Can’t say this was an ideal week for the video games business or the MMORPG style: This week, Microsoft determined to toss one other 9100 video games employees overboard to be able to feed its unraveling AI monster, and that included everybody engaged on the ZeniMax On-line Studios MMORPG, Venture Blackbird – in addition to the sport itself.
In the meantime, John Smedley lastly revealed his new MMOFPS Reaper Precise, The Dice goes onerous into MMORPG territory, and Guild Wars 2 is teasing what appears like new specs. However we’re simply staring mournfully at Blackbird proper now.
Learn on to meet up with the easiest of this week’s MMO information and opinions right this moment as each Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Overview!
THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Microsoft simply laid off 9000 extra employees and canceled ZeniMax On-line Studios’ in-dev MMORPG – We had been anticipating Microsoft layoffs right this moment, however that does not make them any extra nice or justified, and as you are about to seek out out, they very doubtless impression a few of the…
ZeniMax On-line Studios president Matt Firor is ‘stepping away’ in the midst of Microsoft’s layoff binge – If you happen to learn this morning’s Microsoft layoff information – that Microsoft is shedding greater than 9000 extra employees along with the 6000 it shed a couple of months in the past,…
John Smedley’s new MMOFPS is named Reaper Precise, and yeah, it’s just about PlanetSide 3 – Bear in mind again in March, when John Smedley resurfaced teasing a brand new sport headed up by PlanetSide 2 devs Matt Higby and Tramell Isaace? Nicely, right this moment, we’re lastly getting a bit…
Metropolis of Heroes religious successor Ship of Heroes is lastly launching in August – It has been a very long time coming, however Ship of Heroes lastly has a correct launch date: August 18th, 2025. Longtime MMO followers will recall that we have all been watching Ship…
Guild Wars 2 is teasing one thing (new elite specs? a bard?) with a countdown for 2 weeks from now – Guild Wars 2, what are you cooking up for us subsequent growth? The MMORPG’s social media posted some art work on Monday of a lute, with the cryptic caption “15 days…
MMO Hype Prepare: Dipping into Monsters & Recollections’ public alpha – As one in every of my private anticipated upcoming MMOs, I have been holding a bizarre, polygonal torch for the “throwback” styled MMO mission, Monsters & Recollections. As I stated again in March,…
Massively Overthinking: Is vertical development nonetheless sustainable for MMOs? – Again in Might, Venture Ghost’s Greg Road obtained MMO gamers buzzing over the state of MMOs within the West vs. the East. That is not what we will speak about…
Warframe of Thoughts: Spiderframe Oraxia creeps alongside the waterspout into my coronary heart – I’ve an odd relationship with spiders. I personally assume they’re extremely neat, however I additionally discover them actually disturbing. So I don’t want them round me, like, in any respect, however I…
EverQuest teases a 2025 growth ‘to die for,’ EverQuest II units GU129 Worry of Eternity for August – Dawn was busy Daybreaking this week – the great type of Daybreaking, thoughts you – and there is a lot that we’re gonna spherical all of it up! First, EverQuest’s producer’s letter…
BitCraft On-line takes the stance of ‘reasonable don’t mediate’ in griefing conditions – Now a pair weeks into its early entry launch, sandbox MMO BitCraft On-line is catching its breath and looking out ahead to the subsequent steps of its evolving gameplay. Clockwork Labs…
Elder Scrolls On-line teases Feast of Shadows’ dungeons and U47, launching August 18 – Whereas ZeniMax On-line Studios is at the moment reeling from the Microsoft-inflicted chaos of layoffs and the loss of an entire MMORPG these staffers have been engaged on for seven years as…
Blue Protocol: Star Resonance interview highlights the devs’ real MMORPG ambitions – The resurrection of Blue Protocol as Blue Protocol: Star Resonance may seem to be a wierd arc for any MMORPG, however now MMO gamers are getting extra information because of an IGN-published Q&A…
Black Desert’s thirtieth class, Wukong, is stay this week because the basegame is free to play by way of July 10 – Pearl Abyss spent final weekend’s Heidel Ball dishing on what’s en route for Black Desert within the close to future, and now a few of that content material is already coming to go…
Why I Play: The Secret World’s Joelzilla Incident is why I play MMOs – 13 years in the past right this moment, The Secret World launched. Twelve years in the past right this moment, it started its first anniversary occasion, and I obtained to expertise one of the crucial distinctive and memorable…
NetEase’s Wuxia MMO The place Winds Meet confirms its ultimate pre-launch check for July 24 – A few months in the past, western players had been launched to The place Winds Meet, a multiplayer open world wuxia RPG developed by Everstone Studio and printed by NetEase. Data on the sport…
‘Journey’ OARPG Vaultbreakers, now backed by Sq.-Enix funding, opens a week-long playtest – We have been masking BetaDwarf’s multiplayer sport Vaultbreakers for thus lengthy that it is had two different names alongside the way in which – Venture Haven and Venture F4E – and whereas it is lengthy…
Dune Awakening gamers discover a contemporary dupe exploit instantly after one other was patched out – Life in Dune: Awakening continues to be difficult, and never due to any supposed design. A patch that was put out simply yesterday to handle a cloth duping exploit could…
Blizzard is placing Warcraft Rumble into upkeep mode following the Microsoft gaming purge – The Microsoft purge of 9100 folks and a rising record of video games stay and in-development video games continues to widen this night. We would thought perhaps Blizzard would escape unscathed, however no:…
We’re so again: Crimson Useless On-line surprise-launches 4 ‘unusual tales’ of the Outdated West – Are you prepared for “the odd, twisted, and downright supernatural” in your Outdated West setting? Then saddle up, pard’ner, for a visit by way of Crimson Useless On-line’s quartet of Unusual Tales…
Crew vs group mecha battler Mecha BREAK formally releases free-to-play on PC and Xbox X|S – The time has come for mecha PvPing followers to get into their massive fancy robotic fits and blow each other up for funsies. Mecha BREAK, the group vs group sci-fi…
Sandbox MMORPG Bellatores talks up its open world, development system, and fight forward of Korean CBT – Do you bear in mind Bellatores? Admittedly it has been a while since there’s been something new because it first crossed our discover in 2022, and that was again when the sport talked…
Good Ten: Rating the Scions of the Seventh Daybreak in Remaining Fantasy XIV – If all the Scions from Remaining Fantasy XIV obtained right into a battle, who would win? The reply, fairly clearly, is that they’d wind up teaming up once more as a result of they love being…
Corepunk outlines its path to launch with new storyline content material, seasonal challenges, and a wipe – Corepunk has turn into a type of early entry MMORPGs that retains falling off the radar owing to a spread of things – not being on Steam, not maintaining constant…
Casually Traditional: The eight WoW Traditional Plus concepts I like from Blizzard’s survey – I am a few month late to this specific World of Warcraft dialogue, however I’ve had time to chew on the survey that Blizzard despatched to pick gamers (not me) about…
WoW Traditional’s Mists of Pandaria pre-patch is now stay with a particular mount to earn – Do you miss the times when World of Warcraft was coping with the aftermath of a dragon blowing up the world? No, in all probability not. How about pandas? WoW Traditional needs you to…
Misplaced Ark’s summer time roadmap guarantees a solo-friendly development system for the worldwide sport – The western Misplaced Ark group has massive information for followers right this moment: It is dropped the roadmap for the remainder of the summer time into the autumn (and truly somewhat bit past…
Trion MMORPG Trove turns 10 years outdated with Sunfest occasions as Gamigo says no to roadmaps – Trion’s voxelbox MMORPG Trove will without end maintain a particular place in our hearts, even when its birthday is making us really feel as if our bones are crumbling to mud. The…
Select My Journey: Defending our yard in Elite Harmful for powerplay earnings – This previous weekend was one other temporary however extraordinarily worthwhile run by way of Elite: Harmful as my finest good friend Britarnya and I took up the chosen activity of partaking within the powerplay…
Elder Scrolls On-line has begun one other Vengeance check of Cyrodiil alliance PvP – If you happen to’re an Elder Scrolls On-line PvPer previous or current, you might be absolutely conscious that ZeniMax On-line Studios has been plugging away at shoring up the PvP scene within the…
‘No danger, no story’: Hypixel Studios’ unique founder needs to revive and launch Hytale in early entry – It appears to be like like the ultimate chapter for the voxel-y MMORPG Hytale is but to be written, at the same time as the sport and its developer Hypixel Studios had been each shut down (an…
Mundfish is unambiguously calling The Dice an ‘MMORPG shooter’ with dungeons and correct updates – Again throughout Summer season Recreation Fest, Mundfish introduced a brand new “MMORPG shooter” referred to as The Dice, and now we’re getting some extra information courtesy of a brand new interview on Wccftech. As we famous…
ARK 2 remains to be doubtless years away because of complicated options and a deal with supporting Ark Survival Ascended – The existence of ARK 2 has floated round just like the whispers of a legendary beast, significantly since Studio Wildcard has been actually cagey concerning the sport in latest months. Now,…
Dune Awakening’s ornithopters are getting used as griefing instruments once more, this time towards PvE gamers – Apparently there is a silly arms race starting between Dune: Awakening’s builders and a few of its worst gamers. Now that “goomba stomping” has been patched out of the survival MMO, a…
Knowledge of Nym: Remaining Fantasy XIV has stated farewell to the older world, it appears – There was a thread I seen by way of Remaining Fantasy XIV: Endwalker that caught in my thoughts with the overall trajectory of the tales in that growth. They felt like goodbyes. Not in…
Albion On-line’s Abyssal Depths replace is right here with a ‘hellish’ small-group PvP dungeon – June 2025 is not going to flee with out an Albion On-line content material replace if Sandbox Interactive has something to say about it. Which it does, as a result of it is the developer. C’mon, you…
Black Desert unveils new lessons, new area, QoL, and equipment and PvP updates at Heidel Ball – The Heidel Ball occasion for Black Desert has but once more provided one other broad swath of previews for updates coming down the pike, however simply in case you were not awake earlier than…
Star Wars The Outdated Republic government producer guarantees ‘concrete particulars’ on the long-delayed story… quickly – A Jedi could have deep reservoirs of endurance, however the wait for brand spanking new Star Wars The Outdated Republic content material can drive even a grasp insane. Thankfully, SWTOR followers got…
BioWare’s Anthem is shutting down altogether in 2026 – Alas, poor Anthem; we knew it, Horatio. The sport by no means actually obtained over with gamers, and whereas it launched to 2 million models offered, it solely ever hit about 5 million…
Cranium and Bones’ Oaths of Battle comes out on July fifteenth with the brand new frigate – Ubisoft’s naval sim Cranium and Bones is not going small with its second season this 12 months. Fairly, 12 months Two Season Two is about to unleash the most important ship captains have seen…
Insiders element gameplay for Blackbird, the ‘f’ing unimaginable’ Zenimax MMO that Microsoft killed off – The 9,000 employees shed from Microsoft’s video games division noticed not solely large losses by way of employees, the tip of content material updates for different stay titles, and the stepping down…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Each week, get caught up on the MMO style’s newest information and Massively OP’s finest content material in our MMO Week in Overview! Need extra roundups of content material? Strive 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 stories we didn’t cowl wherever else.
