The Market Heats Up
The Night Market's three factions — the Glittering Goad, the Ruckus, and the Thousand Eyes — compete for Faction Favour through 17 June. Standings determine the quality of closing rewards for all participants.
Week of 9 May 2026
ESO's Night Market is two weeks in and showing no signs of quietening, with the faction standings drawing genuine competitive interest from a player base that ZeniMax will be hoping to retain as the format matures. GW2 is three days from its May Quarterly Update — the most substantial content drop since Visions of Eternity launched in October — and the community is visibly warming up. WoW delivered a comprehensive class tuning pass on 5 May that touched nearly every specialisation, along with a small but appealing piece of new content in Abyss Anglers. And elsewhere, Monsters and Memories has quietly pushed its Early Access date back from June to October, which is worth noting for anyone who had been keeping that one on their radar.
The Elder Scrolls Online
The Night Market event zone has been running for ten days and the faction competition is evolving into a genuine point of community discussion, with players debating which faction is likely to prevail and whether the reward structure adequately incentivises coordinated effort. The format — new enough that few have a strong prior read on how these things tend to settle — has generated a quality of engagement that simple event maps rarely do.
Night Market — Faction Standings
The three factions — The Glittering Goad (mercantile), The Ruckus (chaotic), and The Thousand Eyes (esoteric) — accumulate Faction Favour through boss clears and gauntlet completions. Final standings on 17 June determine reward tier for all participants: Gold, Purple, or Blue coffers. Players choosing the winning faction receive the most favourable outcome, creating a mild prisoner's dilemma around faction selection as the event progresses. Community tracking is underway on the ESO forums.
ZeniMax confirmed this week that a third faction — The Thousand Eyes — has been underperforming in player numbers relative to the other two, and is monitoring whether any structural adjustment is warranted before the event closes. No change has been announced as yet.
The Night Market's free Night's Den manor home remains available to all players who complete the brief introductory quest. The in-house bank upgrade requires 5,000 Faction Favour. Full event guide at ESO-Hub.
Dragonknight Rework — Active
The Dragonknight visual and audio rework is live in Season Zero. Updated animations, reworked particle effects, and new sound design have been applied to the class's primary skills. The Two-Handed skill line improvements have also rolled out alongside the rework, with several weapon skills receiving updated visual feedback. The Werewolf skill line rework follows in June.
Season One Preview — Summer
As the Season Zero roadmap firms up, ZeniMax confirmed additional details for Season One. The Thieves Guild story — set in a refreshed Glenumbra — will be the narrative centrepiece, accompanied by the new Sage's Vault puzzle system, a Crimson Veldt trial (a new 12-player raid), and further Sheogorath questline content. The Warden class receives balance attention in Season One, following the Dragonknight work in Season Zero. An overview of the current season's features is on the official site.
June: PC Game Pass
ESO's confirmed arrival on PC Game Pass on 2 June may shift player numbers meaningfully. The game has never previously been on the service, and the timing — ahead of Season One's summer content — appears deliberate.
The GW2 May Quarterly Update arrives Tuesday 12 May, continuing the Visions of Eternity story arc with new map content, six new Relics, and significant Wardrobe improvements.
Guild Wars 2
Tuesday's update has been confirmed by the community countdown at thatshaman.com as landing on 12 May. ArenaNet published a story recap on 29 April to help players find their footing before the new chapter, and the wiki's upcoming features page has sketched out what to expect.
May Quarterly Update — 12 May
The update continues the Visions of Eternity story arc, adding a new chapter and associated map content. This is the second of three major quarterly updates planned for the expansion; the third, expected later in 2026, will conclude the arc and introduce a new raid encounter, a fractal with challenge mode, and a new convergence.
Six new Relics are being added — the same cadence as the February update. New masteries accompany the release, and the Wizard's Vault receives its second refresh since launch.
Wardrobe improvements are the quality-of-life highlight. A new Current tab replicates the original Wardrobe tab's functionality. Mounts, gliders, and conjured doorways are being added to the Wardrobe for the first time, ending the long-standing inconsistency that kept those equipment categories in separate menus. The full list of upcoming changes is on the wiki.
Post-Expansion Roadmap: Still Quiet
Following last week's community discussion about ArenaNet's silence on 2027 plans, the studio has not made any announcement this week. The current position is that three quarterly updates will complete Visions of Eternity, after which no content has been formally signposted. Whether that represents a development gap, a Guild Wars 3 pivot, or simply careful communications planning remains a matter of speculation. The Reddit thread from last week continues to accumulate responses.
Abyss Anglers — a new diving activity introduced via hotfix on 5 May, sending players into the void-corrupted ocean depths of WoW: Midnight's coastal zones.
World of Warcraft
A busy hotfix week by any measure. The 5 May balance pass was among the more comprehensive mid-patch tuning efforts Blizzard has produced in the Midnight cycle, and the quiet arrival of Abyss Anglers via hotfix rather than a named patch gave the week an unexpected small-scale content addition alongside all the numbers work.
5 May Balance Pass
The update touched nearly every specialisation. Notable changes: Guardian Druid (Wild Guardian echo effectiveness reduced to 200% from 300%, Maul and Raze damage reduced 15%), Devourer Demon Hunter (all damage down 3%, Annihilator's Void Ray bonus reduced), Frost Death Knight (all damage up 5%), Survival Hunter (Explosive Shot up 100%, Arcane and Steady Shot both up substantially), Holy and Protection Paladin (multiple healing increases; base armour up 10%), Enhancement Shaman (across-the-board buffs to close the gap to Totemic), Frost Mage (Shatter damage reduced 6% to account for recent bug fix gains). Full notes at Blizzard.
Abyss Anglers
Added via hotfix on 6 May, Abyss Anglers is a new diving activity accessible from coastal zones in Midnight. Players earn the Certified Depthdiver achievement to unlock Ka'bubb, a capybara companion for dives. The activity involves exploring void-corrupted underwater ruins for collectibles and currency, scaling with the player's diving gear score. The Depth Grease achievement (which had a completion bug on day one) has been corrected. Described by Blizzard as a 'quiet-content' addition, it sits alongside Decor Duel as a non-combat option for Midnight players.
Decor Duel — Group Finder Integration
Decor Duel can now be queued through the Group Finder, removing the reliance on pre-formed groups that had been the main barrier to entry since 12.0.5. Participation credit for seekers has also been fixed. The activity's player counts are expected to increase notably as a result.
6 May Hotfixes — Dungeons
Pit of Saron: Risen Soldiers and Arcanist Cadavers can no longer be charmed (exploit fix). Windrunner Spire: directional arrow added to Heaving Yank targeting in the Derelict Duo encounter. Voidspire: teleport-after-soft-reset issue resolved. Full log at Blizzard.
Final Fantasy XIV
Patch 7.5 continues to bed in quietly. The main story and raid content have been processed by most of the active player base, and attention is now turning toward Patch 7.51 on 2 June, which carries the expansion's most demanding new content.
May 7 Hotfixes
A pair of notable fixes: Japanese NPC dialogue appearing in English language clients during 7.5 main scenario quests has been corrected; a black-screen soft lock in Windurst: The Third Walk (triggered by specific KO timing after the Promathia encounter) has been addressed; spiritbond not increasing in The Clyteum dungeon has been fixed. Full notes on the Lodestone.
Patch 7.51 — 2 June
The June patch brings Dancing Mad (Ultimate) — centred on Kefka, requiring completion of M12S to unlock — alongside the Auxesia cosmic exploration planet (a new crafter/gatherer destination), custom deliveries client Tiisol Ja, and a new Ocean Fishing route towards Thavnair. Patch 7.51 is broadly the 'endgame patch' of the 7.x series, with 7.55 and 7.56 handling the story conclusion and Beastmaster respectively. Preparation guide at Icy Veins.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
SWTOR's May events are running on schedule, and the community is in a settled holding pattern ahead of the 7.9 release window at the end of the month.
Events — Week of 9 May
The Pirate Incursion event runs 12–19 May on Dantooine (level 20+), offering Dantooine Reputation rewards and vendor items. Double XP continues until 22 May. The Twitch drops campaign for the Dantooine Art Poster runs until 14 May (one hour of live SWTOR content required). May's full events calendar is on the official site.
Legacy Reborn — Late May Window
Game Update 7.9 has a second Twitch drops campaign planned for after launch: watching four hours of live SWTOR content will grant the Nightshade Hssiss mount. The late-May window (26–31 May implied) remains unchanged. Legacy of the Sith owners will access the final chapter on Khar Shian. English voice acting at launch; French and German dubbing to follow.
Broader Genre News
Monsters and Memories — Early Access Delayed to 1 October
The EverQuest-inspired MMORPG from former SOE developers has pushed its Early Access launch from 1 June to 1 October 2026, citing the need for additional performance work and content polish, with Module 1: Descent into the Deep now included at launch (adding Deep Elf and Deep Gnome races and four starting areas instead of two). An open playtest will run 29 May to 7 June for those who want an earlier look. The delay announcement is on the site. Subscriptions will be $15/month with no box price or microtransactions.
ArcheAge Chronicles — Q4 2026 Confirmed
ArcheAge Chronicles — the successor to ArcheAge developed by XL Games — has been confirmed for Q4 2026 on PC (Steam and Epic), Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. It features a non-linear progression system, naval combat, and housing, targeting a simultaneous global launch. Worth watching for former ArcheAge players, though the franchise has a complicated history with Western audiences and the monetisation model has not yet been detailed.
Legend of YMIR — 5 July on Steam
Kakao Games' Norse-themed MMORPG Legend of YMIR has confirmed its Steam Early Access date as 5 July 2026. The game features large-scale world bosses, a siege system, and territory control in a Norse mythological setting. It occupies a similar aesthetic space to Lost Ark and is worth keeping an eye on for those who found that game's combat appealing.
New World: Aeternum
May's quality-of-life changes are active: weekly Mutation limit now 100, daily Mutation rotation enabled, Soul Trial rotation timer at six hours. Marks of Fortune cease to be purchasable from 20 July. The full wind-down roadmap at Icy Veins.
Looking Ahead
Tuesday's GW2 May Quarterly Update is the most immediately anticipated release — for a community that has been waiting since February's Raids and Wardrobe drop, the new story chapter and Wardrobe improvements will be a tangible deliverable. The following week brings SWTOR's Pirate Incursion event, and the week after that, in the final days of May, should finally see Game Update 7.9 Legacy Reborn land. June opens with FFXIV Patch 7.51 on the 2nd — Dancing Mad Ultimate will dominate the hardcore raid conversation for several weeks thereafter, and Auxesia should give crafters something new to work through. ESO's Night Market runs until 17 June, and the faction standings will firm up considerably over the next fortnight.
