Yes, after all the waiting, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was announced to be going into alpha testing and then finally did so. If you care about the game, you’re in one of two states, either celebrating that you got into the test by playing or wailing and gnashing your teeth in frustration. You can go ahead and guess where our individual staff has fallen in that spectrum, but I need to go give my teeth a break from all the gnashing.
Other beta news! In list form! It’s a thing.
- It turns out that Virtuverse is now in free public early access testing! If you’re not clear on what that is, you can check out the trailer for this third-person action MMO over hither.
- There’s another MU title, somehow; MU Archangel is starting registration for its closed beta. Apparently this one is more mobile?
- Dino Squad is now in open beta. It is a PvP shooter in which you control dinosaurs with weapons strapped to them. What else do you want?
- More people are getting invited into Blue Protocol’s closed beta in Japan, so that’s still humming along there. (And you don’t need to gnash your teeth or wail if you’re not getting invited if, you know, you don’t live in Japan.)
- Last but not least, the Twitch viewership metrics for Valorant seem quite favorable… which makes sense when you consider that this was part of the only path to getting keys into the beta.
There’s probably something in there you care about, but if not, you could also see how much you care about all of the various titles down in the list below. Caring is good. You can also let us know how much you care about us with a tip of the hat if something has been unexpectedly jumped in phases without us catching it.
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
Arcfall: Pre-alpha
Ashes of Creation: Alpha one testing in May; Apocalypse early access has ended
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta one
Children of Ur: Open alpha, further development merged with Eleven
Crowfall: Backer pre-alpha, alpha now expected in 2020
Cube World: Closed beta since September 23rd
Dauntless: Open beta
Dark and Light: Early access
Dual Universe: Alpha
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Elyon: Korean beta (fka Ascent Infinite Realm)
Ever, Jane: Open beta
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Gloria Victis: Early access on Steam
Guardians of Ember: Open beta
Hearthstone Battleground Mode: Open beta
Inferna: Early access
Life is Feudal: Early access
Line of Defense: Early access, removed from Steam
Magic: Legends: Beta testing in 2020
New World: Closed alpha, launching May 2020
Occupy White Walls: Early access
Osiris: New Dawn: Open beta
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Pantheon: Backer pre-alpha
Pathfinder Online: Subscription “early enrollment”
Phantasy Star Online 2: Open beta on Xbox One, PC version expected
Project Genom: Closed alpha, servers offline for restructuring with SpatialOS
Project Gorgon: Early access beta
Prosperous Universe: Early access
Saga of Lucimia: Closed alpha
SamuTale: Closed alpha
Ship of Heroes: Alpha
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Temtem: Early access
The Black Death: Early access alpha
The Cycle: Alpha, weekly test cycle
The Repopulation: Early access alpha
Torchlight III: Closed alpha
Valiance Online: Alpha
Yes, MMO gamers, you too can perform the unpaid quality-control work otherwise known as game testing! Check out Massively Overpowered’s Betawatch every week for a run-down of MMOs that are still on the road to launch, even if they appear to have set up a permanent residence in a shed called early access.
