GamesBeat’s December 2012 roundup selected five MMOs that stood apart for different reasons: PlanetSide 2’s huge shooter battles, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria’s familiar expansion design, The Secret World’s distinctive setting, Rift: Storm Legion’s evolving world, and Guild Wars 2’s less prescriptive systems. This was one publication’s editorial list—not a verified ranking by players, sales, or another common measure of popularity.
What were the five MMOs in GamesBeat’s 2012 list?
The list appeared in GamesBeat’s December 27, 2012 article, “The best MMOs of 2012.” Its choices were PlanetSide 2, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, The Secret World, Rift: Storm Legion, and Guild Wars 2. The roundup’s page now carries a June 18, 2025 update marker, but the selections discussed here are the original 2012 editorial choices.
These games were not five versions of the same MMO formula. Their differences showed up in how players fought, explored, progressed, and paid for access.
| Game | What the 2012 roundup emphasized | Payment or service model described at the time |
|---|---|---|
| PlanetSide 2 | Huge battlefields and large-scale shooter combat | Free and premium players; the roundup said weapon efficiency was a difference |
| World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria | New continent, race, class, detailed environments, dungeons, and pet battles | Expansion to the established World of Warcraft subscription game |
| The Secret World | Distinctive setting and potential, alongside concerns about content and bugs | Had recently dropped its subscription requirement |
| Rift: Storm Legion | A larger world, dynamic events, and route choices | Subscription service, as described by GamesBeat |
| Guild Wars 2 | Dynamic events and a less prescriptive approach to roles and loot | Subscription-free, sold for an initial purchase, according to a November 2012 PC Gamer review |
The comparison reflects descriptions and judgments in GamesBeat’s roundup and the cited contemporaneous Guild Wars 2 review. It is not an independently verified scoring system, and it does not establish comparable player counts or sales for the five games.
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How did each game take a different approach?
PlanetSide 2: MMO scale built around shooter battles
PlanetSide 2 made large-scale combat its central appeal. GamesBeat highlighted its huge battlefields and said free and premium players were on roughly equal footing, with weapon efficiency as a difference. That is the roundup’s contemporary judgment about the game—not a measured finding about balance.
The same review cautioned that the game could feel bewildering at first and that combat felt somewhat floaty. Those caveats point to the trade-off in its ambition: enormous battles offered scale, but did not necessarily make the experience immediately legible or precise for every player.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: more of the strengths fans knew
Mists of Pandaria followed the established expansion pattern: a new continent, race, and class, with detailed environments, challenging dungeons, humor, and pet battles. GamesBeat saw it as a particularly good fit for longtime World of Warcraft fans, rather than an expansion primarily designed to bring in newcomers.
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Its distinction was not a radical rewrite of the MMO structure. It was a return to familiar strengths, adding new places and activities for players already invested in the game.
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The Secret World: an unusual setting, with service concerns
GamesBeat praised The Secret World’s distinctive setting and potential, while also reporting concerns about bugs and the amount of content. The roundup noted that the game had recently dropped its subscription requirement. These are time-specific observations from 2012, not a claim about the game’s current service or condition.
Among the five, its identity rested especially on atmosphere and premise, while the contemporary review questioned whether the game’s content and technical state fully supported that promise.
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Rift: Storm Legion: a bigger world and evolving events
GamesBeat described Storm Legion as roughly doubling Rift’s world, expanding its dynamic events, and adding route choices intended to improve replayability. It also characterized Rift as one of the few subscription MMORPGs still operating alongside World of Warcraft.
That combination made Rift’s contrast twofold: it continued a subscription approach while trying to keep the world active and varied through events and branching choices.
Guild Wars 2: less rigid roles and a purchase-once model
GamesBeat highlighted Guild Wars 2’s lack of dedicated healers and traditional loot distribution. It argued that those choices made the game more welcoming to newcomers, though at the expense of some depth. A November 2012 PC Gamer review described it as a subscription-free MMORPG sold for an initial purchase, and pointed to dynamic events and open-world PvP.
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Instead of asking players to fit into familiar MMO roles and loot routines, Guild Wars 2 loosened those conventions. That could lower barriers to joining other players, while changing the kinds of coordination and specialization the game encouraged.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why payment models mattered in 2012
Payment structure was part of the MMO conversation that year, not just a detail beside combat and content. Game Developer’s 2012 retrospective described a shift in player expectations, pointing to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s move toward free-to-play and the subscription approaches of established games. That is the publication’s industry analysis, not a universal measurement of what every player wanted.
Star Wars: The Old Republic was not one of GamesBeat’s five picks. It is useful context because BioWare’s July 31, 2012 announcement said the game would add a restricted free-to-play option alongside subscription access. BioWare Austin general manager Matthew Bromberg said, “Players want flexibility and choice. The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic™ universe.” EA later announced that the free-to-play option went live on November 15, 2012.
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BioWare and Electronic Arts reported over 2 million copies sold and over 1.7 million active subscribers for The Old Republic on February 1, 2012. Those publisher-reported figures provide context for SWTOR, not a basis for ranking the five GamesBeat selections.
What “top” does—and does not—mean here
In this title, “top” refers to GamesBeat’s editorial selection of five notable MMOs in 2012. The cited material does not establish a shared metric such as player totals or sales with which to rank these five against one another. Nor do the available figures for SWTOR or World of Warcraft supply a comparable 2012 leaderboard.
For perspective beyond the year in question, Guinness World Records reports that World of Warcraft had 8.3 million players as of March 31, 2013, and a peak of 10 million subscribers in January 2008. Neither figure is a 2012 count, so neither determines GamesBeat’s 2012 choices.
Quick Recap
Sources
- GamesBeat, “The best MMOs of 2012” (December 27, 2012)
- PC Gamer, Guild Wars 2 review (November 2012)
- BioWare announcement on Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free-to-play option (July 31, 2012), and EA announcement of its launch (November 15, 2012)
- BioWare / Electronic Arts, Star Wars: The Old Republic sales and subscriber figures (February 1, 2012)
- Game Developer, 2012 retrospective on MMO payment models
- Guinness World Records, World of Warcraft player and subscriber figures
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