MMO Year in Review: Smedleyfaire (July 2022)

New worldwhich had suffered playerbase losses all year, began its resurgence in July 2022, thanks to its Medleyfaire update and event, which infused playable music into the game.

Meanwhile, Blizzard promised to bring back BlizzCon but backed out Heroes of the Storm, Pantheon scored $2.4 million in funding, and we welcomed chimeraland, Noah’s heartand Multiverse at the online game stage. Riot Games also finalized its $100 million settlement to its victims of sexual harassment and discrimination, making the one-year anniversary of the similar Activision-Blizzard scandal, a resolution the company fought for, even more poignant. at each step.

Read on for the whole recap from July last year.

TOP NEWS OF JULY 2022

Guild Wars 2 Polishes Its Latest Balance Patch: “The Team Wants To Get It Right”

EverQuest II unceremoniously wipes out its “jail server” and permabans every account

Secret World Legends Hosts Its Anniversary Event While A Livestreamer Hosts Its Own Event For TSW

Unity, the game engine behind many MMOs, is laying off “hundreds” of employees

Final Fantasy XIV update 6.18 is live, but the data center move system is already in trouble

Last Oasis Creator Admits Game ‘Spits’ While Talking About Season 5 Beta Launching Today

The Final Fantasy XIV nightclub advertises a rally on a real-world billboard, oblivious to terms like ‘copyright’ and ‘trademark’

Colony sandbox MMO SEED raises another $41 million in investment, partly from blockchain company

Officer involved in 2017 Call of Duty crash death denied qualified immunity appeal

BlizzCon will return in 2023, Activision-Blizzard employees plan another walkout

ESA announces plans for E3 2023 in late June hosted by ReedPop

The Division Resurgence is announced as a new title for mobile platforms

Rockstar Games Introduces New Content For GTA Online, Confirms End Of Major Updates For Red Dead Online

Wisdom of Nym: Why Final Fantasy XIV’s Billboard Was a Bad Idea

MMO Art Gallery Occupy White Walls Officially Leaving Steam Early Access

Nexon Project Magnum’s co-op looter shooter gets full title name and Steam page, starts taking test apps

Pearl Abyss will shut down the ‘inadequate’ Battle Royale Shadow Arena in August

Blizzard puts Heroes of the Storm in maintenance mode and gives everyone lizards

Ubisoft plans to remove multiplayer from 15 more of its games this fall as developers scramble to preserve them

Star Citizen Showcases Creating Deployable Items By Crafting A Folding Camping Chair

Century Age of Ashes launches on Xbox One X|S today, PlayStation 4 and 5 next week

Game developers turn panel into anti-crypto attack, drawing applause from attendees and anger from NFT sponsors

Perfect World revives the previously closed Jade Dynasty with the development of Jade Dynasty World

Tower of Fantasy releases trailers highlighting its combat and story as the game racks up 1 million sign-ups

Swords of Legends Online opens a new raid and heads to the beach for its first anniversary

World of Warcraft Dragonflight begins its first alpha test, previews Azure Span and crafting updates

Unity CEO says game developers who don’t include monetization in their design process are “fuckin’ idiots”

Survivalbox MMO Chimeraland’s global launch is marred by performance complaints

Kakao Games invests in Korean studio Redlab Games to create a play-to-earn mobile MMO

Lord of the Rings Online producer leaves Standing Stone Games after just over a year

TennoCon 2022: Warframe presents the new Khora Prime – and it’s live now

TennoCon 2022: Climb and Dive into Warframe’s Duviri Paradox

World of Warcraft Dragonflight alpha removes gendered body type text, briefly adds selectable pronouns

TennoCon 2022: Digital Extremes Announces New Soulframe Fantasy MMO

Lord of the Rings Online’s Weatherstock Community Concert drew 22 bands last weekend

Star Wars The Old Republic plans next update for August 2, bids farewell to creative director Charles Boyd

Lord of the Rings Online Releases Update 33.1 With New Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir

Lost Ark’s Spells in Spades update opens up a water park, frees up a card throwing mage and adds more endgame

New World server merge on July 22 will see some regions collapse into a single server

No Man’s Sky overhauls freighters and adds new multiplayer content in Endurance update

Pantheon Rise of the Fallen gets $2.4 million in funding, elaborates on its death mechanics

It’s been exactly a year since the Activision-Blizzard discrimination and sexual harassment scandal broke

Diablo Immortal set to launch July 25 in China after bizarre delay

Neopets is hacked for all user account data and source code, hacker offers everything for sale for bitcoin

Gearbox shuts down gaming forums in favor of Discord, but Cryptic’s MMOs are unaffected

Chronicles of Elyria admits running out of money in 2021, ‘haemorrhaging money’ since

Vanguard Saga of Heroes community emulator had over 100 players last weekend

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is confirmed to launch on September 26

NCsoft Q1 2022: Revenue Increases with Lineage W and Guild Wars 2, Throne and Liberty Coming This Year

Riot Games’ $100 Million Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement Final, Benefiting Over 2,000 Women and Entrepreneurs

Lord of the Rings Online community calls out SSG over stealth nerfs

Wallpaper Engine’s growing popularity is likely due to Chinese gamers using it as a porn delivery system

New World’s Summer Medleyfaire opens with today’s update

Open-world MMO Noah’s Heart makes its global debut on PC and mobile today

MultiVersus reaches over 150,000 players on Steam during open beta, reveals LeBron James as a playable character

New World population recovers with queues after Medleyfaire as Amazon works on LFG

Diablo Immortal made $100 million in revenue in two months

Axie Infinity CEO Caught Mixing $3M In Game Crypto Tokens Before Announces His $620M Hack

Rockstar devs call studio ‘a boys’ club turned into a real business’ as it looks back on crunch culture

Star Citizen Recovers In-Game Currency Allocation in 3.17.2 Through “Overcount” Error

Star Citizen backtracks on its credit recovery

Indonesian government blocks access to Steam and EGS for failing to meet database registration deadline

FAVORITE EDITORIALS FROM JULY 2022

THE COMPLETE REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2022