Industry

They said what? They’re using that business model? They hired whom? [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Gosh, it's almost like the problems are real.

Overwatch League allegedly has a $20 million price tag to enter

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Remember how Blizzard started to focus MLG in on Overwatch as an e-sports venue at the same time well-known teams started fleeing the scene?...

Virtual world creator Improbable receives $502M investment from SoftBank

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Here's another reminder that we really shouldn't take our eyes off of Improbable Worlds, even for a second. The five-year-old software company, which is...
Boosh.

RIFT’s Starfall Prophecy name change was provoked by a trademark lawsuit

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If you were a little bit puzzled by Trion's announcement this week that it was changing the name of RIFT's latest expansion from Starfall Prophecy...

The Daily Grind: What’s the most painful bug you’ve ever encountered in an MMORPG?

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I've been playing a bit of Ultima Online lately, and the other night as I was working on my skills, I remembered a horrible...
This was a group effort. Not a good one, but still.

Square-Enix financials show steady incoming but slow sales on online gaming

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If you're worried about the overall health of Square-Enix, a glance at the company's most recent financials should assuage any concerns, since the past...

NCsoft Q1 2017: Tumbles for Lineage, Guild Wars 2, plus new leadership for Lineage Eternal

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NCsoft's first quarter financials for 2017 have released, and... well, let's get the bad news out of the way. While sales dropped only slightly...

Elder Scrolls Online offers two-week early access head start for Morrowind

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ZeniMax has just announced that PC and Mac Elder Scrolls Online players who pick up the digital upgrade version of Morrowind will start in...

RIFT changes Starfall Prophecy to Prophecy of Ahnket; get it free this weekend

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RIFT's latest expansion is getting a name change from Starfall Prophecy to Prophecy of Ahnket. No, it's not some veiled NGE; it's just an...

Massively OP Exclusive: Hard questions about Secret World Legends

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We sat down with Funcom to ask tough questions on The Secret World / Secret World Legends transition. (Video interview.)
Well, it's what I wanted.

Blizzard focuses MLG on Overwatch as e-sports teams flee the game

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Remember back when Blizzard bought Major League Gaming? This week, the studio announced it's putting MLG to use as the conduit for its Overwatch...

Shroud of the Avatar secures Russian publishing

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Shroud of the Avatar is coming to Russia, Portalarium announced today. The studio's inked a deal with Moscow's Black Sun Game Publishing "to publish...

Massively OP Podcast Episode 116: Bree’s virtual garage sale

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Justin and Bree discuss Ashes of Creation, Blizzard, Darkfall Rise of Agon, Guild Wars 2, Marvel Heroes, WildStar, Neverwinter, SWTOR, and Ultima Online, with a mailbag question on sandbox MMOs.
If you don't like any of this, well... keep doing whatever, I guess.

Razer partners up with Neverwinter for cross-promotional rewards

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Do you like Razer products? Do you like playing Neverwinter? Do you eat beans with George Wendt? If you answered yes to the first...

Transgender gamers face crass rejection by CS:GO tournament organizers [Updated]

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This article has been updated as apparently it was all part of an elaborate, horrific, and completely unfunny fraud/hoax perpetrated on the e-sports and...

Turbine renews Asheron’s Call domain through 2022

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It's weird to think that it's already been a few months since Asheron's Call and its sequel were shut down by Turbine. Yet there's a...
SWEET GUITAR RIFF

Massively Overthinking: Competitive PvE in MMORPGs

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During last week's podcast, Justin and I bumped into a tangential topic about competitive PvE and how relatively rare it is in MMORPGs, which...

Make My MMO: Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter, ROKH’s early access, Valiance’s map (May 6, 2017)

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This week in MMO crowdfunding, Ashes of Creation made the leap to Kickstarter, raising (so far as I type this) 1.35M, far more than its...
At this point it's debatable if anything will come out of here.

Betawatch: Ashes of Creation is burning up the Kickstarter (May 5, 2017)

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Remember when Ashes of Creation showed up out of nowhere? We sure do, and now it's hit Kickstarter. It's also hitting stretch goals left...
Fight for something, probably, whatever.

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2017: Blizzard’s online games drove Activision-Blizzard profits last quarter

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Activision-Blizzard can't claim "biggest quarter ever" for the quarter ending March 2017, but it continues to rake in huge sums of money, enough to at...

Ashes of Creation’s Steven Sharif on his business history, $30M funding goal, and PvP

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As I put this piece together Thursday morning, Ashes of Creation's Kickstarter has far exceeded its $750,000 goal, surging along toward stretch goals with...

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