Whenever I hear the title Fellowship, I think about that video about how cats are praised for fellowship, which reminds me of the fact that my own cats have separation anxiety from me when I run to the bathroom or go buy groceries. However, the game in question is not about cats but about distilling the MMORPG dungeon experience. How you can do that without cats I don’t know, but you can check it out in our preview of the game ahead of early access.
Meanwhile, Ultima Online continues testing its new server ruleset with the second New Legacy test weekend, which should delight and astonish players hoping for a new way to get into the oldest MMORPG in town. (We don’t have footnotes, so I can’t add any, but feel free to imagine some for that particular flag.) Erenshor has also sent out its first wave of public test invitations, and Immortal: Gates of Pyre has started a new playtest this weekend with custom lobbies and new maps to play on.
It’s always kind of fun when the Betawatch intro is more about news that doesn’t have a separate news post to link because that means nearly everything you’re going to see down in our roundup just below will be new and exciting! Unless you’ve been reading it scrupulously over the week, but then our list of games in testing will be new and exciting! Unless you peeked at that first, in which case maybe you have something new and exciting to share in the comments, like anything that’s listed incorrectly in that list. You understand.
Raph Koster on designing and defining Stars Reach: ‘The Tragedy of the Commons is a lie’
Hands-on with Arc Games’ Fellowship, a new game trying to distill the MMORPG dungeon experience
Not So Massively: Stormgate was not ready for early access
Ultima Online’s New Legacy and crackdown on third-party clients have vets rioting
Palia’s latest update rewards gamers for building – and touring! – player houses
StarCraft II-inspired multiplayer RTS Immortal Gates of Pyre plans Steam playtest this weekend
Ashes of Creation previews its Bard class, announces Alpha Two’s release in October
Pax Dei promises another round of ‘plot clean up’ – but will not be offering character transfers for now
Predecessor, the Paragon spinoff MOBA, confirms a full release from early access August 20
Dark and Darker Mobile begins its global beta test
RuneScape founder’s MMO Brighter Shores hints at detective profession en route to Q3 launch
The Stream Team: Peeking in on the early access multiplayer life RPG Spellfarers
Star Citizen takes a look at the space stations, asteroid bases, and FFA PvP of alpha 4.0’s Pyro system
Corepunk is dispatching preorder keys today ahead of next week’s alpha
Cozy multiplayer life sim Spellfarers conjures up an early access launch
Chrono Odyssey shares combat impressions from a recent small-scale test
Crowdfunded multiplayer RTS Stormgate enters headstart today ahead of its August free-to-play launch
Project Gorgon buffs Necromancers, preps mount cosmetics, and fixes AOE issues
Brighter Shores posts a candy rope timeline of its development, asks players to not try to eat it
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
Ascendant: Open testing in August
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
ECO: Early access, full launch planned in 2024
Eleven: Closed alpha
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)
Fellowship: Closed testing on August 15th
Fractured Veil: Early access
FragPunk: Closed alpha
Frozen Flame: Early access
Havenhold: Second alpha June 20th
Homestead: Open alpha
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
Mecha Break: Open bega August 10th
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Nightingale: Early access
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, launches August 20th
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
Spellfarers: Early access
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 through July 23rd
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.
