Betawatch: Eco evolves into open beta (February 9, 2018)

At long last, ECO has moved from alpha into beta and Early Access on Steam. Drop a little money on it and you can get into testing this blocky ecological simulation sandbox. Yes, it’s along the lines of Minecraft, but the goal here is simulating the influence you can have on ecological simulations. So you can insist to others that it’s educational and actually be right.
We’ve also had some other beta news this week, and as we do every week, we’ve assembled some highlights below in easy-to-read list format.
- The latest version of the Elite: Dangerous expansion beta brings the test version as close to the eventual live version as possible, so players involved in testing will be able to see more and do more with the next big update. Who doesn’t like that?
- On the other hand, any fans of upcoming mobile title Fellow: Eternal Clash will be sad to hear that the game’s beta test has been pushed back to March after originally being planned for this week. Who likes waiting longer?
- Fans of Starfall Tactics are going to need to wait a little longer, but not much longer; the title is having another test round starting on February 21st. There’s a lot of new stuff to test out in the latest build, too. Who wouldn’t be happy to test more things?
- All right, perhaps Dauntless fans would like to test fewer things and move closer to launch. Good thing the game has outlined its upcoming steps toward proper beta testing, then. Who isn’t happy for forward progress?
- Last but not least, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth alpha testing has begun, although as this is a proper alpha there’s still a bunch of stuff missing or not implemented. Still, that means you might find a lovely new gift of alpha access sitting when you open up your launcher. Who doesn’t like that?
All of the questions above, I promise, were purely rhetorical. You don’t need to answer them down in the comments. You can, however, let us know if something is wrong with the list below where we keep all of our important beta news. You can also let us know about betas you’re involved in testing, or talk about this week’s stories, or whatever you so desire. We’re flexible that way.