japan
‘Vana’diel’s not going anywhere,’ Square-Enix’s Yoji Fujito says on Final Fantasy XI’s 21st birthday
Congratulations, Final Fantasy XI; as of today you are officially old enough to legally go out drinking. (We're all going to pretend we forgot...
UK government body issues order that blocks Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard from ‘acquiring an interest’ in each other
Despite the multi-billion dollar deal between Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft slowly making forward movement in multiple smaller markets and potentially one very large market, the...
Massively on the Go: WalkScape’s Schamppu wants game to walk the fitness walk
It turns out I wasn't alone in WalkScape piquing my curiosity, so those of you who are intrigued by a new RuneScape-inspired walking-centric MMOARG...
Wisdom of Nym: What to expect from 2023’s Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival
We've still got a couple months until Final Fantasy XIV's next fan festival, but it's already in an interesting place. In one sense, this...
Why I Play: Pokemon Go (and why I shouldn’t)
I won't lie: Many, many problems with Niantic often cause me to re-evaluate why I continue to play Pokemon GO, especially in recent weeks....
Japan drops Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard antitrust probe as lawmakers scrutinize Japanese gaming market
Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick released a memo to his staff (and everyone else in the entire world) on the ABK Substack (which exists) last...
Wisdom of Nym: How is Final Fantasy XIV going to end?
A long while ago, I wrote an article about how your favorite MMO is going to die. This is because your favorite MMO is...
Amazon Games’ head of marketing discusses New World, Blue Protocol, and publishing the East in the West
With Amazon Games back in the news and upping its profile as a publisher thanks to Throne & Liberty and Blue Protocol, studio execs...
Final Fantasy XI celebrates the approach of spring with various player boosts
The upcoming Spring Cometh campaign in Final Fantasy XI will not make your character run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. It will, however,...
Sega plans to raise the salaries of its Japanese workforce starting in July, but they still fall short of national averages
At first blush, there's some good news coming out of Sega for its Japanese workforce, as the company announced plans to raise pay rates...
Amazon Games will publish NCsoft’s Throne & Liberty in the Americas, Europe, and Japan
The rumors were true: Amazon Games is publishing NCsoft's Throne and Liberty in the west. The companies announced the partnership early this morning.
"Amazon Games...
Crossplatform multiplayer monster-hunting game Wild Hearts is live today
Electronic Arts officially leaps into the beast-hunting genre today with the release of KOEI TECMO's and Omega Force's Wild Hearts, live now on Steam,...
Wisdom of Nym: Where else could we get a Final Fantasy XIV raid series from the franchise?
Let me start this particular column with an observation that should really accompany any and all discussion of future raid series for Final Fantasy...
Massively Overthinking: That moment when you realize an MMO is truly something special
MOP commenter Bruno tweeted something the other that that I thought would make a fun topic. Here's what he said, printed with permission:
"Wanna know...
Blue Protocol once again delays its upcoming Japanese network test to sometime in late March
For those who were looking forward to Blue Protocol making its next step forward in Japan (and by extension moving closer to its late...
Fans are reviving – and localizing – the long-shuttered Dragon’s Dogma MMO from Japan
Most people likely only know about Dragon's Dogma as the source of a rad song that's been featured in memes. Few folks probably know...
Blue Protocol delays Japanese test event a few weeks over unspecified bug
If you were lucky enough to be in the Japanese network test for Blue Protocol this weekend, well, no you're not. That's because Bandai...
Level 5’s Fantasy Life Online is shutting down for good next month
It's been a short, weird, and depressing trip for Level 5's Fantasy Life Online. The colorful mobile MMORPG launched in Japan in 2018 on...
Blue Protocol shares details about monetization, cross-play, and game features
As the hype builds for next year's launch of Blue Protocol, so is the amount of information we're learning about Bandai Namco's MMORPG import....
The Game Archaeologist: Wizardry Online, the short-lived permadeath MMO
While the Wizardry series may not have the cultural cache that Ultima or Final Fantasy ended up with, nevertheless the dungeon crawling RPG series...
