This week in MMO news saw major expansion announcements, industry controversies, and significant playerbase shifts. Star Wars: The Old Republic revealed its Onslaught expansion, Blizzard faced backlash over employee tracking, and Albion Online went free-to-play to heavy demand.

Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 Announce New Content

Star Wars: The Old Republic kicked off the week with the official reveal of its Onslaught expansion, set to arrive in September. The expansion brings back the faction war and introduces the Nautolan species as a playable race. In the same patch cycle, patch 5.10.2 (Heralds of Victory) went live, adding guild sigils and a heraldry system. Guild Wars 2 also made waves by announcing its next living world episode, War Eternal, which will include a new mount: the Skyscale dragon, a flying dragon similar to the existing griffon but with distinct mechanics.

Industry Controversy: Blizzard’s Employee Monitoring

Blizzard Entertainment came under fire this week following a report that the company had tracked female employees' sexual activity, pregnancy, and moods. The practice, which was reportedly part of a broader effort to manage productivity and morale, drew widespread criticism from media and players alike, raising renewed questions about workplace ethics in the games industry.

Free-to-Play Launches and Player Booms

Albion Online officially transitioned to a free-to-play model, resulting in immediate server overload as thousands of new players rushed in. The Elder Scrolls Online likewise saw a surge in its playerbase around the launch of the Elsweyr expansion, forcing the EU megaserver to implement temporary queues and capacity upgrades. On a different scale, Roblox announced it had reached 90 million monthly active users, highlighting the platform's continued growth.

Studio Changes and Service Shutdowns

Perfect World Entertainment sunset the Foundry system for both Star Trek Online and Neverwinter, retiring the long-running player-created mission tool that allowed users to design and share custom content. Black Desert permanently canceled its battle royale mode, Shadow Arena, and wrapped up an investigation into false bans linked to cheating in that mode. Meanwhile, Neowiz announced that it was dissolving Bless Studio, the developer behind Bless Online, and folding operations back into the parent company.

Other Notable Updates

Skyforge launched its New Horizons expansion, introducing a new planet called Terra and catch-up mechanics for returning players. TERA suffered a major economy exploit shortly after its Skywatch: New Heights patch, forcing a server rollback. Blade & Soul released the Legends Reborn update, which included server mergers that reduced the western servers to two. Among the many smaller stories this week were World of Warcraft patch 8.2 zone details, an EVE Online CSM member banned for insider trading, and the one-year anniversary of Perpetuum’s community takeover.

Throughout the week, community events, podcasts, and live streams kept players engaged, though the headlines above captured the most significant developments for MMO enthusiasts.

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