Star Wars Squadrons plans two more updates in 2020, including new starfighters
Star Wars Squadrons may not be considered a "live service," but it's still apparently due for some updates, as Motive and EA announced today they've been working on "two free content updates" to run "through the holiday season." Update 3.0 launches on November 25th, featuring the new multiplayer Fostar Haven map; it was singleplayer only […]
MMO Business Roundup: Twitch affiliate mess, NFL esports, Skull & Bones boss ousted
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and games industry news relevant to our interests. First, Twitch is making waves – the bad kind – as it's announced that its apparently solution to the ongoing deluge of DMCA demands from the music industry (and thousands of videos being stripped from the platform) is to […]
Trove's insane Turkeytopia event returns with free wings
Does Trove have the best Thanksgiving event in the MMO biz? Turkeytopia certainly does double-down on the whole theme of hunting, dressing up as, and idolizing these chubby birds. In any case, Turkeytopia is running from now through the end of the month. That should give you plenty of time to gobble gobble up all […]
Huge Lord of the Rings Online Q&A talks Gundabad, River-hobbits, Brawlers, and 2021 plans
Lord of the Rings Online players have been clamoring for a lot more communication from SSG this year, especially from the game's higher-ups. This is their week, then, because Executive Producer Rob Ciccolini showed up for a one-hour community Q&A and fielded a whole lot of questions about the current state of the game and the […]
Whatever happened to Requiem: Memento Mori?
Requiem: Memento Mori isn't a name that's often on the lips of MMO gamers. In fact, we wouldn't blame you if you were staring at this post with a blank look and a complete lack of recollection. In short, Requiem is a bloody splatterfest that came out in 2008 and has gone through a few […]
Roblox's Lil Nas X concert racks up a total of 33 million views
So it would seem that the in-game concert event held by Roblox this past weekend was something of a success. According to statements shared by the game, the Lil Nas X in-game concert drew in a total of 33 million viewers over the course of its Saturday run, along with a special encore performance on […]
Albion Online seeks to improve faction warfare and Hellgates in its next major update
With the Brimstone and Mist update effectively in the rearview mirror of Albion Online, the question of what happens next for the game has to be answered. That answer is a focus on Hellgates and faction warfare according to the latest developer post. Faction warfare will be seeing a number of changes including the ability […]
Blade and Soul celebrates the Thanksgiving season with the Golden Harvest Festival
Today is the day to give thanks in Blade and Soul with the start of the Golden Harvest Festival. As of today, players can take part in new events, check out the new Primeweald auto-hunting zone, collect new gems, and enter the Tower of Infinity: Season of Ascension. On the events side of things, the […]
Black Desert brings basilisk fights and shared character equipment on PC, Guardian Awakening on console
This week in Black Desert sees some more events and a unique new feature for PC and the Awakening of the Guardian as well as Succession for several classes. It's yet another bundle of BDO, so let's hop in. On PC, this week's update has introduced the Marni's Suspicious Device item that effectively lets players […]
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition gets a battle royale mode as part of its anniversary update
It looks like the multiplayer RTS Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is joining the battle royale party. As part of the game's most recent update celebrating its first anniversary, there's now a battle royale mode that pits eight players against one another. In battle royale, players start with only a few units under their […]
For Science: Gaming is good for you, actually, suggests new Oxford study
A new University of Oxford study published this week suggests that there's a "positive relation between game play and well-being." The paper itself hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, but it's been covered widely this week as its findings and methods are unique. The authors used Plants vs. Zombies and Animal Crossing New Horizons, working with EA […]
Epic is suing Apple in Australia over Fortnite as Apple halves its profit cut from indie devs
You might think Epic Games' primary business is video games or video game engines, but as it turns out, it's fast becoming "filing lawsuits." Yes, Epic has apparently now filed suit against Apple in an Australia federal court, compounding on the ongoing feud between Epic and Apple over Epic's August decision to sneak a third-party […]
Perfect Ten: The 10 qualities of MMO sandboxes
What is a sandbox MMO? At first glance, it seems like a pretty easy question to answer, especially if you're going by Kickstarter projects, which will inform you that sandboxes are good and themeparks are bad. But the actual definition of what a sandbox is remains fuzzy, and it often contains some pretty bad assumptions, […]
Curseforge will be stopping new World of Warcraft add-on updates right as Shadowlands launches
Sometimes, two events coincide in a way that is particularly unpleasant for more or less everyone. The changeover from Curseforge to Overwolf for World of Warcraft add-ons is such a scenario. You see, as part of the transition, the existing framework for updating add-ons with new versions will be disabled starting on November 24th, so no […]
Fortnite adds in-game Houseparty support for video chat while you play
So the world is covered in a suffocating miasma of death and you probably aren't hanging out with most of your friends in person. (If you are, well… that's kind of why the world is covered in a suffocating miasma of death.) This has been good news for video chat apps like Houseparty, and the team […]
So Guild Wars 2's new roadrunner mount basically looks like a chocobo
Yesterday's The Icebrood Saga: Champions: Truce update for Guild Wars 2 came with a fun surprise in the form of the Roadrunner skin for the raptor mount originally introduced in Path of Fire. "You'll have a fine feathered friend to help you traverse the harshest Tyrian landscapes!" ArenaNet's promo says. "This enormous bird is an […]
Amazon's New World demo: Fishing, Reekwater, and hands-on havoc
It's certainly been rough seas for Amazon's upcoming New World over the past year — especially with a significant change of development direction for the title and several delays — but at the end of it all may be a welcome harbor for an eager fanbase. That's thanks to the fact that the revised and […]
Overwatch floats 'priority passes' while Hearthstone brings back the Darkmoon Faire
Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan clearly got out of the house this past week, donned his iconic sunglasses, and addressed the community in a new developer update. One of the big reveals that he dropped on us is that the team shooter is going to be introducing something called "priority passes" in the near future […]
Niantic just announced Pokemon Go Beyond, the game's biggest content update ever
Pokemon GO has already had an overwhelming number of events since late September, with both hits and some misses, but Niantic's looking to close out 2020 with a bang with Go Beyond, the game's next update. We attended the press reveal of Go Beyond, and while it was exclusively about the new update and not longstanding […]
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about MMO login rewards?
When I sit down at the end of my day to get in my two hours of gaming, I always start with a ritual: I'll quickly log in and out of a handful of MMOs to grab daily rewards. In most of these cases, they're not even titles I play on a regular basis, but […]
The Stream Team: Cruising to complete EverQuest II's Blood of Luclin
Massively OP's MJ anticipates that the Reign of Shadows expansion will launch sometime next month, so she wants to finish the Blood of Luclin story before it does! That doesn't leave too many EverQuest II-sdays to wrap up the signature quest line. Join us live at 8:00 p.m. to see what new things MJ discovers […]
RuneScape rolls out Construction Contracts with its latest update
The time has arrived for RuneScape players to stop holing up in their houses as a means of leveling up Construction. The new Construction Contract system previewed last week is now being rolled out completely, alongside the expected swath of bug fixes and minor improvements one would expect for a patch. If you caught up on […]
Path of Exile improves its stash tab functionality and fixes bugs
If you like sentences which start with the words "fixed an issue," reading the patch notes for the latest Path of Exile update will be one of your most exciting events of the week. There are tons of bug fixes in here, ranging from Heist-specific bugs to just general improvements to various areas of the game. […]
SMITE brings the trickster tanuki Danzaburou to its playable roster in December
Almost anything can be improved with a raccoon dog, never mind one that has a penchant for trickery. Say hello to Danzaburou, a mythological trickster tanuki of Japanese legend that will be arriving to SMITE this December. Danzaburou will play rather uniquely, according to the press release announcing his arrival, using gold to gain a […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 297: Beyond Light
Hey, Bree isn't here on the podcast today! It's going to be anarchy, fridge raiding, and free love! Or it'll be Chris and Justin going Beyond Light with Destiny 2, grabbing all of SWTOR's daily rewards, checking out Nexon's and Pearl Abyss' quarterly reports, and gabbing about what books should be made into MMOs. It's […]
Ashes of Creation's Steven Sharif discusses lore and some related gameplay mechanics in an interview
Sure, we're all about the gameplay of MMORPGs, but there's always a little time for some lore as well, and that was the primary thread through a video interview with Steven Sharif of Ashes of Creation, courtesy of YouTuber Simurgh. In the interview, Sharif discussed the inspiration for the world of AoC, confirmed that players […]
Whatever happened to post-apoc MMO shooter The Skies?
Tracking the progress of post-apocalyptic MMORPG shooter The Skies has been a bit of a journey, particularly if you follow the game's tag, since the game's title uses some pretty common words. When we last got a good look at this one, developer EFORB was promising a beta on PC in 2016 and a beta […]
Bungie casts a spotlight on the Black at Bungie Inclusion Club and its efforts to uplift Black devs and BLM
Racial equality is still a vital topic and an important fight in a wide variety of sectors, including game dev. It's why Bungie helped to create the Black at Bungie Inclusion Club, which was elaborated on in a recent dev blog post. Just what is an Inclusion Club (IC)? They're internal collections of Bungie employees […]
Animal Crossing New Horizons shares holiday events and new gameplay features in a free November 19 update
The next couple of months are all about the holidays in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. A big ol' info drop from the game has offered up details of new seasonal events, new features, and a lot of adorable new items to chase after as part of a free update on November 19th. It all starts […]
Dual Universe drops new voxel creation trailer, explains how it'll protect individual creator blueprints
Let's outline a scenario. You make a blueprint for a great ship in Dual Universe. Your acquaintance Trab asks you for the blueprint, which he takes and then alters to be almost identical but with text implying that you smell like sweaty farts on the side. Trab then resells it to everyone. Isn't that bad? Yes, […]
Elder Scrolls Online won't directly support play on the new ARM-based Macs
Bleeding-edge, early-adopting Mac gamers who happen to play Elder Scrolls Online definitely need to point their eyeballs at Bethsoft's latest missive to players, as the studio has announced it won't be able to directly support the new Macs, which will use custom ARM CPUs. The use of these CPUs, Bethsoft says, requires software rewrites or […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: First impressions of Guild Wars 2's Icebrood Saga: Truce
So here we are, we're finally entering the home stretch of the Icebrood Saga. Today sees the release of the first chapter of Champions, the four part finale of this saga. Typing Guild Wars 2 release titles is starting to become exhausting, so rather than the verbose and overly punctuated title "Guild Wars 2: Icebrood […]
Microsoft CFO says Bethsoft IPs can still go cross-platform but also wants new games 'first, better, or best' on Microsoft
As the news of Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Bethesda Softworks, and its various studios has settled in, there's been one niggling point that's sort of hung in the air: whether Bethsoft's IPs will be allowed to flourish on other platforms or they'll be Xbox and Microsoft exclusives. During last week's Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference, […]
Choose My Adventure: Paradise planets, destroyed freighters, and hellbeasts in No Man's Sky
It would be super easy for me to make this week's ride in No Man's Sky a picture book. Not just because the game has a photo mode, but because this week had me focusing on exploration, which meant landing on as many planets as I could to find neat stuff to encounter, look at, […]
Atlas Rogues, Gamigo's Atlas Reactor spinoff, begins $14.99 early access tomorrow
Gamigo's deserving of some kudos this year, as after sunsetting Atlas Reactor in the wake of its Trion Worlds buyout, it's now bringing it back as a spinoff called Atlas Rogues. And while it's not exactly the same game, it might satisfy a wider range of players, as Rogues is more of a "rogue-lite" co-op […]
Enter to win a Neverwinter Carmine Bulette mount and ghost friendo for PC
With the final phase of Neverwinter's Redeemed Citadel rollout live for PC players last week, PWE has kindly granted Massively OP 25 keys for the Pack of the Carmine Bulette to give away to our PC readers! Each pack includes a retint of the Carmine Bulette mount as well as a Ghost companion. Critically, the […]
TERA Console changes up producers, delays crossplay patch
Big changes are in the works for TERA Console, requiring fans to exhibit some degree of flexibility this month. Change number one involves passing the torch from one game producer to another, as Tamura Koji announced that he is leaving the project next month to be replaced by Huh Joong-hee. "[TERA Console] was a project […]
WoW Classic starts Naxxramas raid attument while World of Warcraft nerfs gear
World of Warcraft Classic is certainly feeling the pinch of Shadowlands attention deficit disorder, so the opening of Naxxramas in early December can't come soon enough. For those who want to be raiding this floating death fortress on Day One, Blizzard has unlocked the ability to go through the attunement process. "We have updated WoW […]
The Daily Grind: What was the best Guild Wars 2 living world season?
To date, there have been approximately five Guild Wars 2 living world seasons. Technically, The Icebrood Saga, which began last year, isn't a season, but it's close enough for Daily Grind purposes. And of course, the very first season, which was very event-focused rather than map-focused, is no longer fully playable. But I bet a […]
The Stream Team: Reviving the Ranger life in Path of Exile
Massively OP's MJ really enjoys her life of crime in Heist, but she is also really missing the life of a Path of Exile Ranger. It's time to revive her! Tonight, MJ's heading over to Standard League to run around with a bow for a while. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. for this return […]
Life Beyond adds improved base construction, 'true MMORPG' controls, and bug fixes in recent updates
Things in the developing survival sandbox Life Beyond are shifting once more, and while most of the updates have been generally on the smaller side to this point, the 0.10.00 patch has made a few larger adjustments that those playing or following the title may want to know about. The first larger feature of the […]
Minescape is a custom-built recreation of RuneScape in Minecraft
What happens when you combine Minecraft with RuneScape? You get a boxy version of the classic MMORPG, or more specifically, you get Minescape, a passion project of Günther "scipio3000" Jungbluth since 2012 that's currently on its third season of updates. Minescape boasts 24 skills, bosses to fight, dungeons to plumb, and plenty of items to […]
EVE Pulse thanks players for PLEX for GOOD donations and shows off an updated jump clone panel
EVE Online has once more cobbled together a new episode of the Pulse, which rounded up the game's latest developments. As one would expect, the video touched on the latest game update, which added supercarrier, ESS, and bounty changes as well as opened the new Jita hub, and offered some words of thanks to players […]
Shroud of the Avatar drums up hype for… more lights in player towns
In what's being touted as a part of ongoing "amazing" quality-of-life improvements to Shroud of the Avatar, the game's newest newsletter is talking up the addition of more lights to player-owned towns. Yes, those who are stewards of cities and towns within the game world will now be able to generate more in-game lumens. Truly […]
Albion Online tweaks Corrupted Dungeon mobs and balances item skills in its latest update
The most recent update to Albion Online is mostly about turning dials around, so it's not exactly what one would call a barnburner of a patch. Still, things being adjusted is important to note, especially for those who are invested in certain pieces of gear or content. The content adjustment in question is related to […]
Star Citizen demonstrates the creation of props by making a Picoball live on stream
There have been broadcasts where the devs of Star Citizen have taken fans along for the creation of things like weapons and ship concepts, but have you ever seen an episode of Star Citizen Live where you saw a volleyball turn into a penguin-faced friend? Well, you have now. John Carney from the Props and […]
Vendetta Online discusses Chromebook support, trading improvements, and capital ships with a legacy
It's the journey and not the destination that's important, as the axiom goes, but recounting that journey in a spaceship sandbox can often only be done by word of mouth, with no in-game record of a ship's exploits along the way. That looks to be changing in the case of Vendetta Online, which outlined the […]
World of Warcraft offers up a trailer for the upcoming Shadowlands launch
Ready for a cinematic tease for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands? You really should be because the expansion is launching in just around a week, so you're running out of time to get ready. Also, it's here right now and just below, so even if you're not ready for the full expansion just yet, the trailer is […]
Mabinogi introduces limited-time boosts and a dungeon guide system to help players progress
Mabinogi has been out for a while — since 2008 here in North America, to be precise — so it would be reasonable to think that newer arrivals would be at something of a disadvantage in terms of getting to higher tier content or navigating their way through what's available. That's what the game's most […]
MapleStory Fest shows off a new class for MapleStory M, new 5th Job skills and new areas for MapleStory
The digital version of MapleStory Fest has come and gone, and with it a number of reveals for both MapleStory and MapleStory M as one would expect out of the event. For MapleStory M players, there's the new Demon Avenger class that's arriving to the game with an update on December 1st. Details were a […]
