It was a wild week for MMORPGs right here in early January – and form of a variety of it occurred on the finish of it. On Friday, EG7/Dawn introduced the closure of the studio whose workers it simply set to work on PlanetSide 2 final yr, leaving the destiny of that sport unstated and in limbo. Then, Raph Koster introduced that Stars Attain will run a Kickstarter in February – the primary huge Kickstarter the core MMORPG style has seen shortly. And we even received an enormous infodump out of Lord of the Rings On-line, which is aiming to open new 64-bit servers for voluntary participant transfers this spring.
Lastly, we polished off our awards season and vacation content material with our annual roundtable and debrief. Congratulations to all of our winners!
Learn on to meet up with the perfect of this week’s MMO information and opinions as we speak as each Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Evaluate!
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Raph Koster’s Stars Attain MMORPG is launching a Kickstarter in February – and will launch as early as 2026 – Raph Koster and Playable Worlds introduced throughout their hearth chat this night that they are launching a Kickstarter marketing campaign for sprawling sci-fantasy sandbox MMORPG Stars Attain. “Playable Worlds has introduced the…
Enad International 7 shuts down Toadman and lays off workers at Piranha Video games, probably affecting PlanetSide 2 – We have now the unlucky obligation to report that the layoffs throughout the video games business will apparently proceed till humorous line improves. Enad International 7, the Swedish firm that took possession…
MassivelyOP’s full MMO 2024 awards recap and debrief – As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, as we speak we will recap our annual awards and different articles from the tip of 2024. We gave…
MMO Hype Practice: May 2025 be the 12 months of Dune Awakening? – I will lay out my playing cards on the desk as a result of I feel that honesty is germane to what we’ll be speaking about as we speak: I am not likely a fan of…
Elder Scrolls On-line reveals the Fallen Banners DLC and replace 45 with a starter zone revamp and console mods – ZeniMax On-line Studios previewed two issues for Elder Scrolls On-line final night time – and no, neither of them was a chapter, because the studio has sworn off chapters (for now?)…
Lord of the Rings On-line’s lead explains how the brand new 64-bit servers are going to work – After sparking some unintended (however predictable) drama over a half-formed announcement of recent 64-bit servers coming this yr to Lord of the Rings On-line, Standing Stone Video games’ Government Producer Rob…
Finish-of-12 months Eleven: All of the upcoming MMOs to observe in 2025 and past – As we flip the web page on one other fascinating yr of MMORPG historical past, we cross into recent territory. What lies forward? Surprises, disappointments, and countless potential, my buddies. And whereas we…
WoW Issue: The ‘tactical period’ of World of Warcraft dungeons form of wasn’t – One of many issues that I love to do, in each this column and elsewhere, is push again in opposition to myths which have grown up round World of Warcraft whereas they…
EverQuest and EverQuest II launched full 2025 roadmaps – and naturally, new expansions are coming this fall – It is roadmap week over within the land of EverQuest, as Dawn’s Darkpaw Video games has delivered roadmaps for each Unique Taste EverQuest and New Coke EverQuest II. (Hey, New Coke was…
WoW Issue: Rating all 10 of World of Warcraft’s expansions from worst to greatest – Now that I’ve performed by the whole thing of The Struggle Inside, I’ve some sturdy opinions the place this growth lies within the grander tapestry of World of Warcraft. However why…
Chrono Odyssey is now taking publication signups that promise ‘early entry to approaching occasions’ – It has been a few months since we have heard a lot of something out of Chrono Odyssey, Kakao and Npixel’s upcoming fantasy MMO that is eyeing a world launch within the latter…
V Rising thwarts vampire hunters to promote over 5 million models – Do not rely a vampire down and out simply because it died as soon as upon a time. Stunlock Studios introduced that its survival horror sport V Rising simply crossed 5 million models…
In newest shareholder name, Ubisoft continues to be cagey about Tencent negotiations – The latter half of final yr noticed persistent rumors about Ubisoft’s efforts towards stabilization, because the founding Guillemot household and the corporate’s largest stakeholder, Tencent, allegedly debated taking the corporate…
Blizzard invitations fan to have fun 30 years of Warcraft at a world tour of gatherings – Sydney. Sao Paulo. Seoul. Toronto. Boston. London. These six cities all have one thing in frequent: They don’t seem to be Albuquerque. Additionally, they’re all internet hosting a particular gathering with Blizzard builders…
Brighter Shores plans to merge fight professions, replace gear, and add new improve timber – Final November introduced the MMORPG Brighter Shores into early entry with some distinct design decisions, chief amongst them being fight professions which can be particular to bigger zones or “episodes.” It…
PSA: Star Citizen followers elevate the alarm over continued conflicting refund coverage messages – When you’ve been following the discussions round Star Citizen, you might need seen the subject of the sandbox’s refund coverage come up, maybe even with claims that the coverage is…
Warframe studio Digital Extremes donated $10000 to assist California wildfire reduction efforts – This week, we have been overlaying the devastation in Southern California as a number of wildfires are rampaging by Los Angeles, destroying tens of 1000’s of properties and buildings and leaving round half…
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2025 – For our subsequent Massively Overthinking roundtable of the 2024/2025 transition period, we’re trying forward not with predictions however with one thing an entire lot extra fiddly and private: hopes and fears.…
Tibia-inspired MMO Ravendawn pronounces a full cell model – Ravendawn, the sandbox MMO that drew inspiration from the traditional tile-based Tibia, has been fairly the busy beaver in yr since its launch. And now it seems to be to be increasing…
No matter occurred to crafting sandbox A Story within the Desert? – It has been a pair journeys across the solar since we final checked in with 2003’s A Story within the Desert, an previous MMO that is well-known for being one of many…
Splash Injury pulled the plug on on-line shooter Transformers: Reactivate – Transformers is a franchise that is had a surprisingly troublesome time breaking into the net sector, and it seems to be like its luck is not altering any time quickly. IGN stories that Transformers: Reactivate…
Tower of Fantasy’s Forging a New World replace arrives later this month – On-line gacha RPG Tower of Fantasy goals to begin this yr with a literal blast of content material when its 4.6 replace comes out later this month. Forging a New World…
Leaderboard: What was essentially the most overrated MMO of 2024? – It is just about a on condition that yearly after we announce our MMO of the yr, somebody’s going to hop into the feedback and say, “Effectively truly, that MMO is…
Working As Meant: The MMOs we misplaced in 2024 – Welcome to the worst article I’ve to jot down yearly. I imply, no one is basically making me do it. However I nonetheless really feel I’ve to jot down it; I…
Imprecise Patch Notes: No, authenticity doesn’t make video video games profitable – On December twelfth, 2024, The Recreation Awards had its annual awards present, and the award for Recreation of the 12 months was offered by Larian Studios head Swen Vincke. Vincke, coming…
Ultimate Fantasy XIV reruns its free login marketing campaign for lapsed customers and points a brand new remix album – It is time as soon as once more for lapsed gamers of Ultimate Fantasy XIV to take a chance to look again in and see what’s new in Eorzea for a restricted time, as…
A number of sport studios and even the Fallout TV present are impacted by the devastating California wildfires – When you’re paying any consideration to the present US information, you understand that giant elements of dense Los Angeles, California, are below siege by 5 wildfires which can be consuming entire…
World of Warcraft is climbing subscription costs in Australia and New Zealand – Who does not like paying extra for issues? Wait. Sorry. The reply to that’s “everybody,” and so you possibly can think about that residents of Australia and New Zealand should not precisely…
Metropolis of Heroes Homecoming gives a quick roadmap with two main updates deliberate for 2025 – Whereas Metropolis of Heroes Homecoming’s license from NCsoft was huge information final January, common readers will know that after the preliminary rush of gamers died down, the sport truly quieted…
Creature capturing MMO Untamed Isles resumes growth after being purchased up by a blockchain studio – It has been nearly three years since we heard something out of Untamed Isles, a cute-looking creature capturing MMORPG from developer Phat Loot Studios that first entered our discover again in…
Leaderboard: What was the (subsequent) greatest *new* MMO or MMO-adjacent sport of 2024? – Longtime readers of MOP will know that after we give out our MMO of the yr award, we don’t restrict it to only brand-new titles. We’ve not performed so…
Ship of Heroes collects its dev progress by 2024 because it nonetheless eyes launch this yr – Among the many MMOs we have instructed it is best to maintain your eyes on in 2025 is Ship of Heroes, which is seeking to make its launch within the second quarter of this…
Future 2’s Revenant Act III replace arrives to disgruntled gamers and tumbling Steam numbers – This week has introduced a brand new content material replace to the looter shooter of Future 2, but when participant sentiment is something to go by, this patch isn’t bringing pleasure.…
World of Warcraft’s Undermine replace is up on the take a look at server – let the datamining start – When you’ve lengthy waited to go to the Goblin capital in World of Warcraft, your probability is now right here. Not on the dwell sport simply but, however the Undermine(d) patch…
Lastly: Co-op looter-shooter Wayfinder arrives on Xbox on January 28 – It has been a little bit of a watch for Wayfinder followers who do their video gaming on Xbox Sequence X|S to get their palms on the sport, however contemplating how a lot…
Gaming psychologist believes 2025 will deliver ‘a brand new period of security by design for our digital playgrounds’ – We have written various occasions concerning the impact of harassment, hate speech, and different poisonous behaviors in MMOs and on-line gaming areas – a pattern that does not seem…
Metropolis of Heroes Homecoming expands as we speak with the addition of the Victory server – A yr in the past when NCsoft first granted Metropolis of Heroes Homecoming the license to function formally, the devs made clear that they might be making a “metropolis council” of likeminded…
DC Universe On-line celebrates 14 years with one other Anti-Monitor occasion and launch of recent occasion system – Superheroic MMORPG DC Universe On-line has been kicking round for 14 years this week, and meaning it is time for gamers to have fun with the return of the Anti-Monitor occasion,…
Marvel Rivals breaks down Season 1’s updates and options as Nexus Mods removes weirdo political content material – Followers already know that group hero shooter Marvel Rivals is headed for its first full season on January tenth, however now gamers are getting a couple of extra particular particulars thanks…
Select My Journey: Why I’m enjoying RuneScape this month (and never Pantheon) – Although I do my greatest to comply with the need of the polls for Select My Journey, there are some occasions when I’ve to make an govt determination. Both…
Star Citizen’s chief technique officer publicly resigns from his publish at CIG – This information will both be a part of one other slate of dangerous omens for builders engaged on Star Citizen or is simply one other shuffling of executives that in the end has no impression…
Casually Traditional: What does WoW Traditional’s future appear to be? – Welcome to 2025, WoW Traditional followers! What started as a considerably reluctant legacy model of this MMO a bit of over 5 years in the past has ballooned into a whole sub-franchise of…
Struggle or Kite: The PvP MMOs we’re watching in 2025 – Right this moment we arrive on the first Struggle or Kite column of the most recent quarter of the century, and whereas I can’t communicate for different PvPers on the market, I discover myself…
Tencent pushes again in opposition to its classification as a Chinese language navy firm by the US authorities – Supposedly the Chinese language megacorp Tencent is as much as extra than simply working in video video games if the US Division of Protection is to be believed, as the federal government physique has…
Heroes of the Storm’s subsequent patch brings again Brawls – completely – after practically 5 years – As has now change into nearly a daily behavior, one other patch has gone up the take a look at realm for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard’s ostensibly maintenance-moded MOBA. Just like the patches which have…
Not So Massively: Holidays in The First Descendant are actually the blurst of occasions – After I first tried The First Descendant, I hit a brick wall over the truth that I did not get pleasure from enjoying the 2 freebie characters I used to be given early on, and…
Albion On-line’s smuggler-filled Rogue Frontier replace is coming in lower than a month – Whereas different MMOs are sluggishly dusting off the Christmas cookie crumbs from their eggnog-stained sweaters, Albion On-line already is again at work and able to crank out its first huge…
Knowledge of Nym: What occurred with Ultimate Fantasy XIV’s spread-out patch 7.1? – So to preface this explicit column, I wish to make one thing clear: There isn’t any conspiracy occurring with Ultimate Fantasy XIV’s patch 7.1. I did an entire column about how…
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen hits a brand new concurrent participant excessive, opens a brand new server to compensate – Whereas Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s early entry launch won’t be for everybody proper now, it is actually proper for a decent variety of MMORPG followers, as this previous weekend…
PlayerUnknown has aspirations of making a metaverse over the course of three interlocked sport releases – Yep, that phrase is being utilized by an enormous title developer once more. However then that huge title developer is Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, the man whose sport PUBG created a completely…
Steam noticed extra video games launched in 2024 than every other yr prior – We’re as soon as once more being reminded that Valve’s Steam platform is the most important participant on the town in relation to digital storefronts: Contemporary information from SteamDB present that extra video games…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Each week, get caught up on the MMO style’s newest information and Massively OP’s greatest content material in our MMO Week in Evaluate! Need extra roundups of content material? Attempt Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all of the bits of reports we didn’t cowl anyplace else.
