*Midnight's spired twilight cities await — Patch 12.0.7 'Revelations' brings new zones, a new raid, and the return of Timewalking.*

Week of 23 May 2026

The coming fortnight is one of the busiest in recent memory for the MMORPG genre, with major patches confirmed for SWTOR, Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online, and EVE Online all landing within days of each other. This week feels like the held breath before the wave breaks — previews are out, patch notes are being parsed, and communities are preparing. In the meantime, Neverwinter delivered a full new module, Old School RuneScape released its latest quest, and Black Desert Online kept up its steady rhythm of class refinements and quality of life improvements.

World of Warcraft

Midnight Season 1 is now well underway, and attention has turned firmly to what comes next. Patch 12.0.7, titled Revelations, is shaping up as another content-dense minor patch — the kind Blizzard has consistently delivered in the current expansion's eight-week cadence. All signs point to a 16–17 June release.

Patch 12.0.7 — Revelations

Two new zones are confirmed for 12.0.7: Val and Naigtal. Both are story-connected zones continuing the Midnight narrative. Details on the specific geography and faction context remain largely under wraps, but developer commentary has framed them as areas that expand the existing zone network rather than standalone regions.
A new raid, Sporefall, launches with the patch. Notably, Mythic mode will allow parties of 15 to 25 players — a scaling approach Blizzard has not previously used — with gear at the highest available item level but not upgradable through the standard system. This appears to be a design experiment in flexible Mythic accessibility.
Ritual Sites receive a new Tier 6 difficulty requiring a minimum of six active challenges. Completing a Tier 6 with all eight challenges active unlocks the new Ritual Breaker title. Rewards match Tier 5's Great Vault ceiling — so this is a prestige tier rather than a gear ceiling increase.
Turbulent Timeways V returns 30 June through 11 August, offering a heroic piece of Qualas raid gear each week from the Timewalking weekly. The 11 August endpoint may indicate Patch 12.1's launch window.
Housing development continues in the background, with UI refinements previewed — including separate visibility controls for health and power bars, and improved sizing options. No confirmed launch date has been given for housing as a playable feature.

A creator calling into question the population figures for WoW Midnight generated discussion this week. Blizzard has not commented, but the video raised familiar questions about how subscriber health is communicated — or not — to the playerbase.

Neverwinter

Neverwinter's 33rd module, Biting Cold, launched 19 May across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. It is a substantial content release by the game's recent standards, centred on an entirely new Adventure Zone in the frozen north of Icewind Dale.

Biting Cold — Module 33

The new Reghed Edge Adventure Zone places players north of Icewind Dale, where ancient glaciers are melting to expose buried ruins. Frost giants, tundra creatures, and a zone-wide mechanic called the Encroaching Frost create a dynamic difficulty layer — players who push deeper into the storm face greater danger but better rewards, including a chance to face the Stormbound Reaver.
The new dungeon is Jotunskar, a three-boss encounter available in Normal, Advanced, and Master difficulties. It includes a Death Pit mechanic and is designed as a progression ladder for returning and endgame players alike. Six new Heroic Encounters are distributed across the Reghed Edge, adding open-world group content to the zone.
An Ice Breaker Battle Pass accompanies the module, with both free and premium reward tracks. The premium track includes a new companion: Wormungandr, a fragment of an ancient doom given a small, coiled form — an enjoyably lore-laden addition even for players who do not collect companions as a primary activity.

Full details are available on the site and via the announcement published 19 May.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

SWTOR is on the cusp of its most significant content release in some time. Game Update 7.9, Legacy Reborn, is expected to launch this Tuesday, 26 May — the day after the US Memorial Day holiday, which aligns with the traditional Tuesday maintenance window Broadsword favours for major patches.

7.9 Legacy Reborn — Launching 26 May

The update delivers the finale of the Legacy of the Sith storyline. The planet Khar Shian serves as the new location, and the central conflict brings together Darth Jadus, Darth Malgus, and Shae Vizla in what the studio has described as a convergence of all the factions that have been manoeuvring throughout the current arc. Players choose where their loyalties land as the conflict unfolds.
Darth Jadus's plan — to awaken Force sensitivity across the galaxy on a mass scale — is the narrative centrepiece. It is a characteristically SWTOR-scale premise, and the story setup has generated considerable anticipation among the community's more story-focused players.
7.9.1, which follows shortly after, begins Galactic Season 11: Light and Shadow. The new season's companion rewards will be Fen Zeil and Amity; the Dark vs Light world bosses that featured in Season 10 will not return for Season 11. The SWTOR fan blog Going Commando has a thorough summary of the 7.9 preview stream.
An 8.0 Public Test Server is expected to open in summer, ahead of the full expansion — which brings the level cap to 85, a new Ryloth planet with Dynamic Encounters, and a three-boss Operation launching in both Story and Veteran modes simultaneously. The storyline direction will not be revealed until 7.9 has had time to be played through.

Current Events

The Double XP event ended 22 May. The next in-cycle event is the transition into Legacy Reborn's post-launch cadence. The Nightlife casino event returns 30 June, running through 11 August.

*ESO Update 50's Thieves Guild sequel sends players back to the rooftops — now with a full eight-quest storyline and new dynamic encounters.*

The Elder Scrolls Online

ESO Update 50 enters its final stretch before going live on 8 June. The Public Test Server phase is concluded, and the patch notes are largely final. It is a wide-ranging update that touches systems from PvP to companion progression to the Thieves Guild, and it is accompanied by the first season's dynamic world encounter infrastructure.

Thieves Guild Sequel

The new Thieves Guild storyline consists of eight full quests with no reputation requirement to progress — a deliberate departure from the original DLC's gatekeeping structure. The story involves new content in a refreshed version of the existing Thieves Guild zones, with updated textures, additional clutter, and a new Thieves Den in Daggerfall accessible through the Outlaws Refuge.
Heist missions receive a quality of life improvement: the time penalty for being caught by a guard drops from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. A new Mythic talisman is available through the quest line for players who want additional stealth tools.

Dynamic Encounters

Three Dynamic Encounters are being added to the overland world — one each in Ordon, Stonefalls, and Glenumbra. These are multi-stage, area-based encounters that scale with the number of players present and award reward chests at the midpoint and completion. They sit alongside the existing Incursions system and share a similar design philosophy but with more structured narrative stages.
A new Favours system introduces tasks gathered from Free Runner Post Boards in major cities, encompassing a wide range of activities from delve completion and world boss kills to fishing and gathering. The system is intended to provide variety in how players earn progression currency.

PvP Veterancy

A new account-wide PvP progression system, Veteran C, launches with Update 50. Players earn ranks through AP and XP gained in Cyrodiil, the Imperial City, and Battlegrounds. The system offers 100 ranks with cosmetic and currency rewards, including season-exclusive titles at higher ranks. The first pass is deliberately accessible, with the studio intending to iterate based on community feedback.

Quality of Life Updates

Companion experience gains from combat have doubled at each rapport level, significantly reducing the grind for new companions. The daily quest cap per character rises from 50 to 100. A new guild mail system allows guild leaders — and any rank with the appropriate permissions — to send messages to all members or specific ranks.
Skill transmute stations are being added to major city crafting hubs. Character creation now has a 15-minute AFK timer rather than the previous 5 minutes. Motifs now display sourcing information in their descriptions to help players make informed Crown Store decisions.
Update 50 goes live 8 June. The PTS preview from the May developer livestream has been widely covered, with a particularly detailed breakdown available via MmoGah.

Eve Online

Last week's Fanfest coverage continues to generate discussion, but the focus is now shifting toward the specifics of the Cradle of War expansion, which launches 9 June. The expansion's details — previewed during Fanfest and expanded in a developer deep-dive video — outline the most significant structural change to empire conflict in several years.

Cradle of War — Launching 9 June

Military Campaigns introduce structured, time-limited objectives that connect player activity across multiple locations in New Eden's empire space. The campaigns run from June to September, with outcomes affecting the winter expansion — Fenris Creations have stated that the aftermath of successful or failed campaigns will be tangible in the next release in the Theatres of War arc.
Eight new ships accompany the expansion: new Navy Destroyers built for factional warfare speed and fleet coordination, and new Tech II Command Carriers that amplify allied effectiveness through command bursts, support fighters, and battlefield control. Named variants include the Cororax Navy Issue (Caldari) and Algos Navy Issue (Gallente).
A new Exordium starter space — non-PvP, focused on training and gradual complexity — gives new capsuleers a cleaner path into the game before entering the wider security regions. This is a notable acknowledgement that EVE's new player experience has historically been a barrier to retention.
Titles and achievements are also being introduced as part of Cradle of War. The full expansion breakdown is available via the announcement on the Fenris Creations (formerly CCP) site, alongside a developer deep-dive video.

Patch Notes — Version 23.02

Version 23.02 patch notes were published 22 May, covering the preparatory update ahead of Cradle of War. The notes are available at the site.

Final Fantasy XIV

The FFXIV community is in a state of focused preparation. Patch 7.51 launches 2 June, and the primary agenda is clear: the Dancing Mad Ultimate raid, the conclusion of Cosmic Exploration, and new custom deliveries content. Two weeks of preparation time remain.

Patch 7.51 — 2 June

The Dancing Mad Ultimate raid — drawing from Final Fantasy VI and centred on Kefka — requires M12S (the fourth tier of Futures Rewritten) to unlock. It represents the current pinnacle of endgame challenge and will occupy the raiding community's attention for weeks. The fight is being discussed as one of the more thematically distinctive Ultimates given the source material.
The Cosmic Exploration feature reaches its finale with 7.51, as the Auxesia planet storyline concludes. A new custom deliveries vendor, Tiisol Ja, and a new Ocean Fishing route are also included — content aimed at the game's substantial crafting and gathering audience who are not necessarily engaged with the raid tier.
The Make It Rain seasonal event is confirmed for late May, offering increased MGP rewards from Gold Saucer activities alongside a limited vendor. It runs ahead of 7.51 and provides a lower-stakes activity while the raiding community finalises M12S clears.
A summary of patch 7.51's content is available via nosygamer and the official Dawntrail page.

*The Red Reef takes players beneath the waves — the second quest in the Tortugan storyline launched 20 May.*

Old School RuneScape

Old School RuneScape's content cadence continues with the release of The Red Reef on 20 May — the second quest in the Tortugan storyline, which takes players underwater for the first time in the current quest arc.

The Red Reef

Players board a vessel called the Zenith and, equipped with diving gear from an NPC named Spencer, descend into an underwater area featuring submerged ruins and a giant lobster boss encounter. The quest is positioned as accessible rather than challenging — a story-delivery mechanism that continues building the Tortugan world introduced in the first quest of the series.
The underwater setting is a visual departure from OSRS's usual environments, and early community reception has been positive on that front. The quest is live now on the official OSRS site.

Looking Toward Summer

The major summer content — the Blood Moon Rises quest and the Mega King boss encounter — remains on track for later in the year. The RS25 anniversary content development, relevant to both OSRS and RS3, is progressing. No firm dates have been given for either.

RuneScape 3

RuneScape 3 has been relatively quiet this week following last week's substantial Dungeoneering Remastered launch. Community assessment of the rework continues, with the general consensus settling on cautious approval — the structural improvements are well-received, though some players have noted the higher floor generation still occasionally produces awkward layouts.

The Player Avatar Beta, active since 7 May, continues to accept feedback. The beta has been notable for the community's close attention to edge cases: animation blend issues on certain emotes, facial geometry on older-style hairstyles, and lighting behaviour on the new textures have all been flagged in the official forums.
No major new update is scheduled for this week; the next significant content milestone for RS3 is likely the DXP weekend and the continuing development of RS25 anniversary plans.

Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online's 21 May patch was a class-heavy week, with Maehwa, Kunoichi, Mystic, Guardian, Drakania, and Striker all receiving balance changes. Alongside the combat adjustments, a notable quality of life pass addressed bartering, world bosses, and the monster zone UI.

Class Changes — 21 May

Maehwa (Awakening) is the headline beneficiary: she receives a new Awakening-specific Red Moon ability — a full super armour multi-CC skill — alongside two new iFrames (Sleet Step and Stigma). The changes lean further into her assassin identity, with a trade-off removing down smash effects to prevent extended CC chains after a failed assassination attempt.
Kunoichi receives nerfs to Succession's super armour skills used for CC and direct combat, offset by damage and stability increases to Wheel of Wrath. Mystic sees her defensive stance transition from super armour to forward guard, but with improved animation combo flow. Drakania Succession gains additional Ion Gauge recovery on several skills.
Striker loses HP recovery from three specific skill chains but gains merged recovery on two others, with the net effect being a more concentrated sustain window. Sorc receives a significant buff to the PA ability: a 50% damage reduction on activation and, more notably, the evasion reduction effect has been reclassified as an AP reduction (minus 20 AP in an area), making it a potent PvP debuff.
The 22 May Global Lab notes — previewing future changes expected in the 28 May maintenance — include six further classes flagged for balance work, a new Altar of Blood stage, Central Market price increases, and a penalty system for Arena of Solare to address inactivity and unsportsmanlike behaviour during matches.

Bartering and World Bosses

The bartering system receives a meaningful accessibility improvement: players now unlock three routes immediately from the start, rather than one then two then three. The 12th route unlocks at 10,000 bottles rather than 20,000. New T1 barter materials (hard leather, soft leather) are added.
Quint and Muraka, two world bosses that had effectively been abandoned by the player base due to their awkward reward structure, are being converted to standard equalised world boss encounters. Cannons are no longer required, and rewards will match other world bosses — a sensible housekeeping change.

Quality of Life

The monster zone drop UI now displays species type information, removing the need to consult external resources to determine whether a grind spot targets humans, demihumans, or monsters. Arena of Solare now shows ally locations on-screen without requiring players to check the mini-map. Ship overload restrictions are being removed, and the cheering animation on item pickups can now be toggled off.

The patch notes are available on the Black Desert NA/EU site.

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 has no new patch content this week. The 12 May 'The Only Way' quarterly update is still the current live content, and community discussion continues around the update's changes — particularly the expanded Wardrobe system and the Engineer/Mechanist class analysis that has attracted renewed attention on YouTube.

A detailed video examining the Mechanist specialisation's trajectory since End of Dragons has circulated widely this week, tracing the class from near the bottom of popularity rankings to second most-played. The analysis centres on how pet-class fantasy and reduced mechanical complexity drove the shift — context that is also relevant to the new River Otter Ranger pet added in 'The Only Way'.
The next quarterly update is expected in August. No official announcement has been made, but the current release pattern suggests Q3 will follow the established cadence.

Broader Genre News

Lord of the Rings MMO — Cancelled

Amazon Games has effectively confirmed the cancellation of its previously announced Lord of the Rings MMO, following years of reported development inertia since its 2023 announcement through a partnership with Embracer Group. The company has stated it continues to explore a 'new game experience set in Middle-earth', but the language — and the direction — points firmly away from a massively multiplayer online game and toward something narrower in scope, likely a single-player or co-op experience. For a genre that has been waiting for a credible new large-scale entry, it is a familiar kind of disappointment.

Destiny 2 — Maintenance Mode

Bungie has confirmed that active development on Destiny 2 will end following the Momentum of Triumph update on 9 June, transitioning the game to maintenance mode. The studio will keep servers running while shifting focus to future projects. Destiny 2 is not an MMORPG, but its player community overlaps significantly with MMO audiences, and its transition represents a notable shift in the live service landscape.

Tree of Savior — Shutting Down

Papaya Play has confirmed that Tree of Savior will end service on 16 June 2026. A farewell event began 19 May. Premium currency purchases may be converted to credits for other games on the platform, but Steam account transfers will not be supported.

Other Titles

MU Legend is shutting down — recharge system closed 18 May, full server closure confirmed 20 July. Closers Online (Naddic Games) will end global service 24 June.
The First Descendant's update 1.3.28 (20 May) adds Onslaught Mode as a permanent feature, new bounty operations, and a new ultimate Estimol character.
Lineage W relaunches in Southeast Asia on 27 May with new servers and improved regional support — a reintroduction rather than a new game, but notable for players in the region.

Looking Ahead

The next two weeks are unusually eventful. SWTOR 7.9 Legacy Reborn arrives first, likely Tuesday 26 May, bringing the Legacy of the Sith to its conclusion after a story arc that has been building for over a year. How the community responds — and how cleanly Broadsword lands what has been positioned as a major narrative moment — will do much to shape momentum heading into 8.0.

Final Fantasy XIV's 7.51 lands 2 June, followed by EVE Online's Cradle of War on 9 June and ESO's Update 50 on 8 June. The cluster is unusual: three significant updates in the space of eight days across three very different games. It is the kind of week that tends to produce animated discussion about which game is worth logging into, and where the community's attention goes.

World of Warcraft's 12.0.7 is the longer horizon — mid-June, most likely — but the Sporefall raid and the new zones are being watched closely. For a game where the population narrative has become an ongoing discussion in itself, a well-received patch would do no harm.

Elsewhere, Old School RuneScape and RuneScape 3 continue their respective rhythms without major imminent releases, Black Desert Online's Global Lab preview suggests another meaningful patch on 28 May, and Guild Wars 2 enters its quieter inter-quarterly stretch. The genre, for all its structural concerns, has a great deal happening at once.

Before the Flood