MMORPG News: The Elder Scrolls Online 2? New Stars End MMO, Magic Legends Delayed, Genshin Impact, Shadowlands Delayed

Alright, brand new week, brand new selection of games to talk about!
And we got plenty. Some good, some.. less good. You know, the norm.

So let’s jump right into this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News!

Genshin Impact launched recently, and with it has captivated the entire gaming scene. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cross-platform game like this reach the kind of global audience Genshin Impact has, and that’s.. honestly kinda cool.
The game has averaged what, 60,000 to 100,000 viewers every day on Twitch and has tens of millions of players all addicted to the game on PC, mobile and.. a few on PS4.
Surprisingly, the Switch hasn’t been shown any love yet, even though it’s still highly anticipated.
miHoYo are currently in the process of working on their 1.1 update that will potentially bring with it a brand new region, new characters and some alterations to the game, hopefully in the form of content.
However at the same time they’re also trying to deal with the various “leaks” going around, the accusations that they’re installing spyware, viruses, and looking into your private clipboard. I mean I guess it comes with the territory, right?

I’ve done a few videos on Gran Saga – one just a couple days ago, actually. I, along with many players, was looking forward to this as it looked fantastic from the trailers.
It was supposed to be Genshin Impact, if Genshin Impact were in fact an MMO as opposed to a co-operative multiplayer adventure game.
With their recent Closed Beta, we got a brief glimpse into the game.. and it isn’t looking promising at all. This game looks like a mobile game. We were completely mislead when they claimed it would be a next-gen cross-platform MMORPG.
I don’t think I’ve been this disappointed with the release of a game as I am with this. This could’ve been really damn good, but instead.. we get what is probably going to end up in the trash.
Regardless, things could change – this was a Beta test after all and they might take our feedback into consideration and improve the game.

After many a delay, it turns out the brand new – well, new in terms of when it was released, but this update has been planned since all the way back in 2019.
But earlier this week, Black Desert Online took the O’dyllita region online after quite a few setbacks and delays. To enter the new region, you need to accept a level 60 quest titled “Flower of the Burning Moon.”
There’s a lot of new content to consume in the update, and quite a bit to explore. Do note that this update pertains specifically to the PC version of the game, not the console version.
The console version specifically, however, is obtaining access to the Succession skill system. Which may or may not be all that exciting for players, especially with the news that PC players got an entirely new region, right?

Baldur’s Gate 3 just rolled out into Early Access, and despite there being some negative reviews for the game posted online, the majority seem to be positive, and I can see why.
Mrs Stix and I streamed the game over on Twitch earlier this week, and we pushed through the first several hours of the game. It was brutal, it was grotesque, and it was an absolute blast.
The amount of choice you had over your narrative – the sheer levels of control you had was impressive.
I’m aware that this isn’t the first time this has been done – I’m a fan of the Divinity games as well, but to see the game portrayed so beautifully, graphically, is another thing all together, especially when compared to other games in the genre.
The turn-based combat was a lot of fun, exploring the world was a blast and – well, the story was disgustingly satisfying, if a little.. “Michael Bay-ish.”
But then I like Michael Bay movies. They have explosions and distracting performances. It’s worth noting that only a fraction of the game is available right now though so if paying full-price for a barely built game isn’t acceptable to you.. I’d advise waiting.

In what is perhaps the biggest MMO news drop of the entire year, Shadowlands has been delayed to an undisclosed time later this year.
It’s uncertain as to why it was delayed – were they having too many issues on the PTR? Were they unhappy with the amount of content released? Did they overestimate how long things would take?
Regardless of the reasoning, the Shadowlands pre-patch is coming out on October 13th, and brings with it all of the changes Shadowlands would have brought.
New customization options, the new limited time scourge invasion event, complete class overhauls, the addition and removal of certain content obtainable in-game right now such as corrupted gear and mounts.
This will definitely give us all something to do until Shadowlands comes, probably sometime next month, as we’re going to have our levels completely rebalanced in anticipation of the expansion.

Fans of Star Trek are no doubt going to enjoy the update that came out earlier this week. I’ve been told on multiple occasions to cover this info – so here I am. You guys can relax, now!
According to the devs, the brand new update features the continuation of the Year of the Klingon storyline, with players having to seek refuge on Nimbus with the Klingon captain, Adet’Pa.
But the update isn’t all that’s new in the MMO, as while yes it does bring with it new content, an overhaul of old content and new events, it also marks the release of the game onto the Epic Games Store.
Granted I’m honestly not sure how much good that will do, if anything, as for the most part players who wanted to play the game were already playing it and the Epic Games Store isn’t really known to boost player numbers for games that are already playable via more popular platforms like Steam.

This is actually a title I had no idea of. But apparently the game has lauched onto Steam earlier this month. And you know?
Granted it might look, aesthetically, a little similar to a certain other popular game, but it seems to be its own game.
This isn’t an MMO, but as you guys know we also cover the occasional coop game here as Mrs Stix and I love playing through them, both together, and with our community!
Drake Hollow is a new game that has a group of players team up to save.. a garden full of vegetables? Like, walking, talking vegetables.
Yup – the premise of the game is a little peculiar, but you get the freedom to build up and protect your new allies from eradication. My back is definitely going to be a little sore after this game.

It looks like this week isn’t so much about current games, but moreso concerning games that we haven’t necessarily heard about, right?
Here’s a brand new MMO, “Stars End.” This is a game I haven’t really heard anything about. It’s a survival MMO that has been in development for a while now but.. that was about all I knew.
However, it turns out the game has come far enough along that it’s actually entered Open Beta as part of its brand new update 41.
The update brings with it entirely redesigned planet environments, along with the ability to display hundreds of terrain objects on screen at once with optimized performance.
This is promising, as I’m guessing earlier in development they were highly limited by how much could be on-screen at any given time, and as both a survival game AND an MMO.. cluttered screens are detrimental to the user experience!
The game is currently available via Steam for around $15USD for those of you that are interested in trying it out. In my opinion, I’d advise you wait until it’s much further along before spending money on it though.

Honestly, I’ve never really covered Wakfu. Not because it’s a bad game, not because it’s an unpopular game, but simply because.. I just don’t really ever receive news from neither the dev team, nor informative emails.
Yet I repeatedly get requests to cover the game along with DOFUS, so I guess I’ll try and pay slightly more attention to the two of them moving forward. Today we’re talking about their latest update, “Agony Unchained.”
It features updates to existing classes, new floors for the Mineral Tower along with the removal of the daily restrictions.
Regardless of Wakfu’s active playerbase numbers, it’s worth noting that the devs announced they would be merging the remaining servers together into two larger “mega-servers,” with 1 server being specifically targeted towards the French players, and the other for the rest of the International world.
This is alarming – as we all know the reason behind server merges, right? Either way, there’s no date in specific that’s been given for the server merges but I would wager a guess it isn’t too far off.

I’m not a fan of Magic: Legends. Not only does the game look pretty poor in terms of actual gameplay, but my last news video where I included several seconds of their trailer footage got removed for infringing on their copyright – of a publicly released, available gameplay trailer – which is the first time this had ever happened, and the last.
But here I am today talking about it again because, well.. the game has been delayed. I know some of you were anticipating the game, even after seeing the type of game it was, and thus I thought it was worth bringing the delay to your guys’ attention.
Earlier this year, Perfect World Entertainment announced that Magic: Legends, which was originally revealed to be an MMO, and afterwards had its MMO status revoked would be launching in 2020 onto PC, with consoles getting the game some time during 2021.
Since then, it has been confirmed that the upcoming game is being delayed into Spring 2021, to, in their words, “deliver the highest quality Magic experience we possibly can.”
Their goal is to undergo additional Closed Alpha tests of the game to refine what was really holding the game back from meeting player expectation. It’s interesting to note that the game is going into Alpha testing though as opposed to Closed Beta testing.
It’s also worth noting that we’ve no confirmation if this affects the PC release exclusively, or if it will also affect the console launch.

For those of you unaware, ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer behind the Elder Scrolls Online has been working on a brand new MMO for a little while now.
They’ve been hiring additional talent for a brand new “triple-A MMO” being built in a “brand new engine,” something that is much more current- or even next-gen than what we currently have for ESO.
They’ve been hiring for well over a year now and are getting closer to revealing additional information pertaining to what specifically the game might end up being. And no, it’s not a sequel to the Elder Scrolls Online.
This is concerning a brand new IP – something that they haven’t done a game for in the past.
They’re looking for people that have experience making “open-world” games, and a narrative design that will contain “both open-world and linear spaces,” with both “first” and “third-person” perspectives.