*A Thieves Guild operative surveys the city at night — Season 1 of ESO is live, but the studio behind it has had a turbulent week.*

Week of 11 July 2026

It has been a heavy week for the genre. The news that Xbox layoffs have reached ZeniMax Online Studios — with reports suggesting a significant portion of The Elder Scrolls Online team may have been cut — has cast a shadow over what would otherwise have been a quietly busy fortnight of patch notes, event launches, and pre-expansion build-up. Alongside that, World of Warcraft's 12.1 pre-patch content began arriving in earnest, RuneScape 3 revealed sweeping mid-game rebalance plans, and EVE Online took the unusual step of open-sourcing its proprietary game engine. Across the board, there is a great deal to take in.

The Elder Scrolls Online

ZeniMax Layoffs and Roadmap Revision

Reports emerging on 6–7 July 2026 confirmed that a new round of Xbox layoffs had hit ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer of The Elder Scrolls Online. According to Kotaku, the cuts could represent up to half of the ESO development team, though only about 33 departures have been confirmed individually via LinkedIn announcements. Among those confirmed to have left are community manager Gina Bruno and long-serving developer Matt Finnegan. ZeniMax itself has not issued a headcount figure.

Community Director Jessica Folsom posted on the official forums to confirm that the team would be revising its development roadmap: "We want to take the time to evaluate the upcoming work and then confirm an updated schedule."
The studio has reaffirmed its commitment to ESO and stated that the game is not heading into maintenance mode or shutdown. New content will continue, but the pace of releases is expected to slow.
The wider picture is one of continuing Microsoft cost-cutting across its games publishing arm following the 2023 Activision acquisition. ZeniMax had already faced layoffs earlier in the development cycle following the cancellation of Project Blackbird.
Season 1 roadmap timelines have been updated as a result: Update 51 is now confirmed for September 21st (pushed back from the end of August); the High Isle of Tamriel event is scheduled for September 30th–October 14th; and Crimson Vault has a target date of August 31st. The Season 2 content previewing a single-player dungeon and a large Skyrim-themed world event has been announced, but no dates have been confirmed.

Season 1 Goes Live

Despite the week's news, Season 1 launched as planned on 8 July, bringing with it the returning Thieves Guild storyline and a range of new seasonal systems. The Nowhere Vault is confirmed as a permanent addition to the game. Season 0 has ended.

Season 1 introduces a new Thieves Guild questline in Glenumbra, a favour system for the guild, and the new Tamriel Tome — a seasonal reward track with its own set of earnable items.
The Nowhere Vault opens at the start of the season, and Nowhere Keys can drop from various in-game activities.
The Sheogorath storyline, which involves a major world event tied to the Mad God, is still scheduled for 29 July.
The July Crown Store has also gone live, featuring the new Coldharbour Cartel crafting motif as a drop from daily Thieves Guild quests, alongside new costumes, the Lilen Dril Ornog mount (16–23 July), and returning favourites including the Grand Psijic Villa.

*The Withering Contagion debuff broke containment on Moon Guard US in early July, prompting swift player-dubbed comparisons to the original 2005 Corrupted Blood incident.*

World of Warcraft

Patch 12.1 Pre-Patch Content Arrives

The lead-in questline for Patch 12.1, "Curse of Ula'tek," went live on 7 July, beginning the story bridge to the next major content update. The patch itself remains on a "Summer 2026" window without a confirmed date, though the community's working estimate places it in mid-August. The pre-patch storyline is available to all current players and unfolds across the Midnight zones.

Turbulent Timeways has returned with the pre-patch, offering six Dragonflight-era dungeons in rotation, a new mount reward — the Spawn of Vyranoth — and updated seasonal currency.
July's Trading Post is live, themed around a blue streak aesthetic. Completing Traveler's Log activities earns Trader's Tender, with the Bilgewater X-TREME mount as the primary headline reward for the month.
Blizzard is linking Battle.net and Discord accounts in the upcoming Curse of Ula'tek update, allowing guild chat to continue outside the game client.
A 7 July hotfix addressed issues in The Voidspire raid (Lightblinded Vanguard respawn), player housing room rewards for House Levels 3 and 5, and a Hearthstone charge bug for Human characters.
The WoW Summer Sale ended 7 July. The Midsummer Fire Festival also closed 5 July. A Twitch Drop campaign offering the Cuddly Cotton Candy Grrgle housing decor item runs until 14 July for viewers of eligible WoW streams.

Corrupted Blood 2.0 — Moon Guard Outbreak

A bug in early July allowed the Withering Contagion debuff — ordinarily confined to the Brackenhide Hollow dungeon — to escape into the open world on the Moon Guard US roleplaying server. The effect, which deals periodic damage and can spread to players within five yards, swept through populated zones including Lion Pride's Inn and Goldshire before Blizzard issued a hotfix on 3 July to contain it.

The community was quick to draw comparisons to the original Corrupted Blood incident of 2005, which ran unchecked for weeks and was later studied by epidemiologists as a model for disease transmission. The 2026 outbreak lasted only a few hours before being patched.
Moon Guard is one of WoW's largest and most active roleplaying servers, which made the spectacle particularly visible. Several players noted that the timing — during a busy social event period at the inn — amplified the chaos considerably. The incident was later described by PC Gamer as giving "flashbacks to a 21-year-old incident."

RuneScape 3

Player-Owned Housing — Arriving 13 July

The new Player-Owned House update launches next week on 13 July, representing the most significant overhaul to the Construction skill in the game's history. Jagex has described the update as offering "features and customisation, the likes of which RuneScape has never seen before." Full details are to be revealed closer to launch, but the team has confirmed it will be a major rework rather than an incremental patch.

Mid-Game Rebalance Preview

A substantial mid-game rebalance preview was posted on 6 July, outlining changes intended to address long-standing friction points for accounts in the 50–70 skill range. The preview covers multiple interconnected changes:

Fletching is receiving a full retier, mirroring the earlier rework of Mining and Smithing. Players will be able to fletch ranged weapons from level 1 through to 99 in a coherent progression. New crossbows, arrows, and bolts — including orcalcum, necronium, bane, and elder rune variants — are being added.
Agility courses across the game are receiving significant XP per hour buffs, with some courses more than doubling their current rates. The Dive ability will now unlock at level 30 Agility rather than through the Succession quest.
God Wars Dungeon 1 is adopting the GWD2 kill count system, meaning KC can be accumulated and retained across visits without resetting. GWD2's reputation cap drops from 5,000 to 2,000, and unique drop rates are doubled from the outset.
A number of drop rates have been improved: the Dragon Pickaxe from Chaos Dwarves goes from 1-in-5,000 to 1-in-3,000; Chaos Giants drop from 1-in-10,000 to 1-in-1,000; Corporeal Beast sigil rates are doubled.
Instance costs are being removed from the game. The Demonic Skull is also being removed. Crystal sandstone will be easier to mine, and more harmonic dust is available from Harps.

Road Ahead and Leagues Equilibrium

A Road Ahead post published on 6 July outlined upcoming content through the end of the year. Leagues II: Equilibrium launches in approximately one month, featuring region-locking mechanics, new combat blessings and relics, and a larger pool of auto-completed quests. Havenhythe Part II is confirmed for September ahead of RuneFest. Jagex also noted a significant 2027 roadmap is in preparation.

Sunlight Sands

"Dive into Sunlight Sands!" was announced on 6 July as a forthcoming update, with details yet to be fully revealed. It appears to be a new instanced or exploration area.

Final Fantasy XIV

Patch 7.3 — The Promise of Tomorrow: August 5th

Square Enix has confirmed that Patch 7.3, titled "The Promise of Tomorrow", will release on Tuesday, 5 August 2026. A trailer was released alongside the announcement. The patch continues the Dawntrail expansion storyline and includes content from Patch 7.2, though specific details of 7.3 remain limited ahead of the EU Fanfest. The announcement is available on the Final Fantasy Portal Site.

Final Fantasy XI also received a version update on 9 July, keeping Vana'diel's long-running live service active ahead of its own anniversary content.

EU Fanfest in Berlin — 25–26 July

The European Fan Festival 2026 takes place in Berlin on 25–26 July, with Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida expected to present live from the venue. Producer Letter Live No. 93 is confirmed for 25 July at around 23:30 BST, with Lead Battle Content Designer Naoki Nakagawa as a guest.

The PLL will focus on the new Limited Job planned for Patch 7.56: the Beastmaster (魔獣使い), which will be shown in a playable demonstration. The announcement was made on 10 July via the official Twitter account.
The expansion "Evercold" — revealed at the Anaheim Fanfest earlier this year — is the 8.0 expansion heading for a January 2027 release. EU Fanfest is expected to include further details on classes and systems.
A Fan Art Contest is running through 11 August, with the official submission page open. Winning pieces may appear on luncheon mats at Eorzea Café.

Old School RuneScape

Botting Crackdown — Major Clients Suspended

Between 1 and 4 July 2026, four of the most prominent OSRS third-party bot clients went dark in rapid succession — an unprecedented wave of closures for the botting scene. Community speculation and available evidence suggest that Jagex has issued Cease and Desist letters, though no official confirmation has been made public.

PowBot disabled new subscriptions on 1 July. Its domain (powbot.org) subsequently went offline entirely.
TRiBot, one of the oldest and most recognised names in the field, paused sales indefinitely on 1 July without explanation.
Storm Client announced a permanent closure on 4 July: "Storm is closing, effective immediately." It confirmed refunds for recent Stripe purchases.
Inubot suspended token sales on 4 July, giving existing subscribers access until 3 August while it assessed next steps.
OSMB appears to be affected, with no official statement. Dreambot remains the only major client still fully operational as of this writing.
A Reddit thread confirmed that Jagex is issuing C&D orders and DMCA strikes to botting sites and clients. The community response has been broadly positive, with many players noting that this is the most significant enforcement action against third-party botting infrastructure in the game's history.
The investigation into the simultaneous closures notes that no developer has confirmed the reason on record — legal or payment pressure remains the community's leading hypothesis.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

July Events

July is structured around two returning events that bookend the month. Relics of the Gree ran from 7 to 14 July on Ilum and were accessible to characters of Level 50 and above. Pirate Incursion is also scheduled for later in the month on Dantooine. The Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event continues through 11 August.

Game Update 7.9c was released on 8 July following a three-hour maintenance window. The hotfix resolved a pink screen issue affecting a number of players, alongside additional back-end maintenance. Full notes are available on VULKK.
Galactic Season 10 objectives are live through 27 July. Season 10 objectives have shifted to cover the Relics of the Gree and Pirate Incursion periods, alongside the standard daily and weekly mission cadence.
Development on Game Update 8.0 remains the team's stated primary focus following the conclusion of the Legacy of the Sith storyline. A PTS Phase 1 — featuring the opening boss of a new Operation and Level 85 progression testing for Sentinel, Vanguard, Sage, and their Imperial mirrors — is described as "imminent" per the Q2 producer letter.

Black Desert Online

Final Class Balance Patch

The 8 July update brought what Pearl Abyss has described as the final class balance patch for the foreseeable future. The changes are PvE-focused and affect six classes, with the stated goal of bringing underperforming succession and awakening variants closer in line with the current tier.

Succession Warrior received increased attack speed and WP recovery for Prime: Forward Slash, and increased damage for Succession: Warrior's Spirit.
Succession Valkyrie: Prime: Punishment moved to Tier 2 skill add-on; reduced cooldowns for Sword of Judgment and Holy Spear.
Awakening Striker: Endless Explosion chain skills consolidated into 'Fallout'; Down Smash and Stiffness effects removed; damage increased for three skills.
Awakening Ninja: damage improved across nine skills.
Succession Corsair: HP recovery added or improved for four basic skills; damage increased for three skills.
The patch also added Songakshi difficulty levels Eight through Ten Jae-Sini, requiring 365/375/385 AP respectively — matching the Dueoksini and Eoduksini benchmarks. The patch notes are available on InvenGlobal.
Landscape paint drop rates in hunting grounds increased by approximately 1.69 to 8.17 times, making Treasure hunting more viable from a wider range of monster zones.

Heidel Ball Prelude and Summer Events

The Heidel Ball 2026 — Pearl Abyss's twice-yearly reveal event — is approaching on 26 July. A new Heidel Ball Seal event launched on 9 July and runs through 29 July, offering seals redeemable for Cron Stones, outfits, and gold.

Terrmian Beach is open again from 9 July, returning the seasonal AFK fishing and beach party event to the game for the summer period.
DirectX 9 and certain older operating systems are being sunset. A notice published 9 July confirmed that support will end, though a specific date has not yet been given.
The Solare Season Finale event — a cooperative PvP-adjacent arena event — runs through 23 July.

EVE Online

Carbon Engine Goes Open Source

In a development of notable interest beyond EVE itself, Fenris Creations — the studio behind EVE Online — open-sourced the Carbon game engine framework on 6 July. Carbon is the proprietary cross-platform framework that underpins EVE's game systems and has been in development internally for many years. The announcement was reported by Game Developer.

The decision follows open-source philosophies similar to those of the Godot engine project. Fenris has stated that opening the codebase allows the wider development community to contribute, extend, and potentially build on the technology.
The open-source release does not directly affect the live game — EVE Online continues to operate on its existing infrastructure — but the gesture represents a significant shift in how the studio engages with the broader technology community.

Operation Avalon — Cross-Platform Event

Operation Avalon is running from 7 to 20 July as a collaborative event between EVE Online and EVE Vanguard. When Vanguard players complete expeditions, AEGIS convoys spawn in EVE Online space, leading capsuleers to new investigation sites featuring combat, hacking, and salvaging mechanics.

New rewards are available through the seasonal event track, including a new salvaging implant, new drones, a new type of damage control module, and an officer-tier module. Skins are also available further into the track, with a special capstone token redeemable for the Incursion Stabiliser.
The sites are designed so that the roaming convoy is the only way to locate them — they do not appear on the standard overview — encouraging active scanning and pursuit gameplay.

Guild Wars 2

July 14 Balance Patch

The next balance update arrives on 14 July, with the community actively discussing the preview patch notes. Snow Crows has published a detailed breakdown of predicted post-patch numbers and metagame implications. The patch is drawing attention for its changes to several high-performing builds in both the open world and group content contexts.

Fractal Rush — 14 July

Fractal Rush also begins on 14 July, a returning event that rewards additional Fractal Relics, Pristine Fractal Relics, and various currencies for completing Fractals of the Mists within the event period. It is one of the better windows in the year for players working through Ascended gear progression via the Fractal track.

Population and Summer Sale

GW2's estimated active player population closed July at approximately 49,924 — up 2.4% month on month, according to MMO-Population. The Sizzling Summer Savings sale continues, offering discounts on select items across the gem store.

Broader Genre News

RuneScape Turns 25

The Guardian published a feature piece on 7 July examining how RuneScape has survived to its 25th anniversary. The piece traces the game's split into OSRS and RS3 in 2013, the recent decline and recovery in player trust, and the Road to Restoration initiative announced earlier this year. Jagex's director, Phil Mansell, is quoted as reflecting on the balance between nostalgia and progress: "It's not solely about moving backwards — but about recognising what we did well or what players loved and using that knowledge to progress." The feature is worth reading in full.

Star Trek Online: Undiscovered

Star Trek Online's latest expansion, Undiscovered, has launched on PC this week. The expansion continues the long-running series, which recently celebrated its own significant anniversary.

No major new MMO announcements of significance to a PvE-focused audience emerged this week, though the genre landscape continues to be monitored for titles approaching launch.

Looking Ahead

The ZeniMax layoffs will continue to cast a shadow into the coming weeks. The revised ESO roadmap is expected to be published soon, and what it reveals about the scope of content cuts — if any — will tell the community a great deal about what the next twelve months look like for the game. Season 1 is live and functioning, but the broader question of pace and ambition hangs over it.

For World of Warcraft, Patch 12.1 "Curse of Ula'tek" draws closer with each passing week. The 12-day Turbulent Timeways event provides a structured bridge for returning players. GW2 and RS3 both have significant updates landing on 14 July — a busy weekend ahead for players across both games.

FFXIV's EU Fanfest in Berlin on 25–26 July is the next major calendar event for the genre as a whole. The reveal of the Beastmaster in a live demo — alongside whatever else Yoshida and Nakagawa choose to show — should set the tone for the second half of the year. And with Patch 7.3 now confirmed for 5 August, the Dawntrail content cycle has a clear endpoint in sight before the 8.0 era begins in earnest.

The Heidel Ball on 26 July also bears watching. Pearl Abyss's reveal events tend to set BDO's agenda for the following season, and with the summer content already well underway, there is likely to be significant forward-looking news from the Korean studio.

When the Layoffs Land