business model
Gachapwned: Gacha is not just a business model – it’s a vice
When I started off the Gachapwned series, I devoted the very first column to explaining that the gacha business model is inherently a predatory...
Massively Overthinking: Is vertical progression still sustainable for MMOs?
Back in May, Project Ghost's Greg Street got MMO players buzzing over the state of MMOs in the West vs. the East. That isn't...
Black Desert’s 30th class, Wukong, is live this week as the basegame is free to play through July 10
Pearl Abyss spent last weekend's Heidel Ball dishing on what's en route for Black Desert in the near future, and now some of that...
City of Heroes spiritual successor Ship of Heroes is finally launching in August
It's been a long time coming, but Ship of Heroes finally has a proper release date: August 18th, 2025. Longtime MMO fans will recall...
Mundfish is unambiguously calling The Cube an ‘MMORPG shooter’ with dungeons and proper updates
Back during Summer Game Fest, Mundfish announced a new "MMORPG shooter" called The Cube, and now we're getting some more info courtesy of a...
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s Go Fest 2025 was fine – but hints at dark days ahead
If functional is the bar for Pokemon Go players, Scopely's POGO team has done that again, which... isn't exciting to say, but I suppose...
Make My MMO: Ahoy, Lionhearts, and Eldramoor Kickstarters
Welcome back to Make My MMO, MOP's long-running column where we keep track of crowdfunded MMOs, both brand-new titles just starting their campaigns and...
Fight or Kite: Old-school side-scrolling beat-’em-ups have finally arrived for MMO gamers in Towerborne
Let me take you back in time. It was the early 1990s, and videos games were super and rollerblades were so rad. A cute,...
Gachapwned: The lesson a failed gacha game’s offline version teaches about gacha games
In 2020, Capcom launched a mobile gacha game based on Mega Man X titled Mega Man X DiVE. The title was primarily developed by a Taiwan-based...
Gachapwned: The hollowness of gacha MMO shutdowns and the way you lose
Sunsets are a reality in our line of coverage. They're not a constant, of course, but there are a lot of MMORPGs that do...
Gachapwned: How gacha games drown us in progression and randomness
Over the past three weeks of the Gachapwned column, we've talked about the three main prongs that keep people invested in gacha games in...
Project Ghost’s Greg Street defends building an MMO: ‘When they work, it’s magic’
It's slightly sad that in this day and age, a game studio feels that it needs to defend why it's pouring efforts into crafting...
Perfect Ten: Awful things I don’t miss about 2000s-era MMO gaming
Nostalgia is a tricky beast to ride. It can unlock all sorts of blissful memories, bring us back to old favorites, and reclaim a...
ESRB posts parent’s guide to free-to-play: ‘Few things are truly free’
While it may be a touch late to the free-to-play revolution, the industry-run Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) recently posted a parent's guide about...
Make My MMO: Ashes of Creation is shaping up to be the classical MMORPG to beat
Welcome back to Make My MMO, MOP's long-running column where we keep track of crowdfunded MMOs, both brand-new titles just starting their campaigns and...
Massively on the Go: The good, the bad, and the ugly of Pokemon GO’s transition to Scopely
As I mentioned in the June event round-up, Pokemon GO's been sold off to Scopely, and it's a done deal now. In the lead up,...
Gachapwned: How gacha MMOs attract players with the secret of volume
There is a strange phenomenon that is true for perhaps not every human being, but the vast majority I've met and dealt with over...
Pax Dei’s major Verse 3 update and wipe will get underway after lengthy downtime June 11
We've finally got a hard date for Pax Dei's next big update: It's coming on June 11th, right in the thick of all the...
Embers Adrift rolls out subscription time blocks to fix Steam’s subscription issues
The Embers Adrift devs has clearly struggled through the last few months after their payment processor swindled them, and the Steam launch hasn't fully...
One Shots: A time to reflect
Your pause to read this week's One Shots -- the modern version of the ol' weekly funnies in the newspaper -- is a good...
