We’re wrapping up our tour of the biggest MMORPG stories of 2024 with the conclusion of MassivelyOP’s MMO Year in Review today. Thanks for joining us – time to start compiling 2025 now! (But seriously, I’ve actually started compiling 2025 already.)
December was an odd month, as instead of seeing a big slow-down, we get a huge rush of big news and even some launches as studios try to beat the Christmas deadline. We saw the staggeringly huge debut of Path of Exile 2, Pantheon’s long-awaited early access launch, the release of EverQuest’s Outer Brood expansion, Throne & Liberty’s first major global update, the implosion of Dauntless, another major MMO team union, and the disturbing news that Elder Scrolls Online is killing its traditional content cadence for 2025 in spite of huge profits. Plus, we kicked off our annual end-of-the-year content, complete with our 2024 awards series, with Throne & Liberty, Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds, and Stars Reach taking top honors.
Here’s the whole recap from December of this past year, from our top news stories of the month to our best editorials. Thanks for reading!
TOP NEWS STORIES OF DECEMBER 2024
Pantheon lists its 22 early access launch servers opening on December 13
Black Desert brings the Awakened Dosa to console, announces native PS5 and Xbox Series builds
The Diablo franchise boss seriously suggested that ARPGs should be called ‘Diablo-likes’
Pokemon Go is testing a monthly reward program that caps out at $500 a month
New World has enlisted rapper T-Pain and other influencers for a ‘T-Party’ Aeternum stream today
Ubisoft is shuttering XDefiant already, along with multiple studios – around 277 workers affected
Classic EverQuest’s 31st expansion, The Outer Brood, is live – and so is a brand-new EverQuest book
DC Universe Online’s new leadership teases new content format and event system in 2025
MMORPG vet Rich Vogel says the games industry is recovering more slowly than he expected
Now XLGAMES is sunsetting the Korean version of ArcheAge too
NetEase formally unveils its cute new solo/co-op game ANANTA (fka Project Mugen)
Throne and Liberty’s Call of the Spear is live with the new spear weapon and dimensional trials
Marvel Heroes emulator project gets loot updates and functioning missions in 0.4.0 build
CCP does not want you calling its blockchain game EVE Frontier a blockchain game
Marvel Rivals’ free-to-play launch hits over 400K Steam players, solid reviews, and purchase problems
Elder Scrolls Online’s 10th anniversary fizzles as ZeniMax cancels its North American meetup
Path of Exile 2 wrestles with database issues and half a million Steam concurrent players
Dauntless players express frustration over Awakening update’s mechanics and monetization
China’s mobile Blue Protocol ARPG rebrands as Star Resonance with a new test for December
Marvel Rivals’ similarity to Overwatch apparently annoyed former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra
Fantastic Pixel Castle shares new prototype gameplay and dev plans for its Ghost MMO
Star Wars: The Old Republic GU 7.6 goes live today with Dynamic Encounters and new PvP season
Serbian post-apoc MMOFPS Pioner is set to launch in 2025
World of Warcraft has added a whopping 38,000 quests in 20 years
Star Wars Galaxies Restoration teases new species, a housing deco upgrade, and a combat tree overhaul
Chronicles of Elyria dev claims development is ‘progressing steadily,’ but no, you can’t see it
Former Dauntless dev decries Awakening update as ‘blatantly not player focused’
Eight-year-old indie superhero MMORPG Ship of Heroes sets a Q2 2025 launch window
Marvel Rivals director speculates on Concord’s demise: “I don’t think anybody can accurately predict” flops
All the big MMO and multiplayer news from The Game Awards 2024
Pax Dei invites you to go on a shopping spree as its Market Square update is live
The Secret World TTRPG group is working on a North American expansion book
Lost Skies’ island construction tool is officially launched and F2P on Steam
Happy holidays: 461 Elder Scrolls Online studio developers just unionized
Warframe 1999 is officially live with new romance and story content
Sandbox MMORPG The Quinfall announces early access release date of January 25
Dauntless details plans to change rewards, progression, and gear after Awakening’s player backlash
Elder Scrolls Online ends its chapter-based cadence in favor of a seasonal model in 2025
World of Warcraft’s Siren Isle update goes live this evening with a new zone and Plunderstorm
Blizzard’s 2024 infographic is light on useful info, but gamers did play 8.34B hours in Blizz games this year
Lord of the Rings Online’s 2025 roadmap includes an expansion and new 64-bit servers
Ashes of Creation starts up the second phase of Alpha Two this weekend
Amazon already greenlit a second season of its videogame-themed Secret Level series
New World’s PvP seasonal worlds and season 7 launch January 21
Star Citizen alpha 4.0 releases as a ‘preview’ version that runs parallel to the ongoing alpha 3.24.3
Winter holiday events around the MMORPG world, 2024 edition
World of Warcraft previews the features of its Undermined update as Winter Veil brings the Christmas spirit
There’s still no ETA for the return of Corepunk’s servers, but there are test shards up now
Dune Awakening shares closed beta stats and answers questions about PvP death and Landsraad benefits
Ashes of Creation previews new dungeon, new races, and player housing added in Alpha Two phase two
Star Wars: The Old Republic touts 2024’s modernization efforts, updates, and Mac beta
Shroud of the Avatar lead dev joins another new studio, this time as ‘chief velocity officer’
War Thunder nerds have once again posted classified hardware docs to argue for game vehicle balance
WoW Classic players manage to recreate the infamous Corrupted Blood event
Final Fantasy XIV dev discusses over-streamlined battle content as the Heavensturn New Year’s event returns December 31
Riot Games tries to rebuff report that Arcane TV series was a ‘financial miss’ for League of Legends
Publishing of Tower of Fantasy Global will revert to Perfect World in 2025
Tree of Savior to merge its Brazilian and North American servers together
Superhero MMO project City of Titans shows off gameplay improvements after a quiet 2024
Lord of the Rings Online explains why it announced the new 64-bit servers early without all the details
Former WildStar dev Tim Cain claims the MMO’s lengthy development hurt its launch
FAVORITE EDITORIALS OF DECEMBER 2024
THE FULL 2024 YEAR-IN-REVIEW
