Good news, everyone, Wayfinder has found the way. Specifically, it has found the way to charge people for early access ahead of its free-to-play launch by opening up for early access to anyone who buys a founder’s pack. Whether or not it can also find the way to San Jose is another discussion, as is the eternal question of if it will or will not take you to Funkytown.
Meanwhile, Sky: Children of the Light has launched its Steam page not in an effort to find anything but so that others can find it as it works on setting a concurrency record when the game arrives on PC. That’s aiming for August 25th, so mark that on your calendar! And if you find yourself thinking that the game reminds you of Journey, well, yes.
In other news, I have found myself listening to that low-quality Funkytown track on repeat for four hours. Let’s just hurry along to the list of games in testing just below, after our roundup of all the important beta news that’s happened this week. Is it as important as a low-poly cat model? Probably much more important, but in another fashion, not at all.
Project ST is a team vs. team shooter where players try to take down the opposition’s giant robot
Severed Lands is an upcoming sandbox MMORPG that seeks to combine PvE and PvP play
Wayfinder’s early access starts August 15 for founder’s pack purchasers
Cabal Return of Action is an auto-playing mobile version of MMORPG Cabal Online
Ship of Heroes’ latest video demos its inspiration-like infusion system for buffs
Sky Children of the Light opens its Steam page, prepares for public PC testing with a world record concurrency attempt
Fractured’s PvP-centered server war relaunch pretest has begun and runs through July 30
Ankama’s Waven heads to early access on August 16 – here’s the new trailer
Palia shares an hour of crafting, gathering, exploring, and multiplayer gameplay footage in livestream
Nightingale recaps its most recent playtest and dishes on future plans
Survival MMO Coreborn Nations of the Ultracore officially hits early access today
Evercore Heroes struggles to get enough matches going in its paid closed beta
Fractured Veil completes its Unreal Engine upgrade, puts founder’s pack bundles up for sale
Ashes of Creation provides a dev blog look at its high-tier freehold housing system
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 often 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, nor will games that are NFT/blockchain scams; we also do not list expansions, with occasional exceptions. Finally, we’ll mark games “malingering” if they’ve been in a certain tier of development for a long time with no clear path to launch.
Open testing
Closed testing
Paid access
Legit MMORPG
Multiplayer
MalingeringThe Adventurer’s Domain Online: Early access
Aero Tales Online: Early access
Age of Water: Paid closed beta
Anvil Empires: Intermittent alpha
Arcane Waters: Early access
Arcfall: Pre-alpha
ARK 2: Closed testing
Ashes of Creation: Alpha two in planning
Ashfall: Closed testing
Battlebit: Early access
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bitcraft: Closed alpha incoming
Blue Protocol: Launching worldwide in 2024
Book of Travels: Early access
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta
Chronicles of Elyria: Pre-alpha, again
Chrono Odyssey: Closed testing
Cinderstone Online: Closed beta
City of Titans: Alpha
Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore: Early access
Corepunk: Closed alpha
Craftopia: Early access
The Crew Motorfest: Closed testing
Dark and Light: Early access (abandoned?)
Darkbind: Closed beta (probably abandoned?)
Dawnlands: Closed beta on June 24th
The Day Before: Closed alpha (delay drama)
The Division Heartland: Closed testing begins on June 27th
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Beta
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing
Fae Farm: Closed testing (delayed)
Fractured Online: Paid beta access
Fractured Veil: Back in closed development
Frozen Flame: Early access
Genfanad: Alpha
Ilysia: Alpha two
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Last Oasis: Early access (abandoned?)
Lost Skies: Closed testing
Monster Hunter Now: Closed beta
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Multiverse: Returned to closed testing
Nightingale: Meep
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Closed alpha, closed beta starts August 2nd, open beta on August 10th
Pantheon: Intermittent backer alpha
Past Fate: Closed alpha
Path of Exile 2: Beta soon, announcement expected July 28th
Pax Dei: Closed alpha
Perfect New World: Closed beta
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
Project F4E: Closed testing
Project Genom: Closed alpha (servers offline, abandoned?)
Project Gorgon: Early access beta
Project Loki: Closed beta
Project ST: Open test weekend through July 24th
Prosperous Universe: Early access
Return Alive: Closed beta
Reign of Guilds: Intermittent open beta
SamuTale: Closed alpha
Seed: Alpha (drama, crypto link and weird comms blockout?)
Shadow’s Kiss: Early access (but read this first)
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Skull and Bones: Closed alpha
Spellcraft: Alpha
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Tarisland: Beta
Throne & Liberty: Korean closed beta
Valheim: Early access
V Rising: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
The Wagadu Chronicles: Alpha two
Warcraft Arclight Rumble: Closed alpha
Waven: Early access on August 16th
Wayfinder: Early access on August 15th
We welcome additions and corrections to this list; send your info our way via tips!
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.
