When City of Heroes closed, fans moved on to many places, one of which was the “Plan Z” category of games that were meant to make spiritual sequels. Valiance Online is one such game, and it has announced both its launch business model and its upcoming alpha. Congratulations to the team on that one!
Of course, that was hardly the only bit of test-based news this week. Don’t believe me? Why not have a peek at some more stories, then?
- The open beta for AdventureQuest 3D is kicking off on October 18th. Mostly. Some platforms will get it before others. That’s still open beta, but it makes sense to hedge bets, sort of.
- Trion announced that RIFT’s Starfall Prophecy expansion will enter open beta on October 13th.
- Bless Online is starting its closed beta! In Russia. Not here. Put down the pitchforks.
- Wild Terra is wilding (yes, I know, that’s not a verb) its way on to Steam on December 1st, complete with PvP and skill revamps before then. There’s nothing to indicate that this will include adding giant robots to the game, but there’s nothing to indicate it won’t, either.
- SamuTale is in closed alpha and just added an update full of horses. How many horses? All the horses. And you should stay on those horses because otherwise roving bands of horse death will descend on them. I wish that was a joke.
- Eco‘s next alpha update is being bumped to October 24th to finish refining everything and accurately modeling the interplay of biomes. So you’ll have to wait a little while longer on that.
- It’s also the first anniversary of Armored Warfare‘s open beta, which… well, it seems like that’s the point when you’d just call it “launch,” but be that as it may. There are events to accompany that, because of course there are.
And as always, there’s a list of games below covering the stuff that’s in various test phases around the MMO universe. Is there something missing that should be there, or something that quietly shifted phases without us noticing? Let us know down in the comments.
As always, we consider an MMO to be in open testing if it features free, public signups and will server wipe prior to launch. An MMO is marked in closed testing if it’s running a private test phase that cannot freely be accessed by the general public; it’s usually under NDA as well. Early access and crowdfunded MMOs whose tests we deem legitimate will be included. So-called “open beta” soft-launch MMOs with cash shops, no sign of launch in the west, or limited interest for our readers will not be listed; we also do not list expansions, with occasional exceptions.
AdventureQuest 3D: Closed beta, open beta on October 18th
Albion Online: Closed beta, final test starts August 1st
Boundless: Donor alpha
Camelot Unchained:Â Backer alpha
Children of Ur: Open alpha
Crossout: Closed beta
Crowfall: Backer pre-alpha
Cube World: Closed alpha
DayZ: Early access
Divergence Online:Â Alpha
Eleven:Â Closed alpha
Ever, Jane: Open beta
Fragmented: Early access
Gigantic: Closed beta
Gloria Victis: Early Access on Steam
H1Z1:Â Paid early access, split into two games
Hero’s Song: Alpha in October
HEX:Â Unofficial open beta
LawBreakers: Closed alpha
Life is Feudal: Closed alpha
Line of Defense: Early access, removed from Steam
Master x Master: Alpha test
MyDream: Closed testing open to donors
Origins of Malu:Â Development suspended
Osiris: New Dawn: Early access
Paladins: Closed beta
Paragon: Open beta
Pathfinder Online: Subscription “early enrollment”
Project Genom: Closed alpha
Project Gorgon: Free, open testing
SamuTale: Closed alpha
Shards Online: Pre-alpha
SkySaga: Ongoing NA and UK alpha events
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Stash: Backer alpha
The Black Death: Early access alpha
The Culling: Early access testing
The Exiled: Ongoing alpha tests, summer alpha currently active; formerly Das Tal
The Repopulation: Alpha offline, moving to the Unreal engine, survival spinoff Fragmented in early access
Tree of Life: Open beta
Tribal Wars 2: Open testing
TUG: Steam early access alpha
Valiance Online: Alpha testing
Wild Terra: Steam early access on December 1st
