After 7 years of drought, 2021 finally looks like the year when new AAA MMORPGs will be released here in Germany. With Lost Ark and New World, two high-profile games are set to launch in Europe. Project TL is also set to be released, even though it has only been announced for South Korea so far. These are three games that many MMORPG fans have been waiting for a long time. One for even 10 years.
When was the last good MMORPG year? 2014 marked the end of the era of “WoW killers.” That year, WildStar and The Elder Scrolls Online were the last two high-profile Western MMORPGs to be released in the same year. The Free2Play hit ArcheAge from South Korea caused a stir towards the end of the year. In November 2014, the WoW expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was released, which at least provided a strong campaign, even if the endgame was disappointing.
All three new MMORPGs from 2014 had a successful launch and had to cope with huge demand but revealed weaknesses and quickly ran into difficulties . ESO managed to turn things around and became a hit after being ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One starting in 2015. WildStar did not make a comeback, first going Free2Play and shortly thereafter shutting down. ArcheAge flared up intermittently. The MMORPG was particularly exciting at launch when everyone was competing for building spots.
Although the MMORPGs of 2014 brought a lot of sorrow, the year 2014 gave us the last major wave of fresh online role-playing games. If you wanted to, you could spend a lot of time in the worlds of the new MMORPGs in 2014.
What has happened between 2014 and now? Little has happened: Only Black Desert has broken into the ranks of “great MMORPG hits in the West.” Since then, 5 major MMORPGs have more or less shared the player base in the West:
- WoW – has had two peaks since 2016 with Legion and 2019 with WoW Classic. It’s still the “largest MMORPG” in 2020, but is no longer the undisputed king it was in 2010 during the Lich King times. WoW has become more of a “first among equals.”
- The Elder Scrolls Online has made a positive development and is probably the hottest MMORPG for console players. It attracts especially those who usually don’t have much to do with MMORPGs and prefer adventure like Skyrim but want to experience the adventures with their friends.
- Black Desert offers something for fans of grinding and graphics. It focuses on different game concepts and aesthetics than Western titles and has been actively developed in recent years.
- Final Fantasy XIV has undergone a strong development and offers solid and inspired MMORPG food with a rich history. It’s an excellent MMORPG all around.
- Guild Wars 2 has its fans who adore it and spend thousands of hours in it. The fantasy MMORPG follows its own concepts in development, which come with pros and cons. They are paving their own way.
6 dry years for MMORPG fans
For anyone who doesn’t have a go-to MMORPG and is waiting for a new online role-playing game, the last 6 years have been marked by disappointments:
- Big MMORPGs in the West were canceled during development like Titan from Blizzard or Everquest Next.
- Games from Asia couldn’t establish themselves in the West or caused disappointments like Bless – hardly a month goes by without an MMORPG from the second and third tier dying .
- Indie MMORPGs sound exciting but just aren’t finished. One can observe how release dates keep getting pushed further back.
- AAA games that are in development and many are waiting for either don’t come to Germany or are postponed. New World was actually considered a safe bet for a 2020 release – but has already been pushed back twice due to the pandemic.
But 2021 might finally be the year. 3 AAA MMORPGs are planning their release for 2021. And fans have been looking forward to each of these games for years: now it should finally happen.
On page 2, we present the first of the new AAA MMORPGs. Read on.
