MMO Year in Review: Leaky Blizzard and Lord Blockchain (April 2022)

After a massive leak, Blizzard officially announced this World of Warcraft dragonflight and WoW Classic Wrath of the Lich King in April 2022, all against the backdrop of poor financial reports and player frustration at the lack of LFD.

Meanwhile, Bluehole announced a sunset TERA, Final Fantasy XIV botched his housing lotteries, and Richard Garriott announced that he was instrumental in creating a new blockchain MMO Shroud of the Avatar is nowhere to be found.

Read on for the full roundup from April last year.

TOP NEWS APRIL 2022

April Fool’s joke around the MMO world, 2022 edition

EVE Online players raised over $500,000 for the benefit of Ukraine at the latest PLEX for Good charity drive

Gamigo says RIFT’s “great first update” is still happening, and still won’t acknowledge layoffs

Activision-Blizzard reverses plan to lift office vaccination requirements after threats of employee work stoppages

Guild Wars 2 makes End of Dragons’ infamous final battle easier to complete

Rumor: The next expansion of World of Warcraft is called Dragonflight according to website code leaks

Wargaming will suffer “significant losses” as companies exit Russia and Belarus

Legends of Aria has a new website highlighting its new blockchain nature

Black Desert’s Eternal Winter is live through April 13, along with a free-play event

Jagex announces plans to increase subscription and cash item prices for RuneScape and Old School Runescape on May 4th

Ubisoft maintenance modes Ghost Recon Breakpoint after failed NFT scheme

Lineage II: Aden boasts the Garden of Genesis in today’s update

Activision-Blizzard sponsors over a thousand QA testers and increases their salaries – but not those who unionize

EVE Online boss: NFT stands for “Not for Tranquility”

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.1: Newfound Adventures is live today

Richard Garriott is building a blockchain MMO after the failure of Shroud of the Avatar

Former WildStar developers look back nostalgically on the late, lamented MMORPG

Gamigo actually released this RIFT update – it’s called the Budgie Carnival Celebration

Become a pirate or smuggler in today’s No Man’s Sky Outlaws patch

EverQuest II’s GU 119 Coffins and Coffins is live with new dungeon content

DFEH’s attorney accuses the California governor of interfering in the lawsuit between Activision and Blizzard

Disney has slammed another Club Penguin emulator, this time with UK arrests

Niantic’s new MMORG Peridot looks… kind of the same as Pokemon Go

Massively Overthinking: The ideal MMO server setup

The FBI says it was a North Korean hacker gang who criminalized Axie Infinity for $620 million

Final Fantasy XIV’s new housing lottery is so broken that Square has suspended the next cycle

SWG Legends just announced farming, ranching, new homes, and the return of smuggler spice crafting

Mike Ybarra says Blizzard doesn’t do NFTs despite its play-to-earn and NFT surveys

Activision-Blizzard tells the SEC it has not yet negotiated with Microsoft over Kotick’s future

Daybreak’s EG7 intends to sell the Innova subsidiary and move the Toadman Interactive studio in a retreat from Russia

The next expansion of World of Warcraft is called Dragonflight, WoW Classic Wrath starts this year

The 2013 Guild Wars 2 Living World episode Flame and Frost returns today in a reimagined form

The PC version of TERA will be discontinued in June as Bluehole stops working on the game

World of Warcraft developers are addressing the limitations of flying dragons in Dragonflight and the lack of LFD in Classic Wrath

Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds lands $25 million in investment for its ‘modern sandbox MMO’

Lineage II turns 18 this week with events in L2, Aden, and Classic

China’s National Radio and Television Administration bans access to live streams of unauthorized games

Lord of the Rings Online is resetting the servers after a day of downtime after the anniversary patch

Greg Street explains the progress of the Riot MMO: “It’s going great. The team is so stacked.’

World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas discusses player housing theory in a new interview

Lost Ark’s Battle for the Throne of Chaos goes live as scheduled this afternoon

The Embracer Group rebrands Perfect World Entertainment to Gearbox Publishing

The space-based econ-MMO Prosperous Universe officially launches on Steam Early Access

EVE Online increases its sub-price to almost $20 – and the price of PLEX increases as well

Lord of the Rings Online players are experiencing queues for the first time in years as concurrency increases

The interview with World of Warcraft Classic confirms that there will be no servers for The Burning Crusade Classic at launch

New World is getting ready to sell you character transfers for $15 each

Activision-Blizzard’s Raven Software gets the green light from the National Labor Relations Board to vote for a union

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2022: revenue collapses, Blizzard loses another 2 million players

The MMOARPG Diablo Immortal launches on June 2nd, the same day the open beta begins for PC

Bless Unleashed PC is evolving into a blockchain play-to-earn MMORPG

Blizzard explains why – and how – it’s porting Diablo Immortal to PC

Star Wars: The Old Republic is adding cosmetic weapon customizations in today’s update

Lineage’s Throne and Liberty is targeting a PlayStation 5 release on PC

Former CSM member of EVE Online opens up about CCP’s mismanagement during his tenure

Overwatch 2’s first beta officially starts this afternoon – are you playing?

Dungeons and Dragons is taking pre-orders for Isle of Dread and officially adding the Tabaxi race

Rumor: Leakers claim that Elder Scrolls Online’s ZOS is working on a Star Wars Mandalorian MMO

Disney announces Dreamlight Valley life simulation game with multiplayer potential

ABK shareholders agree to takeover of Microsoft, World of Warcraft gets new executive producer

Gamigo’s parent company just bought another studio a month after laying off MMO developers

Gearbox brings PWE’s Forsaken World to sunset on November 30th

The original Guild Wars officially turned 17 this week

Star Citizen releases Alpha 3.17, updates minimum specs and ends partnership with developer Firesprite

FAVORITE EDITORIALS APRIL 2022

The Perfect Ten: 10 MMO NPCs as cupcakes

WoW Factor: We’re analyzing the Shadowlands story now that we’ve seen the ending

Wisdom of Nym: Find Out About Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.1 Letter 2

The Game Archaeologist: When EverQuest players killed the Immortal Sleeper

Massively Uplifting: How gamers bring humanitarian aid to Ukraine

MassivelyOP’s Guide to 13 MMORPGs You Can Play on Macs

Choose My Adventure: The Point of a Community-Led MMO Column

Interview: Checking out the Fractured Online closed beta content and update schedule

Perfect Ten: Top 10 Most Popular World of Warcraft Zones by Feel

Fight or Kite: Classic Robocraft is a mashup of a Minecraft block builder and an arena brawler

WoW Factor: So let’s talk about the World of Warcraft Dragonflight leak

Massively Overthinking: Which MMO Suffers From The Most Useless Housing System?

Vague Patch Notes: When MMOs pit their player base against themselves

LOTRO Legendarium: Six reasons why LOTRO’s Beorning is great

Interview: The regional parity of Lost Ark, the gender bond, and the collaboration between Amazon and Smilegate

Wisdom of Nym: Breakdown of the Big Changes to Jobs in Patch 6.1 of Final Fantasy XIV

Wisdom of Nym: Highlights from Final Fantasy XIV Pre-Patch Notes

Tales from the Holodeck: Virtual Reality is best suited as a slot machine, not as a portal to the metaverse

Choose My Adventure: The Quest for Big, Punchy Gloves in Albion Online

Perfect Ten: Top 10 Most Popular Final Fantasy XIV Zones

Vague Patch Notes: Stop giving money to rich people to make failed MMOs

Desert Oasis: “Jump” into Black Desert’s new Drakania class

WoW Factor: World of Warcraft: Dragonflight won’t fix everything Blizzard breaks

Lawful Neutral: How should an NFT MMO even work?

Massively on the Go: Niantic’s Peridot could be a reason for Pokemon GO alarm

LOTRO Legendarium: Why the world of Lord of the Rings Online feels different than any other MMO

Wisdom of Nym: First impressions of the content of Final Fantasy XIV Newfound Adventure

Wisdom of Nym: Why can’t Final Fantasy XIV solve its housing problem?

Choose My Adventure: Explore Albion Online’s Expeditions, Cities, and Dungeons

Flameseeker Chronicles: First impressions of Guild Wars 2’s restored Living World S1E1 Flame and Frost

WoW Factor: World of Warcraft Dragonflight Reveal First Thoughts

From the Depths: Everything we know about Wargaming’s exit from Russia

WoW Factor: Good job flaring Wrath of the Lich King Classic my boys!

First impressions of the new Battle for the Throne of Chaos update from Lost Ark

Fight or Kite: World Wide Hack is a terminal simulation of hacking the planet

Massively on the Go: Pikmin Bloom hasn’t improved six months after release

The Daily Grind: How would you solve Final Fantasy XIV’s housing problem?

Sticks and Rudders: Using No Man’s Sky Outlaws as a way to fill the space sandbox void

Tamriel Infinium: A Flashback to Blackwood from Elder Scrolls Online

Perfect Ten: The 10 phases of the MMO launch journey, from announcement to launch

Massive Rethinking: The WoW Dragonflight and Wrath Classic Roundtable

Experience Nintendo Switch Sports’ promising multiplayer mode coming this week

Wisdom of Nym: Thoughts on the Plot of Final Fantasy XIV Newfound Adventure

LOTRO Legendarium: Six reasons why now is a great time to return to LOTRO

Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s 2022 Community Day was as much as expected

Not so massive: Dune Spice Wars is targeting a very small niche

Choose My Adventure: A Walk in the Yellow Zones and Realm Warfare in Albion Online

Perfect Ten: Things stopping me from trying your MMO

Works as intended: LFD, community accountability, and the balance of power in classic MMOs

WoW Factor: Blizzard’s excuse for not adding housing to World of Warcraft doesn’t convince anyone

Desert Oasis: Black Desert Mobile has something for every play style

Massively Overthinking: Bots in MMOs – but not the bad bots

Vague Patch Notes: The positive aspects of MMORPG rogue servers

Massively on the Go: Top 10 Pokemon Go Mega Pokemon Worth Investing In

THE WHOLE YEAR 2022 IN REVIEW

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