After significant delays, Throne & Liberty is heading into open beta on July 18th, and there’s a whole rundown of how players can take part. The good news is that you can pre-download on July 16th, progress will be accelerated so players can more easily reach the cap during the test, and voiceovers will be available in English, Japanese, or Korean. The bad news is that progress will not carry over to the main game, although you probably expected that.
Elsewhere in Betatopia, land of betas, Corepunk wrapped up its third alpha test and was proud to say it was better than the last one! Which is… not really a flex, but all right. The Quinfall has kicked off its second closed beta with even more fallen quins, and Pantheon is promising early access in December. How does that look for them? Well, the plan is to have six zones, so… it might not be launching when you’re out of money and hoping it gets over?
Darn it, I ended it on a depressing note again! I promised I wasn’t going to do that anymore! Darnarooni. Oh, well, maybe the full list of beta news down below along with our games in testing will bring you closure and joy. If you see something that shouldn’t be on the list or something incorrectly listed, let us know down in the comments!
Raph Koster lays out the (first) four pillars of design for his sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach
Crowdfunded MMORPG Pantheon Rise of the Fallen is launching early access in December
‘The era of the big raid has returned,’ superhero MMORPG Ship of Heroes declares
Throne & Liberty showcases character creation, dungeons, and PvP activities ahead of July 18 open beta
Legend of Ares, a PvP MMO from the mid-2000s, will relaunch next month
Corepunk coming to early access on November 26th, still requires ‘significant polishing in all directions’
Corepunk wraps up its 50,000 player alpha 3 test: ‘Better than the last one’
Pax Dei devs talk communication, transparency, updates, and… horses?
The Quinfall previews maritime activities and trading ahead of today’s second closed beta
Aetherian Chronicles is a side-scrolling MMORPG that lets players team up with others or LLM-powered bots
New World has delayed its Aeternum console closed beta two weeks to July 25
Star Citizen readies a returning community helping event, preps cargo updates and new event for alpha 3.24
Fractured will release next patch ahead of July 24 new server and full game launch
Echoes of Elysium’s ‘airship survival loop is nearly complete as a playable experience’
Team-based PvP FPS Concord preps beta test for this weekend
More than 4000 gamers killed 566K baddies in Monsters & Memories’ June playtests
Cutesy multiplayer life sim Galactic Getaway heralds a successful alpha, promises 2024 release
Wayfinder preps a huge quality-of-life patch as it journeys toward 1.0
Bellwright’s latest patch brings FSR support and another lengthy list of fixes and adjustments
Multiplayer dungeon crawler Dungeonborne launches into early access next week
Star Citizen showcases alpha 3.24’s Blockade Runner event and delayed cargo freight gameplay
Funcom says Conan Exiles’ dev cadence isn’t impacted by Dune Awakening
Fantastic Pixel Castle’s Project Ghost is still years out, but plans public playtest for ‘fairly soon’
Bitcraft explains the precise mechanics of starting and maintaining an Empire
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
Malingering33 Immortals: Closed testing
Abyss: Early access
The Adventurer’s Domain Online: Early access
Aero Tales Online: Early access
Age of Water: Early access
Anvil Empires: Intermittent alpha
Arcane Waters: Early access
Arcfall: Pre-alpha
ARK 2: Paid early access
Ashes of Creation: Alpha two in planning
Ashfall: Closed beta
ASKA: Early access
Battlebit: Early access
Battle Crush: Early access
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bellwright: Early access, developers of abandoned Last Oasis
Bitcraft: Alpha 2 on June 17th, 2024
Blue Protocol: Launching worldwide in 2024, technical tests starting November 8th
Book of Travels: Early access
Brighter Shores: Launch planned for Q3 2024, MMO scale not yet clarified
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta, planning to launch in late 2025
Chronicles of Elyria: Pre-alpha, again
Chrono Odyssey: Closed testing, plans for 2025
Cinderstone Online: Closed beta
City of Titans: Alpha
Concord: Launch for August 23rd, beta planned but unannounced
Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore: Early access
Corepunk: Early access planned for November 26th
Craftopia: Early access
The Crew Motorfest: Closed testing
Dark and Darker: Paid early access, legal troubles.
Dark and Light: Early access (abandoned?)
Darkbind: Closed beta (probably abandoned?)
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing, signups now
Dungeonborne>: Early access the week of July 15th
ECO: Early access, full launch planned in 2024
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Reinforced: Early access delayed for an indeterminate time
Enshrouded: Early access
Eternal Tombs: Closed beta in April
EVE Vanguard: Second beta ongoing
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing, updates stopping with a focus on a redesign
EverCraft Online: Weekend-long open test starts April 19th
Final Stand: Ragnarok: Early access (officially, really)
Fractured Online: Paid early access, launch this summer
Fractured Veil: Early access
FragPunk: Closed alpha June 27th
Frozen Flame: Early access
Havenhold: Second alpha June 20th
Ilysia: Early access
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Legend of Ares: Open testing ahead of relaunch
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Pre-alpha
Marvel Rivals: Closed alpha
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Nightingale: Early access
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Osiris: New Dawn: Back from the dead, not on Steam any longer
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Open beta
Palworld: Early access
Pantheon: Backer alpha, early access planned for December
Past Fate: Closed testing
Path of Exile 2: Alpha June 2024
Pax Dei: Early access
Perfect New World: Closed beta
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
Predecessor: Free-to-play open beta, yet another Paragon do-over
Project Crawl: Closed testing
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
Quinfall: Second closed beta
Return Alive: Closed beta
Reign of Guilds: Early access
SamuTale: “Paid closed alpha early access” according to the developer, which is just early access, come on dude
Seed: Active development
Seekers of Skyveil: Continuing alpha testing
Shadow’s Kiss: Early access (but read this first)
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Ships at Sea: Early access
Sky: Children of Light: Open early access
Smite 2: Signups open, second alpha weekend ongoing
Soulframe: “Pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha” testing wrapped up
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Stars Reach: Alpha testing in summer
Throne & Liberty: Live in South Korea, launching in the west September 17, open beta starts July 18th
Tombstone: Closed testing, release planned for this year
Tribes 3: Rivals: Early access, development slowing/stopping
Trimurti Online: Stress testing, open beta February 13th
Valheim: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
Vindictus: Defying Fate: Open testing
WalkScape: Closed beta until June 15th
Waven Early access
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.
