, while we don't cover crypto games as a general rule, readers may...
Fortnite’s Season OG brought back a record-breaking number of players over the weekend
The idea behind MMOs and multiplayer games hearkening back to "classic" times is ostensibly an attempt to capture some old magic and ideally a...
Destiny 2’s Bungie addresses layoffs and prior releases as devs express ‘anger, sadness and fear’
This news update is essentially a tale of two sides of the same Destiny 2 coin: On the one side, there's the public-facing statement...
