Elite Dangerous has an estimated 500K monthly active players according to stockbroker report
It's no secret that an expansion's announcement is generally a driving force for bringing players into MMOs and multiplayer games, and that certainly appears to be the case for Elite: Dangerous, which is reportedly experiencing some strong monthly active player counts — an estimated 500K of them, to be exact. The numbers come from a […]
Black Desert cancels spring season server, plans 'growth server' for newbies instead
There's a ton of Black Desert PC info rolling out this afternoon. First up: Seasons are about to go away for spring break, literally. With the conclusion of the winter season on March 31st, Olvia toons will become regular toons and Olvia will convert to a special server for newbies and returnees, intended to help […]
Choose My Adventure: What Wizard101 taught me about 'kiddie' MMOs
My brief time in Wizard101 has pointed out to me a rather deep-seated assumption I had held about the game. Granted, I had said before that the game obviously was doing something right considering it has what looks to be an active and dedicated playerbase, but seeing something advertised and talked about as something "for […]
Former Daybreak and H1Z1 vets Anthony Castoro and Jace Hall raise $9M for a 'genre-defining metaverse'
The last time we heard the name Jace Hall, it was just about two years ago, when the version of H1Z1 esports he was heading up for Daybreak was on fire over a collapsing playerbase, imploding league, staff layoffs, the bizarre Daybreak ownership fibs, and allegations of financial shenanigans. In the tumult, Hall stepped down […]
Perfect Ten: The wide umbrella of MMOs and online gaming subgenres
Let's be realistic here, "MMO" as a term covers a whole lot of different game styles. I know this is a particular topic that I've touched on before, but the reality is that the whole reason behind calling a game specifically an MMO is that it allows for a whole lot of different games to […]
Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida talks about the importance of consoles and story fatigue in new interview
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is bringing an end to the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, the central narrative that's run through the game from relaunch until now. (This would be why the title is Endwalker and not Spinning-our-wheels-walker.) Why end it now? In a new interview on Gamesradar, producer and director Naoki Yoshida likens it to dealing […]
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic datamining reveals group finder and collector's edition perks
Is the beta for the first WoW Classic expansion live yet? Yes! Really, people can log in and try out The Burning Crusade all over again. That means datamining has started up, and while players are finding that the leveling appears to be slower than normal, the dataminers are finding new strings related to automatic matching within […]
SWTOR's Dark Descent live on the PTS with its first galactic season – and it's got a new companion
Last week, BioWare took the wraps off Star Wars The Old Republic's 6.3 update, The Dark Descent, which is slated for "spring 2021." And now, you can go muck around in it yourself, as it's dropped on the PTS in all its glory. As we previously covered, the update is notable for its new Flashpoint, […]
Ex-World of Warcraft dev Chris Metzen is making a new Dungeons & Dragons world
World of Warcraft fans who miss seeing the wild and fuzzy face of Chris Metzen are granted visiting privileges this week to check out what the former MMO lead is up to these days. After founding a new company called Warchief Gaming last year, Metzen finally announced his first post-WoW project: a Dungeons & Dragons […]
The Daily Grind: When's the last time you felt pleasantly lost in an MMO?
I've been reading a lot of player analysis about what WoW Classic offers that retail doesn't, and several times I've seen the sentiment that gamers enjoy not having explicit directions or omnipresent travel options at their fingertips. The phrase I saw that stuck with me was when one player said that she felt "pleasantly lost" […]
The Stream Team: Blasting to the past through EverQuest II's Chronoportals
Sure sure, there's still an expansion to play through in EQII, but how is Massively OP's MJ supposed to pull herself away from all the annual live events? And here's yet another: For one week, Norrathians of the second kind get to celebrate life as a Norrathian of the first kind. We're talking EQII's special […]
Nintendo taps Niantic for more mobile MMOARGs, starting with Pikmin
Niantic's best-performing AR game is based on a game IP, so it won't surprise you that Nintendo's tapped Niantic specifically to make more mobile AR games. As with The Pokemon Company venture, Niantic will be handling a PKMN game, this one called Pikmin, a colorful Nintendo IP about a tiny man using alien creatures to […]
WoW Classic's Burning Crusade beta has finally begun
After a false start yesterday, it's finally go time for World of Warcraft Classic's march to The Burning Crusade. Blizzard opened the doors for the beta today, meaning the first opt-in beta testers should be getting their invites and downloads now. The Burning Crusade Classic beta test has begun! Over the course of the test, […]
Five pioneering game titles that laid the groundwork for MMORPGs
The easy (and tired) joke to make is that WoW was the first MMO, but there were plenty of ambitious multiplayer games that predate even Ultima Online and EverQuest. In fact, readers of our own Game Archaeologist know the list of proto MMOs is long indeed, and now some of them have been outlined in […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 314: Blizzard's a hot mess
Justin and Bree discuss LOTRO's Wildwood, Astellia, SWTOR's next big thing, Magic Legends, and the Activision-Blizzard layoffs, with adventures in WoW Classic, Elder Scrolls Online, SWG Legends, and City of Heroes, plus mailbag topics on the hot mess known as Blizzard.
Diablo III brings a host of follower improvements with March 30 update, kicks off Season 23 on April 2
Having someone follow you around the Hell-blasted landscapes of Diablo III is getting a lot different (and hopefully a lot better) with the arrival of the next update, which will bring a host of previously detailed follower revamps to the live game on Tuesday, March 30th, followed shortly after by Season 23 on Friday, April […]
TERA's console version is adding the Elin Valkyrie on March 25
The next patch for the console version of TERA is only a couple of days away, and it brings with it the option to make your Valkyrie into an Elin. No, really, you can just change your race if you want to with a race change voucher. Or you can make a new Elin Valkyrie. We're […]
Elite Dangerous YouTuber is denied free access to Odyssey's alpha due to 'offensive' content
There are a number of YouTube content creators that have hitched their wagons to Elite: Dangerous. One of them is a YouTuber by the name of Yamiks, whose videos about the game very frequently enter NSFW realms in terms of language and references. It's, ultimately, for this reason that he was bluntly denied a free […]
New World alpha teases its overhauled quest design as AGS expands to Canada
When New World shifted its design balance from being less about PvP to more about PvE last year, many MMO gamers worried about the content: Could Amazon Games pump in enough PvE questing to make it play more like a traditional MMO? When the game launches this summer, we're going to find out for sure, […]
Magic Legends has soft launched into open beta, bringing Magic the Gathering to PC fans
PWE and Cryptic's Magic the Gathering game has been delayed and demoted from its original MMORPG status over the years, but now it's finally here, as the studios are officially soft-launching it as Magic Legends today, Neverwinter-style with a free-to-play open beta. "Today, Perfect World Entertainment, a leading publisher of online games, and Cryptic Studios […]
Rumor: Sony is getting rid of the PlayStation 3, PSP, and Vita stores this year
If there are digital games you've always wanted to get for your now-older PlayStation 3… now might be the right time to do it. A report from The Gamer claims that the digital stores for the PlayStation 3, the PSP, and the PSP Vita will all be shuttered this year according to anonymous internal sources. […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: Lessons Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons can learn from previous expansions
Any expansion announcement for any MMO is always a cause for excitement, but it's been four years since Guild Wars 2 shipped a new expansion, so the announcement of End of Dragons is especially worth celebrating. Can you believe that more time will have passed between the launch of Path of Fire and the launch […]
Ship of Heroes talks up new missions and locations, plans its next open beta event for April or May
The next couple of months could potentially be very interesting ones for followers of the in-development superheroic MMORPG Ship of Heroes. The devs at Heroic Games have put out an update post about their summer plans, which include details about missions, some new location previews, and word of the game's next beta event. Missions are […]
Casually Classic: How World of Warcraft made bad graphics look good
When I returned to World of Warcraft Classic in 2019, I steeled myself to be vastly underwhelmed by the visuals. I'm not a graphics snob, particularly with MMOs, but I know that I had gotten used to the ever-increasing polygon count of retail WoW and how lush and good-looking that client had become. It was […]
Guild Wars 2 nerfs meta-achievement requirements, calling it 'prohibitively costly'
Good news to those of you who have been beating your head against the meta-achievement grind for the Icebrood Saga's Champions chapter in Guild Wars 2 — your life is about to get a whole lot more easy. ArenaNet admitted that the former requirement for players to finish all collections for the meta-achievement was "prohibitively […]
Discord is rumored to be in negotiations for a potential $10 billion sale to Microsoft
Remember when Discord servers weren't basically the foundation of every single video game community online? Those were good times. It also meant that people would be less worried about the news that Discord is apparently in discussions for a potential sale for $10 billion to Microsoft, although the reports on whether or not that's likely […]
Nexon and Square canceled the Final Fantasy XI R mobile MMO, citing an insufficient 'level of creative differentiation'
Last fall, we poked around trying to figure out what happened to the Final Fantasy XI Remake, the mobile game that was originally announced in 2015 as a Square and Nexon project. As Eliot noted at the time, there wasn't a whole lot to report, as the companies had been pretty quiet about it, apart […]
No, the Burning Crusade Classic beta has not (yet) begun
Last night it looked as though the highly anticipated closed beta test for World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic had started — but that turned out to be a false alarm triggered by a bug. Some players loaded up their Blizzard launcher to see what looked like access to the test, but apparently that screen […]
The Daily Grind: Do MMOs need 'friction' for social bonding?
Not quite a year ago, World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas sat for a Wired interview in which he discusses social bonding in MMOs, effectively arguing that "friction" was an essential component of old-school MMOs. "There's an inverse relationship between friction and the strength of bonds that are formed as a result of that […]
The Stream Team: Seeking side quests in Elder Scrolls Online
Massively OP's MJ has finished the main story of ESO's Greymoor, but she missed quite a few side quests along the way. Not only that, but she's missed sidequests all over in every zone! Before she picks another (older) expansion to play through, she wants to seek out and finish a number of those side […]
Whatever happened to sci-fi MMO ECO?
It has been the hottest of minutes since we cast eyes on ECO, the multiplayer planetary simulator that entered early access in February 2018; we reported on an April 2018 update that was all about (actual) garbage, and we even had a livestreamed peek with the devs ahead of its early access release. But if […]
Netease's SpatialOS-built multiplayer VR RPG Nostos is being shuttered after less than two years
Back in August 2018, we cast our eyes in the direction of Nostos, an "open-world VR RPG with online elements" that let four players explore a large open world. We noted then that the game was being built using SpatialOS, an engine that readers will recall is tuned to simulate massive worlds and support player […]
World of Warships revamps and reintroduces its Key Battle mode and rolls out more Italian battleships
Do you recall the World of Warships sci-fi themed Key Battle LTM, where players had to fight it out against each other and space squids to get a key and exit the map's portal? Well, it's back in the game's latest update, but with less key and more battling, along with a new title: Big […]
Kickstarted Civil War game War of Rights adds big guns, infantry flags, and anti-trolling measures
It's been a good while since we last checked in on the controversial War of Rights, the Civil War battlefield simulator developed by Denmark-based Campfire Games. It's currently priced at $30, although sometimes it goes on sale for a good portion off of that. War of Rights went into Steam early access back in December […]
Whatever happened to Mark Kern's crowdfunded Firefall-successor Em-8er?
We're taking a trip back to the halcyon days of Firefall to set the stage for this piece, so hop aboard the esports bus and let's find out what happened to Mark Kern and his next big thing. Kern has been a controversial figure in the MMORPG genre for years. He was probably most notable […]
Last Oasis plans for a server wipe on Friday as Season 3 arrives
The next major update for Last Oasis is on its way soon, as it has been confirmed by the developers that a server wipe is incoming at some point on Friday. That's meant to clear the deck for the launch of the game's third season, along with a patch that's promising to involve fundamental changes to […]
Ecclesia Online offers dubious Diablo thrills
There's a new Diablo-esque MMO on the market — but you may want to approach this one with caution. Ecclesia Online is billing itself as an isometric fast-paced RPG, and according to its Reddit thread, it went into open alpha testing on March 19th. However, a lot of the former information about this game has […]
Bless Unleashed is reworking the game's interface and controls for PC
Believe it or not, Bless Unleashed has still not launched for PC, after launching on pretty much everything else. But it is still slated for this year, in spite of the fact that Round8 and Neowiz still aren't talking about founder's packs and head starts. Part of the slow rollout appears to come down to the […]
Book of Travels introduces fans to four of the game's NPCs
Ideally, walking around in tiny multiplayer online title Book of Travels will see players running into one another and perhaps linking up for some shared wandering. That said, there are going to certainly be NPCs in the game to interact with as well, and the devs of Might & Delight have offered up an introduction […]
Fight or Kite: Project Winter plays like Among Us mixed with survival mechanics for a unique experience
What do you get if you take the Among Us crew and traitor system, MMO staples like gathering and crafting, survival games' hunger and warmth stats, and then get stuck on a mountain in a blizzard with seven other players? The answer: Project Winter. Add in different game modes and shiny cosmetics and… well, you've […]
Fallout 76 posts its roadmap for the rest of 2021 with the Brotherhood of Steel, daily ops, and four-star legendaries
The next patch for Fallout 76 is currently on the game's test server, so anyone who would like to check out C.A.M.P. slots, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. loadouts, or various other things that aren't forced acronyms can do so right now. But the developers aren't resting on their laurels just yet, with the remainder of the 2021 roadmap now […]
Development of a Warframe-inspired tabletop RPG is halted thanks to toxic fans
A particularly toxic sect of the Warframe community has ensured that a tabletop RPG intended as a love letter to the game will never see the light of day. The entire sordid story is outlined in a Dicebreaker interview with Spencer Campbell, the indie developer behind the TTRPG Frame and a fan of the multiplayer […]
Wisdom of Nym: The Final Fantasy XIV Ascians we know
Look, sometimes you just want to do some lore stuff for Final Fantasy XIV, and this is one of those times. Especially since… well, there's a paucity of stuff to talk about right now otherwise. Not that it's anyone's fault or a problem, but it's a good time to take stock of the Ascians we […]
RuneScape isn't resuming updates today after all, puts all focus on account repair
RuneScape's server woes continue this week, though there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. MMO gamers will recall that at the beginning of March, Jagex took down the servers and rolled them back, then held off planned content updates for both versions of the game, all to correct multiple issues with […]
Composer Alex Moukala re-imagines the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker trailer music as a boss track
If you're not already following composer Alex Moukala on YouTube, you may still remember him from when he added a funky bass line to the boss track from Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.3. Moukala's back in the composition saddle here, though, and with the help of fellow YouTuber and musician Husky by the Geek he's put […]
Datamining unearths new mount skins, cosmetics, minions, and Artifact set for RIFT's Carnival of the Ascended
The 10th anniversary of RIFT is still rolling on despite concerns players likely still harbor about the game's immediate future after Gamigo slashed the game's developer head count and sunsetted several other games (while also promising the MMO is still contributing to Gamigo's bottom line), and no more is that evident than the arrival of […]
Blizzard admits to more layoffs, starts up alumni network
Last week, Blizzard Entertainment began laying off 190 employees, 50 of whom reportedly came from esports and live events. Now we know which other departments might be affected, as over the weekend we learned the studio is also putting an undisclosed number of European staff out of work due to closing and consolidating its publishing offices […]
The Daily Grind: What classes in your current MMO desperately need some love?
So a while back I was thinking of rolling up a new Mastermind on the City of Heroes rogue servers I play, and so I naturally went to the forums to check with the expert build min-maxers to see whether the pairings I had in mind are any good. Friends, they are definitely not any […]
MMO Week in Review: Wildwood, Dark Descent, and EverQuest's 22nd
It wasn't a bad week for MMOs at all, we're happy to report, as LOTRO launched the Wildwood patch, EverQuest kicked off its 22nd anniversary, New World updated its alpha with an Eastern-inspired zone, Black Desert released the Sage, Albion Online posted its Call to Arms update, and SWTOR announced Dark Descent. Plus, we got […]
OrbusVR plans a beta for its hard mode raid, new quests, and balancing for tanks and healers in next updates
Whether it's taking on harder content, exploring new farms, or tanking and healing, OrbusVR has plans for the game's next couple of patches, all of which were laid out in the game's latest dev blog. The post kicks things off with content arriving on April 6th, which is headlined by a week-long beta test of […]
