https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Mon, 12 Feb 2024 13:16:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/12/daybreak-games-dimensional-ink-is-the-latest-games-studio-hit-with-layoffs/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/12/daybreak-games-dimensional-ink-is-the-latest-games-studio-hit-with-layoffs/#comments Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479423 The culling of games industry employees continues through the beginning of this year: A list compiled by Kotaku that outlines the over 6,400 layoffs that have occurred across the industry so far has some additional sad news from our corner of gaming, as Daybreak Games’ DC Universe Online sub-studio Dimensional Ink has been hit by […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/12/daybreak-games-dimensional-ink-is-the-latest-games-studio-hit-with-layoffs/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/q4-2023-nexon-krafton-and-roblox-all-posted-soaring-revenues-in-2023/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/q4-2023-nexon-krafton-and-roblox-all-posted-soaring-revenues-in-2023/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479133 Welcome back to another MMO business roundup – this one all about financials for some of the companies we keep an eye on ’round here. ROBLOX Roblox’s fortunes have been bizarre over the last few years as the company has been making tons of money – and spending it all and then some. According to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/q4-2023-nexon-krafton-and-roblox-all-posted-soaring-revenues-in-2023/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/vague-patch-notes-mmorpgs-and-the-pc-gaming-market/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/vague-patch-notes-mmorpgs-and-the-pc-gaming-market/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479180 I find myself thinking a lot about the MMORPG industry lately and the ways in which the gaming industry as a whole has changed over the course of the past couple decades, because it seems clear to me that things have been changing. Did you know that up until 2004, PC gaming accounted for less […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/vague-patch-notes-mmorpgs-and-the-pc-gaming-market/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b-2/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b-2/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479243 Rumors from earlier this week that suggested RuneScape company Jagex was once again for sale have now been proven correct, thanks to a formal press release from the parties involved. Luxembourg-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, Austin-based private equity firm Haveli Investments, and UK-stationed Jagex have indeed announced that CVC has “agreed to acquire” […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b-2/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/microsoft-insists-activision-blizzard-was-planning-on-mass-layoffs-before-the-merger/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/microsoft-insists-activision-blizzard-was-planning-on-mass-layoffs-before-the-merger/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:30:05 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479239 As we’ve been covering, earlier this week the FTC filed a complaint to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, alleging that Microsoft misrepresented itself during hearings before the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Specifically, in seeking to assuage regulators’ concerns, Microsoft vowed it would “maintain the pre-merger status quo” – that it would run Activision-Blizzard as a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/microsoft-insists-activision-blizzard-was-planning-on-mass-layoffs-before-the-merger/feed/ 41 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/former-overwatch-2-lead-vfx-artist-calls-out-blizzard-for-deceptive-promotion-and-pay-behavior/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/former-overwatch-2-lead-vfx-artist-calls-out-blizzard-for-deceptive-promotion-and-pay-behavior/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479177 Workers and former workers at the various substudios at Activision-Blizzard have been calling it out as an unpleasant workplace for a while now since the whole scandal with the company began, and Blizzard was not spared (just remember how Brian Birmingham was treated last year). But now we’ve got even more evidence that company has […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/09/former-overwatch-2-lead-vfx-artist-calls-out-blizzard-for-deceptive-promotion-and-pay-behavior/feed/ 21 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/fortnite-opens-the-doors-to-its-own-trevor-noah-produced-virtual-stand-up-comedy-club/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/fortnite-opens-the-doors-to-its-own-trevor-noah-produced-virtual-stand-up-comedy-club/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479104 In-game concerts have already been a thing in Fortnite, so where does the games platform go from there? Why, opening the doors to its own virtual comedy club, naturally. This is a perfectly normal progression that isn’t strange at all. Or it’ll be a great thing for those who don’t have a comedy club near […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/fortnite-opens-the-doors-to-its-own-trevor-noah-produced-virtual-stand-up-comedy-club/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/disney-invests-1-5b-into-epic-games-with-plans-to-create-a-huge-disney-universe-in-fortnite/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/disney-invests-1-5b-into-epic-games-with-plans-to-create-a-huge-disney-universe-in-fortnite/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 14:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479082 Seeing Disney’s various IPs in Fortnite isn’t exactly news by this point, but it appears as if there will be a whole lot more of the House of Mouse’s characters within the games platform, and it’s all being powered by a $1.5 billion investment by Disney into Epic Games. “We’ve entered into a strategic relationship […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/disney-invests-1-5b-into-epic-games-with-plans-to-create-a-huge-disney-universe-in-fortnite/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/ftc-files-a-complaint-against-microsoft-following-activision-blizzard-layoffs/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/ftc-files-a-complaint-against-microsoft-following-activision-blizzard-layoffs/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 13:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=479046 When Microsoft outlined its plans for what would happen following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the things that the company stated was that there would not be layoffs as the acquisition would be treated in a strictly vertical fashion. Of course, this was perhaps an obvious prevarication even before the raft of 1900 […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/08/ftc-files-a-complaint-against-microsoft-following-activision-blizzard-layoffs/feed/ 17 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/07/perfect-ten-the-mmo-franchises-that-cant-count-past-two/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/07/perfect-ten-the-mmo-franchises-that-cant-count-past-two/#comments Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478922 Back in the day, there was a running joke about how Capcom had shown with Street Fighter that the company could not count higher than two. We had a few dozen different iterations of Street Fighter 2, and then when the developers finally decided to make a new game, it was a prequel, so it […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/07/perfect-ten-the-mmo-franchises-that-cant-count-past-two/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/jeff-strains-indie-studio-crop-circle-games-lays-off-lead-members-of-its-staff/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/jeff-strains-indie-studio-crop-circle-games-lays-off-lead-members-of-its-staff/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2024 22:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478834 Back in 2022 we saw former ArenaNet and Undead Labs co-founder Jeff Strain open his own indie studio called Crop Circle Games with the help of a $25M investment round. The studio’s projects were never elaborated on, but the announcement called the firm “a game development firm with a focus on new IPs.” Unfortunately there’s […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/jeff-strains-indie-studio-crop-circle-games-lays-off-lead-members-of-its-staff/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/tencent-buys-up-majority-stake-of-swords-of-legends-developer-and-gains-access-to-the-ip/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/tencent-buys-up-majority-stake-of-swords-of-legends-developer-and-gains-access-to-the-ip/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2024 18:00:28 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478860 Tencent has walked over to another games studio and smacked it with its wallet, only this time it’s a bit of a surprise purchase to us here in the west. The Chinese megacorp has bought a controlling stake in Wangyuan Shengtang, which is known around these parts as the studio behind the now shuttered Swords […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/tencent-buys-up-majority-stake-of-swords-of-legends-developer-and-gains-access-to-the-ip/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:30:26 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478840 Stop me if you’ve heard this one: RuneScape company Jagex is for sale yet again. Back in September, we first caught the rumor that Jagex’s current presumptive owner, the Carlyle Group, was considering selling Jagex off, seeking in the neighborhood of $1.2B US in the trade. Apparently, that’s now firmed up to be a lot […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/runescapes-jagex-is-apparently-being-sold-yet-again-this-time-to-a-private-equity-firm-for-over-1b/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/obituary-former-free-realms-creative-director-laralyn-mcwilliams-has-passed-away/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/obituary-former-free-realms-creative-director-laralyn-mcwilliams-has-passed-away/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2024 14:30:55 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478806 I’m sorry to report this morning that game developer Laralyn McWilliams has passed away at the age of 58. MMO fans will remember her straightaway as the creative director of SOE’s kid-friendly MMORPG Free Realms, though she worked on multiple other influential titles at EA, Bethsoft, Disney, Marvel, and Activision (she even worked on one […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/06/obituary-former-free-realms-creative-director-laralyn-mcwilliams-has-passed-away/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/microsoft-will-require-final-fantasy-xiv-players-to-subscribe-to-xbox-game-pass-in-order-to-play-the-game/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/microsoft-will-require-final-fantasy-xiv-players-to-subscribe-to-xbox-game-pass-in-order-to-play-the-game/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:00:28 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478737 It’s tucked away in the announcement that Final Fantasy XIV’s beta on the Xbox Series X|S starts on February 21st, but the announcement does confirm that players will be required to pay a monthly subscription to Xbox Game Pass in order to subscribe to the game. That means that at minimum, you will be paying […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/microsoft-will-require-final-fantasy-xiv-players-to-subscribe-to-xbox-game-pass-in-order-to-play-the-game/feed/ 78 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/among-us-shares-a-cryptic-teaser-image-from-its-animated-series-and-promises-work-is-progressing/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/among-us-shares-a-cryptic-teaser-image-from-its-animated-series-and-promises-work-is-progressing/#respond Mon, 05 Feb 2024 19:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478678 Last summer the world learned that the popular multiplayer title Among Us was getting its own animated series sometime in the future. Unfortunately we still don’t know just when that may be, but we do have a teaser image and a promise from the game’s official Twitter account. The image itself shows a completely empty […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/among-us-shares-a-cryptic-teaser-image-from-its-animated-series-and-promises-work-is-progressing/feed/ 0 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/palworld-vows-to-keep-servers-online-without-regard-to-cost-despite-monthly-cost-of-nearly-half-a-million-dollars/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/palworld-vows-to-keep-servers-online-without-regard-to-cost-despite-monthly-cost-of-nearly-half-a-million-dollars/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478578 Getting professional server hosting for an online multiplayer title ain’t cheap, and that holds true for Palworld developer Pocketpair, which is paying out the nozzle to keep the survival sandbox title’s servers humming – while resolutely stating it’s not bothered by the high price. A tweet from Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe shared an image from […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/05/palworld-vows-to-keep-servers-online-without-regard-to-cost-despite-monthly-cost-of-nearly-half-a-million-dollars/feed/ 17 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/04/the-daily-grind-would-you-be-interested-in-a-guild-wars-3/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/04/the-daily-grind-would-you-be-interested-in-a-guild-wars-3/#comments Sun, 04 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478097 Have you ever noticed how every MMO franchise seems to get to exactly two numbered installments and then stops, at most? Guild Wars 2 is older than Guild Wars was when Guild Wars 2 launched, and it has been a long fun ride over the past decade. But that brings to mind what is, at […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/04/the-daily-grind-would-you-be-interested-in-a-guild-wars-3/feed/ 54 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/03/make-my-mmo-crowdfunding-roundup-2024-feb-3/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/03/make-my-mmo-crowdfunding-roundup-2024-feb-3/#respond Sun, 04 Feb 2024 01:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478268 Welcome to another blast of MMO crowdfunding news from the last few weeks! It’s been pretty hoppin’ for Kickstarted MMOs lately, as Elite Dangerous is back from its deathbed, Ashes of Creation dropped a PvP preview video, Dual Universe is actually shipping Kickstarter physical rewards, Embers Adrift has big noob-onboarding plans for 2024, Fractured Veil […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/03/make-my-mmo-crowdfunding-roundup-2024-feb-3/feed/ 0 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/destiny-2-director-joe-blackburn-vacates-his-position-for-a-new-adventure-outside-the-walls-of-bungie/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/destiny-2-director-joe-blackburn-vacates-his-position-for-a-new-adventure-outside-the-walls-of-bungie/#respond Fri, 02 Feb 2024 16:30:52 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478328 After nearly a decade of working at Bungie and four years as game director of Destiny 2, Joe Blackburn has left his position, moving on to “a new adventure outside the walls of Bungie.” The announcement was first made by Blackburn on Twitter, where he talked up a new development milestone for The Final Shape […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/destiny-2-director-joe-blackburn-vacates-his-position-for-a-new-adventure-outside-the-walls-of-bungie/feed/ 0 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/former-devs-of-the-day-before-recount-a-workplace-of-employee-fines-shifting-whims-and-pure-megalomaniacal-chaos/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/former-devs-of-the-day-before-recount-a-workplace-of-employee-fines-shifting-whims-and-pure-megalomaniacal-chaos/#comments Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:30:15 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478297 However badly managed The Day Before may have looked upon its disastrous early access release, the reality was reportedly much worse than anyone could have imagined. Anonymous Fntastic devs and employees of publisher Mytona reporting to German gaming sites Game Two and GameStar have told an astonishing tale of blatant mismanagement, galling mistreatment, and an […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/02/former-devs-of-the-day-before-recount-a-workplace-of-employee-fines-shifting-whims-and-pure-megalomaniacal-chaos/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/ncsoft-announces-plans-to-move-aion-lineage-2-and-blade-and-soul-to-its-purple-platform/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/ncsoft-announces-plans-to-move-aion-lineage-2-and-blade-and-soul-to-its-purple-platform/#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2024 19:30:21 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478155 Readers might remember that back in 2019, NCsoft launched its own games platform known as Purple, which lets players enjoy the studio’s mobile games on PC along with features like streaming support, key configuration, an integrated text and voice chat, and the option to link multiple mobile accounts to the same desktop. It looks as […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/ncsoft-announces-plans-to-move-aion-lineage-2-and-blade-and-soul-to-its-purple-platform/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/hasbros-wizards-of-the-coast-denies-that-its-looking-to-sell-off-dungeons-dragons/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/hasbros-wizards-of-the-coast-denies-that-its-looking-to-sell-off-dungeons-dragons/#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2024 18:00:05 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478190 Remember the uproar yesterday when a Chinese website scooped the story about how Hasbro was apparently shopping around the Dungeons & Dragons IP in order to offset its terrible toy business finances, and Tencent was supposedly in negotiations to buy it? And the source was somebody at Tencent itself? Well, Wizards of the Coast – […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/02/01/hasbros-wizards-of-the-coast-denies-that-its-looking-to-sell-off-dungeons-dragons/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/mmo-business-roundup-krafton-likes-ai-call-of-duty-moderation-and-german-lockbox-regulation-push/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/mmo-business-roundup-krafton-likes-ai-call-of-duty-moderation-and-german-lockbox-regulation-push/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477767 Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in. Krafton pushes AI – Krafton held its company-wide Krafton Live Talk town hall, which gave CEO Changham Kim a bully pulpit to talk up the company’s strategies in 2024. These include the launch […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/mmo-business-roundup-krafton-likes-ai-call-of-duty-moderation-and-german-lockbox-regulation-push/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/wayfinder-studio-airship-syndicate-is-laying-off-a-dozen-staff-sigh/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/wayfinder-studio-airship-syndicate-is-laying-off-a-dozen-staff-sigh/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:00:50 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478078 If you’ve seen the rumors on Twitter this afternoon that Wayfinder’s team is suffering layoffs, well, I’m sorry to report that they’re true, and while it’s not the 2500 laid off from Riot and Activision-Blizzard last week, the dozen workers let go from Airship surely hurt the newly indie team. “I can confirm that today […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/wayfinder-studio-airship-syndicate-is-laying-off-a-dozen-staff-sigh/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/hasbro-is-selling-the-dungeons-and-dragons-ip-and-tencent-is-the-potential-buyer/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/hasbro-is-selling-the-dungeons-and-dragons-ip-and-tencent-is-the-potential-buyer/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:30:34 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=478024 There’s a potentially big business deal happening in both the world of tabletop gaming and video gaming: Insider sources reporting to Chinese news site Speed Daily have confirmed that Hasbro is looking to sell off the massive Dungeons & Dragons IP… and one of the possible buyers is Chinese megacorp Tencent. Negotiations for any deal […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/hasbro-is-selling-the-dungeons-and-dragons-ip-and-tencent-is-the-potential-buyer/feed/ 56 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/chimeraland-is-shutting-down-at-the-end-of-march/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/chimeraland-is-shutting-down-at-the-end-of-march/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2024 14:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477895 Back in September of last year, we checked in on Tencent’s strange survival sandbox Chimeraland only to find that very little had happened… followed two days later by an utterly unexpected surprise update. Alas, it appears that was the last gasp rather than the start of a new era for the game, as developer Pixel […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/31/chimeraland-is-shutting-down-at-the-end-of-march/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/former-blizzard-employee-yoinks-a-decade-of-paid-time-for-world-of-warcraft-before-layoffs/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/former-blizzard-employee-yoinks-a-decade-of-paid-time-for-world-of-warcraft-before-layoffs/#comments Tue, 30 Jan 2024 19:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477684 It’s one thing to leverage a whole mountain of in-game gold into being able to play World of Warcraft for free, but it’s another thing altogether to cash in a decade’s worth of playtime for the game as part of employee compensation. Adam Holisky, whose name may be familiar to readers from his days on […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/former-blizzard-employee-yoinks-a-decade-of-paid-time-for-world-of-warcraft-before-layoffs/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/the-first-two-warcraft-games-and-the-original-diablo-are-now-on-battle-net/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/the-first-two-warcraft-games-and-the-original-diablo-are-now-on-battle-net/#comments Tue, 30 Jan 2024 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477687 For too long, you have had to live in a universe where your only access to the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, its sequel Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and the not even remotely related but still well-known Diablo were limited to whether or not you had your original CDs. (For our younger readers, CDs […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/the-first-two-warcraft-games-and-the-original-diablo-are-now-on-battle-net/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/loric-games-founded-by-mythic-vets-picks-up-fresh-investment-and-jeff-hickman-to-build-a-survival-game/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/loric-games-founded-by-mythic-vets-picks-up-fresh-investment-and-jeff-hickman-to-build-a-survival-game/#comments Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477538 Remember back in 2022, when we first learned a trio of Mythic vets – Brian Johnson, Ray Soto, and Mythic co-founder Rob Denton – were putting the band back together to build some sort of multiplayer survivalbox under the Loric Games banner? That banner is waving again this morning as Loric has picked up another […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/30/loric-games-founded-by-mythic-vets-picks-up-fresh-investment-and-jeff-hickman-to-build-a-survival-game/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/psa-valheims-discord-and-two-iron-gate-discord-accounts-have-apparently-been-hacked/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/psa-valheims-discord-and-two-iron-gate-discord-accounts-have-apparently-been-hacked/#comments Mon, 29 Jan 2024 23:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477644 Bad news bears for survival sandbox Valheim tonight, as apparently hackers have taken over the game’s Discord – as well as some of the developers’ own accounts. Just after 4 p.m. EST, Iron Gate’s Jens Hellström tweeted, “Our official discord server is under attack. Don’t click any links, don’t click any files etc etc. […] They […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/psa-valheims-discord-and-two-iron-gate-discord-accounts-have-apparently-been-hacked/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/johanna-faries-is-the-new-president-of-blizzard-following-mike-ybarras-ouster/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/johanna-faries-is-the-new-president-of-blizzard-following-mike-ybarras-ouster/#comments Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:42:53 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477607 Following last week’s layoffs, it didn’t seem likely that the potentially frozen throne at the head of Blizzard Entertainment would remain vacant for long. As of today, Microsoft has announced Johanna Faries as the new president of the subdivision, with a full letter from Faries explaining that she looks forward to starting he new role […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/johanna-faries-is-the-new-president-of-blizzard-following-mike-ybarras-ouster/feed/ 67 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/nexons-preliminary-injunction-against-dark-and-darker-was-dismissed-but-the-lawsuit-presses-on/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/nexons-preliminary-injunction-against-dark-and-darker-was-dismissed-but-the-lawsuit-presses-on/#respond Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477527 One of last year’s more distinct stories was related to the medieval fantasy PvPvE extraction RPG Dark and Darker and megacorp Nexon: Readers may remember that Ironmace’s game was removed from Steam as a result of stolen code allegations from Nexon, which unsurprisingly morphed into a copyright infringement lawsuit. We’re still a long away from […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/29/nexons-preliminary-injunction-against-dark-and-darker-was-dismissed-but-the-lawsuit-presses-on/feed/ 0 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/the-company-will-never-love-you-back-but-if-you-let-it-itll-kill-you-former-bungie-legal-exec-stumps-for-gamedev-unionization/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/the-company-will-never-love-you-back-but-if-you-let-it-itll-kill-you-former-bungie-legal-exec-stumps-for-gamedev-unionization/#comments Sun, 28 Jan 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477327 Among the workers affected by Bungie’s round of layoffs last October was former chief legal officer Don McGowan, who was the man heading the legal charge against cheat makers and serial harassers for the studio. It appears as if McGowan’s firing was a call to arms, as he now is among those pushing for game […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/the-company-will-never-love-you-back-but-if-you-let-it-itll-kill-you-former-bungie-legal-exec-stumps-for-gamedev-unionization/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/fortnite-is-coming-back-to-iphone-in-eu-because-europe-said-so/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/fortnite-is-coming-back-to-iphone-in-eu-because-europe-said-so/#comments Sun, 28 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477335 It’s been a few years — since 2020, in fact — since the snit fit between Apple and Epic began, provoking the former to cut off Fortnite from iOS devices, all but part of the very long-running feud between Apple, Epic, and Google over monopolistic platform designs and third-party payment options and sideloading. A final […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/28/fortnite-is-coming-back-to-iphone-in-eu-because-europe-said-so/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/26/nexon-is-shutting-down-its-multiplayer-medieval-war-game-warhaven-in-april/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/26/nexon-is-shutting-down-its-multiplayer-medieval-war-game-warhaven-in-april/#comments Fri, 26 Jan 2024 23:00:13 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477289 You may not have thought much about Warhaven this week prior to reading our PvP columnist Sam Kash’s take on the game’s current state of affairs. That article now sadly serves as a eulogy, as it was written prior to our learning the news that the game has quietly announced an impending shutdown on April […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/26/nexon-is-shutting-down-its-multiplayer-medieval-war-game-warhaven-in-april/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/eve-onlines-board-game-kickstarter-is-live-and-it-met-its-funding-goal-in-under-an-hour/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/eve-onlines-board-game-kickstarter-is-live-and-it-met-its-funding-goal-in-under-an-hour/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:30:19 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476994 Apparently there are plenty of EVE Online fans who would like the board game version of the spaceship sandbox to be a thing. Yesterday as planned, Titan Forge launched the Kickstarter campaign to get the project off the ground, and it met its over $54K funding goal in under an hour, hitting over $190K in […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/eve-onlines-board-game-kickstarter-is-live-and-it-met-its-funding-goal-in-under-an-hour/feed/ 3 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-final-fantasy-xiv-live-action-tv-series-is-apparently-dead-in-the-water/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-final-fantasy-xiv-live-action-tv-series-is-apparently-dead-in-the-water/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2024 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476949 Remember that talk about adapting Final Fantasy XIV into a live-action television series? No, not the Dad of Light series that included FFXIV as a concept, but an actual live-action series set in the universe with all the chocobos, moogles, and Cid beard shots you could ask for. (Unless, like, you could ask for a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-final-fantasy-xiv-live-action-tv-series-is-apparently-dead-in-the-water/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/microsoft-lays-off-approximately-1900-employees-at-activision-blizzard-zenimax-and-xbox/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/microsoft-lays-off-approximately-1900-employees-at-activision-blizzard-zenimax-and-xbox/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2024 14:36:18 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=477049 We’ve updated this story at the bottom with some of the latest news that has come forth about the scope of the layoffs and the cancellation of projects. It looks as if Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick isn’t the only one being shown the door by Microsoft: The company announced in an internal memo that […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/microsoft-lays-off-approximately-1900-employees-at-activision-blizzard-zenimax-and-xbox/feed/ 127 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-day-before-studio-claims-to-be-the-target-of-misinformation-and-a-hate-campaign-in-a-statement/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-day-before-studio-claims-to-be-the-target-of-misinformation-and-a-hate-campaign-in-a-statement/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2024 14:00:59 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476964 When Fntastic’s survival shooter The Day Before officially shut down its servers, we had assumed it would be the last headline to come out of the mismanaged game. However, the studio had one last Hail Mary of insanity to throw at the world, as it put out a defensive statement that tries to claim that […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/25/the-day-before-studio-claims-to-be-the-target-of-misinformation-and-a-hate-campaign-in-a-statement/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/soulworker-hands-publishing-duties-off-to-valofe-for-its-continued-enhancement-and-maintenance/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/soulworker-hands-publishing-duties-off-to-valofe-for-its-continued-enhancement-and-maintenance/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476793 SoulWorker is another one of those action MMOs that has had a history of being passed about more frequently than a football: The game’s original western publisher Gameforge sunsetted the title in 2021, followed by original developer Lion Games almost immediately picking up the slack and self-publishing the title on Steam, though without the ability […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/soulworker-hands-publishing-duties-off-to-valofe-for-its-continued-enhancement-and-maintenance/feed/ 1 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/arenanet-opens-up-more-job-postings-for-guild-wars-2-and-its-still-developing-unannounced-project/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/arenanet-opens-up-more-job-postings-for-guild-wars-2-and-its-still-developing-unannounced-project/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2024 16:30:50 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476831 In a month where we saw multiple gaming and tech companies kick employees to the curb, we’re going to offer a puff of fresh oxygen thanks to ArenaNet, which is sharing some new job postings for Guild Wars 2 and its mysterious “unannounced project.” Most of the job postings are for this project, including VFX […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/24/arenanet-opens-up-more-job-postings-for-guild-wars-2-and-its-still-developing-unannounced-project/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/british-army-appears-to-abruptly-cancel-the-debut-of-a-new-recruitment-game-in-fortnite/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/british-army-appears-to-abruptly-cancel-the-debut-of-a-new-recruitment-game-in-fortnite/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2024 23:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476688 Games as military recruitment tools aren’t entirely new to readers here, primarily in the case of the official US Army FPS series America’s Army, the latest iteration of which was sunset in 2022. However, efforts by the British Army to drive enlistment into service via a Fortnite game appear to have blown up in the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/british-army-appears-to-abruptly-cancel-the-debut-of-a-new-recruitment-game-in-fortnite/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/riot-games-laid-off-over-500-people-last-night-and-no-we-dont-know-what-it-means-for-the-riot-mmo/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/riot-games-laid-off-over-500-people-last-night-and-no-we-dont-know-what-it-means-for-the-riot-mmo/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476580 Riot Games is joining the seemingly endless list of game studios continuing to dump workers overboard: Last night, the company announced it is shedding a whopping 530 employees, representing 11% of the company. The studio tells players “the biggest impact [is] to teams outside of core development,” though the growing list of affected devs says […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/23/riot-games-laid-off-over-500-people-last-night-and-no-we-dont-know-what-it-means-for-the-riot-mmo/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/22/embers-adrift-and-monsters-memories-devs-come-together-to-talk-indie-mmorpg-devlopment/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/22/embers-adrift-and-monsters-memories-devs-come-together-to-talk-indie-mmorpg-devlopment/#comments Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476298 This week saw the developers of two classically styled MMORPGs come together to talk shop, as Monsters & Memories creative director and producer Shawn “ALovingRobot” Lord invited members of the Embers Adrift team to have an extremely dense and candid talk about making MMORPGs in a livestreamed roundtable. The Embers devs once more talked about […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/22/embers-adrift-and-monsters-memories-devs-come-together-to-talk-indie-mmorpg-devlopment/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/bethesda-begins-to-rolls-out-elder-scrolls-castles-its-latest-elder-scrolls-mobile-game/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/bethesda-begins-to-rolls-out-elder-scrolls-castles-its-latest-elder-scrolls-mobile-game/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476022 Elder Scrolls Online players looking to take their gaming addiction on the go have a good cause to rejoice this week, as Bethesda surprised everyone with the announcement of a mobile strategy game set in the popular franchise. The Elder Scrolls: Castles, a title made by the Fallout Shelter devs, is a cute-looking strategy title […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/bethesda-begins-to-rolls-out-elder-scrolls-castles-its-latest-elder-scrolls-mobile-game/feed/ 1 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/gdcs-2024-industry-survey-game-devs-weigh-in-on-ai-layoffs-unionization-rto-and-more/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/gdcs-2024-industry-survey-game-devs-weigh-in-on-ai-layoffs-unionization-rto-and-more/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:30:01 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476183 Every year, GDC conducts an industry-wide survey of game developers and compiles the results in its State of the Game Industry, the 2024 edition of which arrived yesterday. Right up front, the GDC minders address the elephants in the room: layoffs and concerns over generative AI have dominated developer worries over the course of the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/gdcs-2024-industry-survey-game-devs-weigh-in-on-ai-layoffs-unionization-rto-and-more/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/vague-patch-notes-what-city-of-heroes-homecoming-means-for-the-wider-mmorpg-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/vague-patch-notes-what-city-of-heroes-homecoming-means-for-the-wider-mmorpg-industry/#comments Fri, 19 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476130 As you have probably noticed from the fact that I have been writing about City of Heroes nonstop since the Homecoming server got its official license to operate, I have been thinking a lot about this game and what it means. Obviously, much of that thought has focused on the game itself because let me […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/19/vague-patch-notes-what-city-of-heroes-homecoming-means-for-the-wider-mmorpg-industry/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/baldurs-gate-3-boss-pushes-back-against-the-industrys-renewed-ambition-over-games-subscription-models/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/baldurs-gate-3-boss-pushes-back-against-the-industrys-renewed-ambition-over-games-subscription-models/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:30:27 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=476026 This week offered another example of executive foot-in-mouth disorder when Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay suggested in an interview that games subscription business models are the future – and expressed his belief that the thing getting in the way of its wider growth is that gamers like owning the games they buy, though Tremblay […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/baldurs-gate-3-boss-pushes-back-against-the-industrys-renewed-ambition-over-games-subscription-models/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/guild-wars-2-studio-says-no-accounts-involved-in-new-social-engineering-claim-were-compromised-by-cs/ https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/guild-wars-2-studio-says-no-accounts-involved-in-new-social-engineering-claim-were-compromised-by-cs/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=475962 The Guild Wars 2 Reddit community has been up in arms this week over a gigantic thread started by former ArenaNet partner and content creator Paul “Olrun” Bentz. Olrun essentially alleges that his account has been taken over by a hacker using social engineering tricks on ArenaNet’s customer support, and his attempts to retrieve it […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/guild-wars-2-studio-says-no-accounts-involved-in-new-social-engineering-claim-were-compromised-by-cs/feed/ 10