MMO Week in Review: V Rising, Legends of Aria, Corepunk, and WoW Dark Heart

We had a mediumly newsy week here in the massively multiplayer world: Wagadu Chronicles announced a shutdown mid-early access, Legends of Aria Classic properly relaunched, V Rising rolled out of early access into its own launch, World of Warcraft quietly launched its Dark Heart patch, Corepunk and Crimson Desert began teasing launches, Microsoft slashed more jobs and studios, and the latest Helldivers 2 crisis resolved when Sony walked back PSN reqs.

Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES

Tamriel Infinium: Four reasons you should stop sleeping on Elder Scrolls Online – The paradox of Elder Scrolls Online is that while it continues to be a Top 5 MMO thanks to the studio muscle and IP fandom, it’s not a game that…

Kickstarted afrofantasy MMORPG The Wagadu Chronicles is sunsetting before launch – I’m terribly sorry to report this morning that The Wagadu Chronicles is shutting down development and sunsetting. Our readers will know that Wagadu was a unique afrofantasy MMORPG featuring authentic…

Legends of Aria Classic relaunches this afternoon as devs commit to ‘refining the core game loop’ – Legends of Aria is set for a proper relaunch today as promised, after a fairly low-key surprise open beta last weekend for the Kickstarted game that’s been through more twists…

Sony walks back returning PSN account requirements for Helldivers 2 PC players – Helldivers 2 players are used to winning by shows of overwhelming force, but even they were likely taken back by Sony’s decision to relent on the previously returning requirement for…

Vampire survivalbox V Rising officially departs early access with the launch of 1.0 Ruins of Mortium – Friends of vampirekin, rejoice, for today V Rising has officially left early access and joined the surprisingly small roster of survival sandboxes with the courage to do just that. I…

Microsoft shutters multiple studios, abandons Redfall, bolsters Elder Scrolls Online staffing – Microsoft continues laying waste to the gaming industry today with the closure of four Bethesda studios. We can reassure MMO players right away that Elder Scrolls Online’s ZeniMax Online Studios…

Second Wind: V Rising’s 1.0 build is a fangtastic revamp of the vampire survival sandbox – It doesn’t seem possible that V Rising burst onto the scene almost two years ago, but here we are. I sometimes struggle to get into isometric games, but the vampire…

Second Wind: World of Warcraft’s radically casual new endgame – Today we’re going to be dusting off Second Wind, a column where we revisit MMOs of the past. It’s an older column, sir, but it checks out. After quitting World…

EA wants to try in-game advertising again, but promises a ‘thoughtful’ approach this time – This year has already provided all kinds of CEO-level lunacy, so what’s one more to the pile, right? This latest case of C-suite brainworm brilliance comes courtesy of Electronic Arts…

Kakao Q1 2024: ArcheAge 2 and Chrono Odyssey are apparently back on track for 2025 – Kakao Games’ first financial report covering 2024 is out today, and perhaps not surprisingly, Q1 wasn’t particularly great or garbage for the Korean gaming giant. The company reported to investors…

Vague Patch Notes: The problem with forever adding classes to MMOs – The second expansion for Final Fantasy XI, Chains of Promathia, launched to extremely mixed reception, and there was one overwhelming reason for that lack of enthusiastic endorsement. Oh, sure, there were…

LOTRO Legendarium: Is it worth being a zone completionist in LOTRO? – We need to start today’s column with one important disclaimer: There’s no right or wrong way to play Lord of the Rings Online, only what’s right for your playstyles and…

Fallout 76 previews June’s Skyline Valley update and its ‘fearsome North American turkeys’ – Fallout 76 players are champing at the bit for more content after a rather long drought, and Bethesda seems poised to deliver this June with the Skyline Valley update. In…

Pearl Abyss Q1 2024: Revenues hold steady as Crimson Desert gears up for reveals – Pearl Abyss makes its English financials website a bit of a navigation nightmare, but the company’s Q1 2024 earnings presentation is indeed up – which is more than we can…

Lightforge Games halts social RPG production, downsizes to a skeleton crew – Over the past few years we’ve been reporting on Lightforge Games, a development studio that entered our general genre radar for snapping up former Blizzard devs including artist Glenn Rane,…

WoW Factor: How World of Warcraft makes you cheer for removing features – Yesterday, MOP’s Justin wrote a column about The Elder Scrolls Online that detailed its key virtues. It’s a good column, and one of the things he mentions is that the…

Helldivers 2 CEO holds an impromptu Q&A about balance, gameplay, and returning the game to Steam – If you’re not among those living inside the official Discord for Helldivers 2 (and nobody would blame you for not doing so since it’s kind of a morass), you might…

Star Citizen showcases the creation of the two brand-new animals coming to alpha 3.23 – Land on any planet in Star Citizen currently and you’ll be greeted by things like weather patterns, flora, and very possibly a derelict or two. What you won’t find are…

WoW Classic hosts a ‘welcome back weekend’ with free play through May 13 for Cataclysm’s pre-patch – These days, it feels as if World of Warcraft is trying to make you choose whether you want to live with WoW Classic or Retail — or have bedrooms in…

Massively Overthinking: Why and how we mod our MMORPGs – Last week, the MOP team was sitting around in our virtual offices, talking about modding Elder Scrolls Online, all because some of our readers were encouraging Chris to pick up…

Tencent and Control developer Remedy cancel co-op Project Kestrel – Steel yourself for great disappointment: A game that you probably had no idea was in the making has been cancelled. Massively OP grief counselors are standing by to take your…

Fractured Online’s new patch with playable demon races is live today after a day of delay – Kickstarted sandbox Fractured Online is back with its second major update since its relaunch into early access, and if you like demons – as in, you’ve always wanted to actually…

Albion Online broke its Steam player concurrency record again as it contends with block in Indonesia – Sandbox Interactive hasn’t released Albion Online player counts since Albion Europe went live, but if Steam is any indication, it’s going over super well. According to SteamCharts, the game’s peak…

Microsoft continues shrinking ZeniMax and Xbox with voluntary severance deals – Sure, Microsoft shuttered a bunch of studios and added more layoffs to its pile earlier this week, but it can’t possibly get worse, right? Unfortunately, it can. As Bloomberg reported…

Perfect Ten: 10 favorite features that pairs of popular MMOs share – Even though all MMORPGs compete for our time, affection, and — above all else — money, it doesn’t mean that they can’t get along. At least, in my own head.…

Black Desert will relocate NA PC servers May 22, opens North Kamasylvia region on mobile – There’s some potentially good news for NA players of Black Desert on PC this week: After some testing and preparation, the MMORPG’s NA servers will be physically relocated on Wednesday,…

Diablo Immortal unleashes the Tempest class May 23, brings back Tower War PvP in latest patch – Bracing cold winds. Flurries of steel. Crashing waves. No, it’s not a word painting for my newest superhero OC (please don’t steal); it’s Diablo Immortal’s newest Tempest class, which is…

Helldivers 2 players try to undo reviewbomb damage and restore a fired community manager – Now that players of Helldivers 2 have effectively badgered Sony enough that it decided to reverse its PSN account requirement, the playerbase is continuing to mobilize and attempt to undo…

World of Warcraft’s latest patch, Dark Heart, is now live – It’s time to go all-in on sisters and sinning! Wait, that sounds way worse than it was supposed to. It’s not our fault; the latest patch for World of Warcraft…

Lost Ark appeases Echidna fans and sets server merges for June 5 – but not for NA West – Amazon’s latest dev blog for Lost Ark is generating cheers from the playerbase, which is rare enough that you know we have to dig more deeply. The cheering is primarily…

Choose My Adventure: Elsweyr questing and dragon slaying further solidify my Elder Scrolls Online love – I appreciate that this series of Choose My Adventure columns has started to read an awful lot like I’m being paid off by The Elder Scrolls Online, but I assure…

Leaderboard: Are you going to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it’s called)? – Rumors about a follow-up device to Nintendo’s massively popular Switch console have been swirling for literally years now, with the hype mounting in recent months. And this morning, Nintendo’s Shuntaro…

Nightingale confirms a full focus on offline mode but still calls online co-op ‘important’ – Near the end of April, Nightingale developer Inflexion Games held a live Discord Q&A between the devs and the survivalbox’s players, but if you missed out on that, the studio…

Wisdom of Nym: How to prep for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail right now – The next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV is not that far off. Sure, we’re at the start of May, and it’s not launching into early access until the end of…

Star Citizen officially enters alpha 3.23 with new quality-of-life and mission features – After a whole lot of teasing, talking, and showcasing, Star Citizen has finally released alpha 3.23, bringing with it a few new mission features and several quality-of-life updates to the…

Corepunk could be launching into early access by late summer – We know what you’re thinking: Corepunk is going to further delay. And you’re partially right but mostly wrong. The studio did announce that it had to put a promised preview…

Ashes of Creation answers questions about classes, gameplay systems, PvX, and guild features – Last night Ashes of Creation held a community AMA, though the community in question was made up of specifically selected influencers. You might think that would generate nothing but softball…

THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS

Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try 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 the bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.

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