*The Masters of the Force reveal brings Ryloth, a three-boss operation, and the Ventures system to SWTOR later this year.*

Week of 15 August 2026

Several MMORPGs reach turning points this week. Star Wars: The Old Republic finally puts a name to its long-anticipated major update, Black Desert Online delivers its largest patch in months, and World of Warcraft's Season 2 waits just days away. Across the genre, Amazon's exit from MMO publishing throws the fates of two titles into new hands, while both RuneScape variants enter fresh seasonal chapters.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

The question that has hung over SWTOR since Game Update 8.0 was first hinted at has finally been answered: BioWare confirmed on 13 August that the next major update is named Masters of the Force. It is the biggest naming reveal in the game's recent memory and comes with a significant list of confirmed features.

Masters of the Force — What's Confirmed

Ryloth becomes the new planet, featuring the arid dust plains and distinctive Twi'lek architecture of the franchise landmark world.
A new operation, Children of Nul, takes place aboard Darth Nul's dreadnought Enigma — a three-boss encounter designed for group play.
The level cap rises to 85, with new discipline abilities at each new level.
Overworld difficulty is being restructured into Story, Veteran, and Master modes, available from the start of any mission.
The Ventures system introduces locked-difficulty challenge characters (Classic and Expert tiers), intended for players who want a harder levelling experience without affecting their main characters.
Levelling has been improved, with the Collections system updated to include Fitted gear and Toys, which have been converted to usable abilities.
Masters of the Force targets a holiday 2026 release, which would coincide with SWTOR's 15th anniversary.

Galactic Season 11 & Swoop Rally

Galactic Season 11: Light and Shadow launches 18 August, bringing new seasonal rewards and objectives.
The Swoop Rally event runs from 18–25 August and is accessible to all players.
The Public Test Server continues active testing: Marauder/Sentinel, Powertech/Vanguard, and Sage/Sorcerer have all been pushed to level 85, and the first boss of Children of Nul is available in Story and Veteran modes.

*Ula'tek, the five-headed serpent goddess, awaits raid groups in the Venomous Abyss — the centrepiece of WoW Season 2.*

World of Warcraft

Patch 12.1 has been live for a week now, and players are settling into the Coiled Isle. Season 2 of Midnight arrives 18 August (US) and 19 August (EU), opening the Venomous Abyss raid and a new Mythic+ season simultaneously — making this one of the busiest content weeks of the expansion to date.

Season 2 Unlock Schedule

18/19 August: Venomous Abyss Normal, Heroic, and Mythic unlock alongside LFR Wing 1. Mythic+ Season 2 pool goes live. Rated PvP Season 2 begins. Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey activate.
Venomous Abyss is an eight-boss raid culminating in Ula'tek, a multi-headed serpent goddess. The Mythic+ Season 2 pool draws from eight dungeons: Altar of Fangs, Den of Nalorakk, Ruby Life Pools, Kings' Rest, Temple of Sethraliss, Voidscar Arena, Murder Row, and Blinding Vale.
25/26 August: LFR Wing 2, Story Mode, and Nightmare Prey difficulty two unlock.
1/2 September: LFR Wing 3.
8/9 September: LFR Wing 4.
The Tidebound Grotto Lair (introduced in 12.1) also scales up to Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties from 18 August.

Week One Hotfixes

Blizzard published hotfixes on 14 August covering Evoker (Devastation), Warrior (Arms and Fury), Warlock tuning adjustments, and several dungeon and item fixes.

WoW Classic

The Burning Crusade Classic — Black Temple and Mount Hyjal open 27 August.

Black Desert Online

Edania Part 2 — subtitled Inner Edania — launched on 13 August in a 3.05 GB patch carrying nearly 300 individual changes. It is the largest content release BDO has seen in several months, expanding the game's newest region with new monster zones, a world boss encounter, revised gear progression, and a significant character level milestone.

New Region & Monster Zones

Inner Edania opens as a new zone within the Edania region, with multiple named monster areas for various gear levels.
The Throne of Edania world boss encounter becomes available, accompanied by four new weekly boss quests under the For the Throne series: Aphrodon, Hermesia, Magaia, and Aresion.

Character & Gear Changes

The character level cap raises from 67 to 70 as of this patch; a full restructure to level 75 is planned for 7 October.
New accessory sets — Ekleta and Apeiron — are introduced, alongside Godslayer Armor appearance items and new magic crystals.
Margahan's Artifact has been added, and Life Skill content within the Edania zone has been expanded.
AP/DR brackets above 310 have been adjusted in preparation for the full October revamp.

Class & Platform Changes

Class changes focus on Drakania, with adjustments to core skills and awakening transitions.
Support for Windows 7 and DirectX 9 ended on 13 August. Players on those configurations will need to update to continue playing.

*Leyspring Hollows — the new map arriving with Code of Creation on 15 September — channels ancient ley-line energy toward the colossal Nexus of Eternity.*

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet has fixed a date for the Code of Creation — the final quarterly update of Visions of Eternity — and confirmed the framework for what comes after. The reveal answers questions that have lingered since the expansion's announcement.

Code of Creation — 15 September

Announced for 15 September, Code of Creation concludes the Visions of Eternity story arc across six chapters.
A new map, Leyspring Hollows, launches alongside a linked area, Depths of Cruelty, with a new world meta-event.
The Nexus of Eternity raid opens with this release (challenge mode 29 September, legendary armour track 13 October).
Solitary Throne fractal (with challenge mode) also arrives, alongside a new Nexus of Eternity convergence.
A new Rift Amplification mastery track, the legendary sword Wages of Stars, and the Volatile Ascension infusion are among the featured rewards.

After VoE: An 18-Month Gap and the Road to GW3

Following Code of Creation, ArenaNet has stated that GW2 will enter an approximately 18-month expansion gap while the studio focuses on Guild Wars 3.
During this period, GW2 will see continued foundational improvements — engine work, quality-of-life updates, and balance maintenance — rather than new story expansions.
A new WvW borderlands map will enter beta in late 2026.
Hall of Monuments legacy carry systems — linking GW2 achievements into Guild Wars 3 — are targeted for late 2026.

Current Live Events

Festival of the Four Winds runs through 1 September, featuring the new Cloud Pteruges legendary armour, Spellwork weapon set, and Plush Kralky backpack.
WvW War Score Beta 3 is running from 11 August through 4 September, testing the revised war score framework ahead of wider rollout.

Elder Scrolls Online

A quiet week for ESO, with the focus shifting to what arrives next rather than what is live now.

Golden Pursuits Event — 20 August

Golden Pursuits begins 20 August and runs through 17 September, rewarding participating players with Crown Crate items for completing daily and weekly objectives.

Update 51 PTR

The U51 Public Test Realm remains active, with testing focused on the Nowhere Vault dungeon and the new Rumours system — a mechanic designed to send players toward content they have not yet encountered.

Crown Store & Events

The Tenmars Fang Senche-raht mount became available in the Crown Store from 13 August.
Whitestrake's Mayhem PvP event concluded on 12 August.
The Bethesda 40th-anniversary promotional code, Bethesda40, expired on 13 August.
The return of the Night Market — originally expected this year — has been delayed to the first half of 2027.

Final Fantasy XIV

A technical week for FFXIV, with emergency maintenance and a stack of hotfixes addressing Switch 2-specific issues, alongside the Moonfire Faire's continued run through late August.

Moonfire Faire 2026

Moonfire Faire 2026 runs through 26 August, offering a new seasonal mount and new housing furnishings.
Nine items in the FFXIV Online Store are available at 50% off through 26 August.

Emergency Maintenance & Patch 7.55 Hotfixes

Emergency maintenance on 13–14 August (11 PM PDT to 3 AM PDT) delivered Patch 7.55 hotfixes.
Switch 2-specific fixes included: correcting the Crystalline Conflict Limit Gauge display, resolving an account registration language bug, fixing Au Ra horn recolouring (previously only displaying to other Switch 2 players), and restoring instant revival timing (incorrectly set to a 20-second delay).

Patch 7.56

Patch 7.56, which carries the Beastmaster job and Main Scenario Quest Part 2, remains on track for 8 September.

RuneScape 3

Leagues II: Equilibrium launched on 10 August and is now in its first full week. The limited-mode seasonal format — last seen with Leagues I: Catalyst — returns with an expanded relic system and a revised XP structure.

Equilibrium — First Week

Players begin in Lumbridge with the Equilibrium theme in effect, balancing Order and Chaos skill unlocks across the season.
Post-launch fixes and known-issues notes were published on 12 August.

Free-to-Play Access

The F2P access scope for Equilibrium was confirmed on 11 August: free players receive 4 of 7 regions (members receive 6), relic selection up to tier 3 of 7, and blessings up to tier 2.
The starting XP multiplier for Equilibrium is 5x (versus 4x at Catalyst's launch), scaling to a maximum of 16x at relic tier 6.
Voting for the Golden Gnome Awards 2026 is also open for RS3 categories, running through 14 August.

Old School RuneScape

Old School RuneScape's community spotlight this week belongs, in part, to an extraordinary individual achievement, as well as procedural updates heading toward the next poll.

Golden Gnome Awards 2026

Finalists for the Golden Gnome Awards 2026 were announced on 7 August, with community voting open through 14 August.
Winners will be revealed at RuneFest, scheduled for 3–4 October.

Monthly Update Video

Jagex's monthly update video, released 11 August and hosted by Mods Ayiza and Kieren, covered two upcoming items heading to the next community poll:
Bronzeman Mode — a new account restriction type where items must be self-obtained to be usable.
A Ruff Situation — an upcoming quest, details of which were previewed during the video.

Community Achievement

Player Bosby completed a multi-year project on 7 August: reaching level 99 Fishing having caught only shrimp and anchovies, a process Jagex officially verified took 4,304 hours.

EVE Online

EVE's development team — now operating under the Fenris Creations name — had a busy week of announcements, covering a new region, tournament prizes, and a significant hire linking the studio to artificial intelligence research.

Exordium — New Region

The Exordium devblog, published on 10 August, introduces a new space region accessible from Yulai via four one-way shipcaster exits leading to each faction's military headquarters.
Fenris Creations describes it as a work in progress regarding content population; further details are expected as development continues.

Alliance Tournament XXII Prizes

Prize ships for AT XXII were announced on 10 August: two new Amarr hulls, the Herald and the Penitence, alongside exclusive Victory SKINs awarded for each match win.

AI Research Hire

Fenris Creations has hired former Icelandic minister Aslaug Arna Sigurbjornsdottir as Senior Director of AI Partnerships. She will lead AI research efforts tied specifically to EVE Frontier, Fenris Creations' companion project.
The Force Projection devblog feedback thread remains active on the EVE forums, with the Cradle of War (version 24.01) patch notes published on 11 August.

Broader Genre News

Amazon Exits MMO Publishing

Amazon Games has confirmed the transfer of both its remaining MMO titles:

Lost Ark will transfer to Smilegate in early 2027. Player data transfers automatically; in-game mail and chat history will not carry over. Spanish localisation is being removed in October 2026. An opt-out window for players who do not wish to transfer is currently open.
Throne and Liberty will transfer to NC/FirstSpark Games by Q4 2026.
Both moves see Amazon stepping back from live-service MMO publishing entirely.

Stars Reach Early Access — 18 August

Stars Reach — the sci-fi sandbox MMO from Raph Koster's Playable Worlds — opens early access on 18 August. Tiers are priced at $30, $50, and $80.

Albion Online: Dragonfire — 31 August

Albion Online's Dragonfire update launches 31 August, introducing the Ancient Lands region, a new portal-based progression layer, and a 20-player raid.

Aion 2

Aion 2 global early access opens 30 September, with full launch following on 5 October.

Skyforge — PC Servers Closing

Skyforge will shut down its PC servers on 3 September.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds

The RuneScape survival spin-off RuneScape: Dragonwilds remains on track for its 1.0 release on 15 September.

Looking Ahead

The week beginning 18 August is one of the busiest simultaneously across the genre in recent memory. World of Warcraft's Venomous Abyss raid and Mythic+ Season 2 open their doors, SWTOR's Galactic Season 11 kicks off alongside the Swoop Rally, Stars Reach enters early access, and ESO's Golden Pursuits begins. RuneScape 3's Equilibrium season settles into its second week while Old School RuneScape heads toward its next community poll.

In the background, Albion's Dragonfire update is less than two weeks away, and the Guild Wars 2 community begins the count toward Code of Creation on 15 September. The genre feels — for the first time in a while — like it is moving in several directions at once.

Seasons Turning