Nowadays, MMORPGs are really struggling and unfortunately often die faster than we would like. To this and more, MeinMMO has asked six major developers of the genre questions.
How are MMORPGs currently doing? Right now, MMORPGs around the world aren’t doing well in all cases. Recently, Microsoft laid off developers at The Elder Scrolls Online. The Kickstarter hopeful Ashes of Creation went live on Steam in early 2026 and crashed just a few weeks later. In mid-2025, Amazon Games announced the end for New World.
As part of Grindfest 2026, we asked six MMORPG developers questions. The following responded:
- Greg Street, a former WoW lead designer
- Raph Koster, the mind behind Ultima Online
- Rich Lambert, the head of Elder Scrolls Online
- Benjamin Zuckerer, the managing director of Tibia
- Moritz Bokelmann, the game director of Albion Online
- Jack Emmert, the head of Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, and Champions Online
In the video on the MeinMMO YouTube channel, the six discuss and explain what their biggest hurdles are:
Grindfest 2026 – That was the event
Grindfest 2026 was the big MeinMMO MMORPG theme week that ran here on MeinMMO from June 29 to July 5. During the week, we published over 30 interviews, anecdotes, analyses, previews, and retrospectives about our favorite games.
You can find the complete overview with all new content here:
In addition to all the articles, there were also two streams in collaboration with GameStar Talk, which you can now also find as VODs on YouTube. Among others, our MMORPG expert Karsten Scholz, MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski, editor Sophia Weiß, and YouTubers Entenburg and Geschichtsfenster were present.
- The biggest MMO fails: Why Western RPGs are dying | with @Entenburg
- WoW beats GTA: The most important game of our generation | with @Entenburg
- Asia takes over: The new MMO era | with @Entenburg
- The ultimate real-life MMO: How LARP works | with @Geschichtsfenster
And of course, there was also a corresponding video on our YouTube channel MeinMMO: Is the golden era of MMORPGs finally over?
The discussions with the icons of the genre are of course only a part of the Grindfest. We have plenty of previews, analyses, and anecdotes from our favorite games for you. If you want to catch up on everything we published during Grindfest 2026 and also last year 2025, you can read it on our theme page. Just follow the link to the MeinMMO theme weeks.
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