Nexon saw a record 2020 revenue haul thanks to MapleStory and FIFA
With an emphasis on MapleStory's continuing success and a push into "new markets," Nexon settled out 2020 rather well for itself. Its Q4 2020 financial report shows a decline in global revenue for the quarter, the worst chunk of the year, resulting in a quarterly net loss owing largely to deferred tax liabilities and foreign […]
Glitch reboot releases early demo version, opens Discord and Patreon for funding
Almost two years ago now, the two key Glitch successors – Eleven and Chrildren of Ur – joined forces to rescue the MMO from its sunsetted fate. Glitch, of course, was the adorable but short-lived sandbox from TinySpeck, which was led by the founder of Flickr and later Slack. Unlike many MMO companies, TinySpeck granted […]
Blade & Soul II begins pre-registration in Korea as a showcase video shares gameplay details
We know that the MMO Blade & Soul II is on our horizon here in the west sometime this year, but that horizon has gotten a bit closer in its native South Korea as the game kicked off pre-registration for the game in the region yesterday, complete with another teaser trailer. The beginning of pre-registration […]
Craftopia's newest update adds spears, a new biome, and tree planting
The latest patch for Craftopia lets you pick up red envelopes from cows as part of a New Year's celebration. Perhaps you can do so after killing those cows with your newest weapon, the Spear. Yes, the update has a lot of meat to it, and some of that includes the new ability to turn your enemies […]
Black Desert patches in defense icons and a new event to praise the sun
It can be a bit tricky sometimes to remember exactly how various defensive abilities work in Black Desert from time to time. Does this particular skill make you actually invulnerable (taking no damage and immune to all crowd control effects), or does it just give you super armor (still taking damage, but immune to crowd control […]
Final Fantasy XI updates with the newest chapter of the Voracious Resurgence
Sinister rumors! Ancient prophecies! A dignified and serious soldier dancing! That last one might sound a little out of left field for Final Fantasy XI, but it's all part of the latest story update for the game with the newest patch. The Voracious Resurgence continues, and players will need to contend with new dangers including… well, […]
Here's the big BlizzConline 2021 schedule, from World of Warcraft to Overwatch 2
Blizzard's just released its schedule for BlizzConline, and… well it's not going to absolutely shock you, since we had a pretty good idea of what the con was going to focus on already. Notably, following the open ceremonies on February 19th, there's a big World of Warcraft What's Next panel, and it's the big one […]
Perfect Ten: The types of MMO guilds
Guilds! They're remarkably consistent features of MMOs because developers have long realized that they are an unparalleled engine for creating drama, arguments, and recriminations. Occasionally guilds actually band together and do things, but most of the time they're a way for players to make everyone in a social group equally uncomfortable until someone finally gets […]
Valheim is a co-op PvE-minded survival title of conquering a Viking purgatory – and it's already sold 1M copies
Oh look, another survival sandbox! Before you close the browser tab, though, it would appear that this one has some genuinely unique hooks that have seen it leave some overall favorable impressions on players. It's called Valheim, and right out of the gate this one is different because it's built specifically to be co-operative and […]
Star Citizen plans a free fly event, a Lunar New Year event, and a vehicle team AMA this month
With the month of February just beginning, fans and followers of Star Citizen will have plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks according to a recent post from CIG detailing a variety of events that are on the way. First off, there will be an AMA with the Vehicle Experience Team running for […]
Former Riot Games staffer accuses CEO Nicolo Laurent of sexual harassment in new lawsuit
Another day, another round of bro culture at Riot Games. The latest episode has gone even further up the chain of command, as former executive assistant Sharon O'Donnell says she was fired from Riot last summer after enduring – and reporting to human resources – sexist language and sexual advances from no less than Riot […]
Ashes of Creation provides a preview of the tank archetype arriving to alpha
What's an MMORPG without a good tank? Probably one that doesn't lean on the crutch of the Holy Trinity class design, actually. Ashes of Creation, however, will have tanks and it provided a look at the tank archetype in a recent Alpha One preview. As one would expect, the tank archetype is all about using […]
World of Warcraft spills details about its March patch, including the return of Valor points (kinda)
You won't have to wait until BlizzConline to find out what's next in store for World of Warcraft. While Patch 9.1 is still hiding under the veil of secrecy, Blizzard posted details of what's coming in a smaller March patch for the MMO. Patch 9.0.5 began testing this week and will bring some quality-of-life improvements […]
Lord of the Rings Online starts testing its mid-level Wildwood update
As Lord of the Rings Online players wait in breathless anticipation of this year's producer's letter (soon! soon!), the game's first major update of the year has just started its rounds on the test server. Update 29: Wildwood represents a significant diversion from LOTRO's usual development path as it is adding a level 45 zone […]
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about wings on MMO characters?
I know that we get into some pretty esoteric topics here in The Daily Grind, but this may take the cake. Wings. Wings on people. Non-functional, purely aesthetic wings, mind you. How do we feel about them? I've noticed over the past few years that these have really been cropping up in a lot of […]
The Stream Team: The path to the dark side (of EverQuest II's moon)
Now that she has the magical map in hand, Massively OP's MJ is ready to find her way to the dark side of the moon in EQII. The only problem is that she'll have to return to Echo Caverns to continue the trek. After the last experience she is less than eager to travel there, […]
PlanetSide 2's Outfit Wars 2.0 officially goes live with the latest PC update
It's time for Outfits to fight it out and find out which is better in PlanetSide 2 thanks to the latest PC update, which has finally launched the much-ballyhooed Outfit Wars 2.0 feature. For those who haven't been following along, Outfit Wars is a tournament-style showdown where teams from each empire fight for control over […]
Black Desert Mobile gets the Archer and Fletcher next week, opens pre-creation today
Care to take your enemies out from a distance through some more conventional means in Black Desert Mobile? Then you're ready to give the Archer class and its Awakened form the Fletcher a spin when both arrive in an update next week. Despite both classes having similar-sounding names, they both operate entirely differently. The Archer […]
Blizzard announces a Hearthstone 'Classic' mode
The biggest consumer drawback for collectable card games is that it's a neverending chase of getting all of the latest usable cards before newer ones are added and older ones go obsolete. Well, that and the fact that each pack is a small lockbox in and of itself, but we won't go there. For players […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 308: FFXIV's endings and beginnings
Justin and Bree discuss Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker, Skyforge, Blizzard and NCosft financials, Stadia, and PSO2, with adventures in WoW Classic, LOTRO, ESO, SWG Legends, plus mailbag questions on MMO dungeons and juggling MMOs.
MechWarrior Online teases winter patches with monthly missions and weapons balancing
At what point does opening up communication cross the line into repeating yourself? It's possible that MechWarrior Online has hit that mark, or at least is pushing very close to that envelope, as a recent dev vlog breaks down several things that have been pointed out previously, albeit with a couple of release windows. The […]
A3: Still Alive introduces a new region, adds an offline auto-play feature, and merges servers
There's been yet another sizable update made to Netmarble's mobile MMO A3: Still Alive bringing the globally popular title a variety of new content updates and features. One of the major introductions is the region of Somius, featuring new territories, new quests, and the first two floors of a new Corrupt Aselcan Ruins equipment dungeon. […]
Path of Exile plans Ritual league improvements and fixes in a patch planned for this week
With all the moving parts going into a Path of Exile league challenge, it's not surprising that some bits might not work as well as others. Fortunately, the development staff also has a long history of making progress on addressing bugs and issues pretty quickly, and thus it's probably not a shock that another batch […]
E3 is currently in planning to be a digital-only event this year
If you were hoping that 2021 would return to hordes of people crammed into convention halls for this year's E3 after last year's version was cancelled due to the pandemic… maybe not so much! Early reports are that the ESA has already put forth plans to have E3 2021 be a digital-only event (possibly in […]
Stick and Rudder: Leader of Elite Dangerous 'slavery' racket espouses a 'cult-like' guild full of 'chaos and evil'
Last week we reported on an effort by several players of Elite: Dangerous to dupe new players into a sort of indentured servitude by offering them mining ships, training, and credits, but effectively taking them to an inescapable region of space and forcing them to mine materials to sell at prices that were well below […]
Terraria cancels its Stadia release after Google openly mishandles the developer's YouTube account issues
There's burning bridges and then there's firing a massive orbital strike laser at them. Google has effectively chosen the latter with its handling of an issue reported by Terraria developer Andrew Spinks, which started as a YouTube ban that devolved into a wholesale disabling of Spinks' Google account and ended with the game's Stadia version […]
Choose My Adventure: Battleground PvP in Warhammer Return of Reckoning is unexpectedly fun
I was not anticipating this. I came to this week's assignment with not an inconsiderable level of dread. My previous experiences in PvPing were coloring every expectation and causing my guts to roil a bit as nerves started to fray. It wasn't helped that hitting the button to enter a PvP battleground queue wasn't instantaneous. […]
Lord of the Rings Online hedges on new server, rolls out Ill Omens event
Astute Lord of the Rings Online players may have noticed that one promise from last year's producer's letter never came to be, which was the launch of a new challenging server type. So whatever happened to that? Community Manager Jerry Snook addressed this question recently, saying, "That was something we were intending to do in […]
Rumor: EA is debating the future of the beleaguered Anthem Next
If you thought Anthem Next was in the clear following EA's Andrew Wilson telling investors that he was confident in BioWare in spite of the fact that multiple key devs have bailed on the game in the last year, maybe revisit that premature sigh of relief. A new Bloomberg report cites unnamed sources inside EA […]
Blizzard plucks your nostalgia strings with a new BlizzConline trailer (and merch)
We're sure that you are all quite aware that BlizzConline is coming on February 19th, but just in case you overslept or something, Blizzard's ratcheting up the hype for this online-only event — and the studio's birthday. This year's official BlizzCon merch is available for purchase if you want to go broke in a hurry. […]
The first quadrant of EVE Online 2021, Reign, is live today with hefty fleet and travel updates
CCP Games has taken the wraps off EVE Online's quadrant series for the year, beginning with the first one: Reign, the first chunk of which is live… now. "Reign brings with it exciting new updates to fleets and travel, continuous balance and meta changes, plus returning events such as the Guardian's Gala and The Hunt," […]
CD Projekt Red is the victim of a cyber attack compromising its systems and ransoming its data
The time since the Cyberpunk 2077 release has not been a good one for CD Projekt Red, and it appears to have gotten worse now in a way that is unrelated to bugs, lawsuits, or other such antics. The company confirmed on Twitter that it had been targeted by a direct and malicious cyber attack […]
Neverwinter's Sharandar: The Iron Tooth has been delayed a week over the combat rework
Sharandar is not launching in Neverwinter today, I'm afraid. Last night, PWE announced that it's postponing the first leg of the PC version of the multi-part expansion one week, to February 16th. "Delaying releases is not a decision we take lightly," the studio said. "Throughout the last several weeks we have been committed to addressing […]
The Daily Grind: Do you binge-play MMOs?
One of the things I very much do not like about being an adult with responsibilities is how it shapes my MMO time. It's not so much that it caps how much time I get to play overall, just that it pushes me into smaller blocks at certain less-than-ideal hours. And personally, I would rather […]
The Stream Team: The Tide Turns is the real finale of DDO's pirate saga
Massively OP's MJ may have said that last time was the last time for DDO's pirate saga. However, today is the real last time! The finale quest, The Tides Turn, will wrap up the pirate adventure that MJ and the crew have been working through. And what a finale it will be! Just as House […]
SEED shares the experience of a friends and family playtest of four brothers
The family that plays in-development colony-building MMOs together stays together. Or at the very least, they take part in a friends and family playtest for SEED and then come together on video chat to share their experiences in developer Klang Games' latest dev vlog. That's a bit too long of a sentence to be a […]
Mobile MMORPG Lineage 2: Revolution introduces the territory of Rune in its latest update
I don't know about you, but when I'm told that a place called Rune is available to explore, my mind immediately leaps to either the plot of an '80s fantasy film or the plot of an old FMV point-and-click PC game. However, the addition of Rune is part of Lineage 2 Revolution's latest update, so […]
MapleStory puts out a new update with job balancing, gameplay improvements, and a full moon festival
I think having to avoid going to public gatherings for so long is having a real effect on me because when I watched the video for MapleStory's new in-game festival, I sort of got weepy and wistful and filled with a longing to be in that sort of atmosphere. I genuinely hope that we can […]
Fortnite celebrates Valentine's Day with a duos tourney, team battles, quests, and Creative Mode hub
Do you think love can bloom on a battlefield? It apparently can in the battle royale battlefield of Fortnite with a little help from several events going on in-game for Hearts Wild, of course. The Hearts Wild event offers up several activities for players of the shooter to take part in, including a Hearts Wild […]
Genshin Impact fans have built a scale model of the city of Liyue Harbor
How much of a fan of Genshin Impact are you? Are you the sort of creative person that makes fanart of the game? Maybe you write fanfiction? Or are you the sort of fan that decides to spend hours building a scale model of one of the game's major cities? Because that's precisely what some […]
Rogue Company and Paladins release new seasons with new characters and battle pass rewards
Hi-Rez Studios' games are all about those battle pass-filled seasonal updates and the latest updates to both Rogue Company and Paladins are no different. Both multiplayer hero shooters have launched some new seasons with new characters and new seasonal reward tracks. In Rogue Company, the game's first official season sees the arrival of Kestrel, the […]
Shroud of the Avatar adds two new community events and makes its fishing tourney a monthly event
Even if I'm side-eyeing the heck out of Shroud of the Avatar, I do have to give a smile and a nod to the developing MMO's love of community events, and with this week's Avatar's Update, there are a couple of notable things on that front to point out. Particularly since the rest of the […]
Epic Games denies rumors that it's aiming for an IPO
It's a pretty well-known fact that Epic Games is doing pretty well for itself between the success of Fortnite and the ongoing popularity of the Unreal engine. As a result, when someone spied the company hiring someone to work in Investor Relations, the supposition was that the company was getting ready to put forth an […]
RuneScape improves various teleportation methods and adds a Valentine's Day-themed heist
It's a new week in the world of Gielinor and that means it's time for another weekly newsletter from RuneScape. This week, the Ninjas have attacked a number of teleportation methods in the game, with Fairy Rings getting better UI, the Big Book O' Piracy, Enchanted Lyre, Mortania Legs, and Sceptre of the Gods each […]
Fioresia Online posts its 2021 development roadmap
Fioresia Online is a relatively new title to us here at Massively OP, but it instantly grabbed our attention for its wide scope and its adorable cartoony design. The game is working toward an early access version, which you can see with the dev team's 2021 roadmap. The roadmap, which covers from now through May, […]
Book of Travels provides a look at a few of the threats that inhabit its world
A lot has been made by Book of Travels about the game's world and aesthetic, whether it's music, art style, or things that inspired its creation. In the most recent post shared on Steam and Kickstarter, the devs are offering a more specific look at something within its game world: the threats that players will […]
Albion Online details its plans for the upcoming faction war revamp
War! What is it good for? Faction standing in Albion Online, among other things. But there's room to make that faction warfare system better all around, and that's what the developers are aiming to do in the next major update to the system. There are four major points being addressed by the changes: making the system […]
Wisdom of Nym: Everything we now know about Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker
So, hey, the moon! That's a place we haven't been yet, isn't it? We've blown up a moon in Final Fantasy XIV (or had one blown up on us, same difference), but now we're actually going to the moon… and that leaves me wondering how in the heck they're going to make the moon interesting […]
NCsoft Q4 2020: Aion Classic was a huge success, Guild Wars 2 improves on 2019
NCsoft's Q4 2020 financials are up, and while it was a solid year for the company on the whole, some of its games have me a smidge nervous. The Korean games giant had a relatively flat and quarter and year, never quite making it back to the spike it saw early in 2020 when the pandemic […]
A new version of the long-sunsetted MMORPG Shadowbane has landed on Steam
Shadowbane has had one of the strangest journeys of an MMORPG over the past two decades. Originally launched in the early 2000s, the PvP-centric title spun down in 2009 as its then-owners threw in the towel. However, in 2012, China's Changyou obtained the rights to the game and eventually turned the servers back on in […]
