This kill-happy year of 2016 has claimed a lot of lives, and the last week has also killed another game. Hero’s Song has been unceremoniously cancelled, with the studio shutting down and a call for all backers to collect refunds for any money invested. This may not have been unexpected news when it failed to succeed at either of its crowdfunding pushes, but it’s still sad news.
Meanwhile, whilst the rest of the world was quietly recuperating, some other interesting tidbits of beta news did come out this week:
- It turns out that Star Citizen is using Amazon’s Lumberyard and didn’t tell anyone. Huh. Chris Roberts specifically addressed the lack of transparency and the reasoning for the integration, so that’s unexpected. Kind of neat, really. More pertinently, the game’s 2.6 patch has launched, complete with the first build of the FPS module.
- A persistent demo build is up and running for Dogma: Eternal Night. Included in the build: character creation. Not included: anything else. Never to be included: a day/night cycle.
- Justice is coming, possibly raining from above. We’ll find out once the game details its beta cycle some time next year; the game has apparently been in the works for four years now.
- Conan Exiles is going to take you to school. War school. Yes, there is combat, and it’s going to be… well, exactly the sort of thing you’d think of given the surrounding franchise information.
- Last but not least, we’re in the final stretch before launch for Shroud of the Avatar, with the last work being done now to transition out of early access. That’s just good news for next year, now two ways about it.
And that wraps up our betas for the year. Of course, there’s still a list down below, and you can let us know if something switched test phases without us noticing… but for now, we’re just going to wait until 2017. You know, in two days. Here’s hoping for good news.
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: Open beta
Albion Online: Closed beta will last well into 2017
Boundless: Donor alpha
Camelot Unchained:Â Backer alpha
Children of Ur: Open alpha
Cloud Pirates: Closed beta
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: Open beta
Gloria Victis: Early Access on Steam
H1Z1:Â Paid early access, split into two games
HEX:Â Unofficial open beta
LawBreakers: Closed alpha
Life is Feudal: Closed beta
Line of Defense: Early access, removed from Steam
Master x Master: Alpha test
Mu Legend: Closed beta
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
Revelation Online: Closed beta
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: Closed alpha; formerly Das Tal
The Repopulation: Alpha offline, moving to the Unreal engine
Tree of Life: Open beta
Tribal Wars 2: Open testing
TUG: Steam early access alpha
Valiance Online: Alpha testing
Wild Terra: Steam early access
Worlds Adrift: Early access planned for Q1 2017
