Loads of people right now are working from home and staying inside playing games (including the Co-Optimus staff). MMO studios are in the same boat, meaning that we’ll see some delays in the coming weeks and months for content related to MMOs. At the same time, they’re doing their best to keep us entertained by offering their regularly scheduled events, which is always appreciated. This month, our MMOCO round-up includes some content delay announcements for FFXIV and ESO: Greymoor as well as an in-game event for STO.
FFXIV Announces Delays related to COVID-19
Last Friday, FFXIV’s Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida released a blog post to announce the impact that COVID-19 will have on upcoming FFXIV content patches. The most recent patch (5.25) was mostly complete before lockdown and state of emergency measures were put in place across the world, meaning that the team was able to release it on schedule. The next upcoming patch (5.3) will certainly be delayed, due to factors such as delayed graphical assets (from NA/EU, and East Asia) and delays to development tasks from Tokyo employees due to shelter-in-place/work-from-home impacts.
Previously slated for a mid-June release, it’s unclear currently whether patch 5.3 will be able to launch with only a delay of 2-3 weeks or if it will be closer to around a month late. Work is still being done on it, but on a longer timeline due to the limitations that manifest from working-from-home as opposed to in-person.
Zenimax Reveals More Details on ESO: Greymoor
Last week, Zenimax revealed some more details about their upcoming “chapter” (or, large expansions): Greymoor. This expansion will take players to Western Skyrim where they can visit such locations as Solitude, Dragon Bridge, and Hjaalmarch hold. It also offers a second whole region in the underground realm of Blackreach. Six new world bosses will populate the land and six new delves will be opened up for exploration. There will also be two new public dungeons: the Nord Barrow of Labyrinthian and the Nchuthnkarst ruins. Harrowstorms are a new feature of the chapter. These supernatural confluxes are group events for any number of players (similar to Dark Anchors or Abyssal Geysers).
Greymoor was originally slated to launch on May 18th (PC) and June 2nd (consoles). Due to the Zenimax working from home since March 16th, they are anticipating a very slight delay on the release, with the current estimation being about a week delayed. Also, because of the work lockdown in France, they were unable to record the French voice actors for the French voice-over work, meaning that on launch there will be French text/subtitles accompanying with English text until they can record and patch in the voice-overs later.
Celebrate First Contact Day in Star Trek Online
The First Contact Day Celebration Event is now live in Star Trek Online (STO). Both PC and console players can participate via the Events Tab in-game, with the event running from now until April 23rd on PC and from now until April 30th on console. There are two ways to gain progress in the event: either competing with four other players to build and launch a Phoenix Rocket, or travelling back in time to April 4th, 2063 and participating in a special patrol. Either activity will give players progress towards the grand prize: a Temporal Vortex Probe (Universal Console). While players can only receive the top reward by participating a full 14 days on the event, each day’s individual event progress will reward a First Contact Day Badge Box. Opening up this box gives players a choice between 17 new Comm Badges for their accounts.
That wraps it up for this month! Hope you all are healthy and safe and making the most of some potential extra gaming time!