The sheer mention that Ashes of Creation is going to stop selling pre-orders in some fashion is kind of astonishing. Like, that’s kind of the perpetual sales engine Kickstarted titles run on, right? But the developers have announced that they’ve got enough testers, and rather than flooding the game with people, they’d rather stop selling and see if they need more public testers moving forward. That’s a bit surprising! In a good way.
Meanwhile, did you remember that Diablo Immortal was technically in beta testing on PC? Because it did in fact officially launch (you’re thrilled, I’m sure). Palia moved to open beta, Dawnlands launched, Tales of Yore launched, and Warcraft Arclight Rumble changed its name, which is definitely going to improve people’s perception of that. All good here, we promise.
Does that sound like this was a big week? Because it was. We’ve even got more stuff going on below in our roundup of beta stories, and our list of games in testing has been updated with the latest events. Check it all out below, and if something slipped our notice amidst the week’s hustle and bustle, let us know down in the comments.
World of Titans plans ‘major facelift,’ November 2023 release, and closed testing soon
Star Citizen will now invite players into its PTU based on their activity in an effort to stress test builds
First impressions: Palia is a half-baked project that could rise to be a masterpiece
Cubio is a ‘fully featured sandbox game creation platform’ headed for alpha testing soon
Viking-themed survival ‘tribe builder’ ASKA begins multiplayer closed beta August 11
Palia’s open beta is officially underway as S6 calls it a ‘marathon’ it’ll run ‘one update at a time’
BitCraft developer releases source code for its SpacetimeDB backend engine to everyone on Github
Palia contends with technical and progression issues as its open beta kicks off today
Monsters & Memories spends July refining a dungeon, zones, character models, and backend tech
Indie time-travel MMO Into the Echo releases interactive lore website experience
Diablo Immortal launches a PvP event, temporarily changes gem drop rates, and makes its PC release
Survival MMO-lite Dawnlands launches to a righteous roasting on Steam
Ashes of Creation has enough testers, prepares to stop selling pre-order packs
Dark and Darker launches into paid early access in spite of ongoing legal battle with Nexon
NCsoft Q2 2023: Throne & Liberty delayed as revenues, mobile games, and MMOs decline
Throne & Liberty’s Western release delays into 2024, adds action combat
Blizzard’s Warcraft Arclight Rumble is soft launching as Warcraft Rumble
Pixelart MMO Tales of Yore officially launches out of early access
Star Citizen sees roughly $55M in crowdfunding to date this year as it nears $600M in total
Ubisoft’s mobile Division Resurgence delays its next beta phase for ‘refinement’
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 beta
ASKA: Closed beta
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 Darker: Paid early access,
Dark and Light: Early access (abandoned?)
Darkbind: Closed beta (probably abandoned?)
The Day Before: Closed alpha (delay drama)
The Division Heartland: Closed testing
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Beta
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing
Fae Farm: Closed testing (delayed)
The First Descendant: Beta in September
Fractured Online: Paid beta access
Fractured Veil: Back in closed development
Frozen Flame: Early access
Genfanad: Alpha
Ilysia: Beta one delayed yet again
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: Ongoing closed events
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Open beta
Pantheon: Intermittent backer alpha
Past Fate: Open alpha weekend through July 31st
Path of Exile 2: Beta June 2024
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: Closed testing, open event ended
Prosperous Universe: Early access
Return Alive: Closed beta
Reign of Guilds: Intermittent open beta
SamuTale: “Paid closed alpha early access” according to the developer, which is just early access, come on dude
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, western launch delayed into 2024
Valheim: Early access
V Rising: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
The Wagadu Chronicles: Alpha two
Warcraft Rumble: Soft launching, changed name, everything is fine
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.
