If you find yourself on Steam saying that you want the RuneScape–iest game the platform has before shaking your head and saying that no, RuneScape is too RuneScape-y, Hans Moleman style? Well, you’ll be happy to know that Brighter Shores is now in early access and you can give it a shot for free! Although there is what amounts to a subscription because, y’know. Developers gotta get paid, y’all. Our own Chris and Justin took it for a spin! They had things to say about it! Important things! You should read their articles.
You should also know that ArcheAge Chronicles has been delayed once more, which is probably the first time you remembered that this is what the game is now named instead of just ArcheAge 2 and that rename was a bad decision. But Ashes of Creation is spinning its second alpha test, and Stars Reach is now showing off the improvements it has already made along with a partial list of professions. So those are things to be happy about, even if delays are disappointing.
“Wait,” you cry, “I still need closure on those articles you mentioned about Brighter Shores!” And to that I say… you’ve got some nerve, bucko. Besides, I didn’t forget about you! Those articles are in our roundup of beta news this week just below, along with many more beta stories for you to marvel at. And below that? You know it’s our list of games in testing! As always, let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anything.
Star Citizen sees sales dip by a significant margin for the month of October
First Impressions: Brighter Shores has gobs of potential buried under mountains of grind
Stars Reach’s new trailer shows significant visual improvement – and a partial list of professions
Blockchain sandbox EVE Frontier’s next test challenges players to find artifacts starting November 7
MMO Hype Train: Brighter Shores is a totally chill RuneScape clone
Smilegate’s new survivalbox IfSunSets hits early access on Steam tomorrow
Ashes of Creation’s alpha two is underway as players tried to murder their own game director
The revived Jade Dynasty World plans Chinese open beta for next month
You can pet the animals in Enshrouded’s massive Souls of the Frozen Frontier update, live now
Star Citizen marks progress on alpha 4.0’s AI, server meshing, and backend tech in October report
Interview: Drakantos discusses multiplayer open world content, monetization, testing, and more
In-development OARPG Titan Quest 2 discusses its familiar mastery combo class system
Path of Exile 2 shares 30 minutes of gameplay footage from this year’s Tokyo Game Show
Brighter Shores explains its episode-specific professions design and asks players to ‘please give it a chance’
Soulframe is opening up its ‘preludes’ test phases for up to 10,000 more people a week
Brighter Shores officially launches into early access today, hoping to court RuneScape players
Age of Water’s ‘launch’ today was a technical glitch – the seafaring survival MMO is still in early access
Towers of Aghasba is a co-op survival RPG about restoring a tribe’s homeland from ruin
Pax Dei’s Proving Grounds update is set to launch today after a multi-hour delay to fix a building bug
Dofus updates server transfers and opens pre-registration for its upcoming Unity engine upgrade
Kakao Q3 2024: ArcheAge 2 aka ArcheAge Chronicles has been delayed yet again
Indie MMOARPG Drakantos releases new open world gameplay footage and plans for pet taming
Corepunk’s alpha is offline until tomorrow for a new update and wipe
MMO sandbox BitCraft is launching its third closed alpha next week
Chrono Odyssey narrows down its launch window to Q4 2025
Crimson Desert unveils a fight against Black Desert’s Hexe Marie in its new G-STAR playable demo
Monsters & Memories expands its team, aims for one last test this year
Hybrid hero shooter Supervive moves up its open beta to November 20
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, early access delayed to 2025
Abyss: Early access
The Adventurer’s Domain Online: Early access
Aero Tales Online: Early access
Age of Water: Early access
Aloft: Early access in January 2025
Ammo and Oxygen: Early access starts November 7th
Anvil Empires: Intermittent alpha
Arcane Waters: Early access
Arc Raiders: Tech beta live, launch planned for 2025
Arcfall: Pre-alpha
ARK 2: Paid early access
Ascendant: Open testing in August
Ashes of Creation: Alpha two
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: Third alpha starts the week of November 11th
Blue Protocol Mobile: Closed beta in China, full game is shutting down
Book of Travels: Early access
Brighter Shores: Early access
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta, planning to launch in late 2025
Chronicles of Elyria: Pre-alpha, again
Chrono Odyssey: Closed testing, launch planned for Q4 2025
Cinderstone Online: Closed beta
City of Titans: Alpha
Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore: Early access
Corepunk: Fourth alpha, 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?)
Dawn of Defiance: Early access
Destiny Rising: Closed alpha starts November 1st
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha, transitioning to Steam on October 10th
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: Pre-alpha resumes October 11th
EVE Vanguard: Early access planned post-November
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
FragPunk: Closed alpha
Frozen Flame: Early access
Havenhold: Second alpha June 20th
Homestead: Open alpha
IfSunSets: Early access
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 beta concluded, launching 2025
Midnight Murder Club: Closed testing this weekend
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Monster Hunter Wilds: Open beta
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Necesse: Early access
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: Early access December 6th
Pax Dei: Early access
Perfect New World: Closed beta
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
Project Crawl: Closed testing
Project F4E: Closed testing
Project Friendship: Beta signups open now
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: Third closed beta has ended
Return Alive: Closed beta
Reign of Guilds: Early access
Rodent Rumble: Launching next year, playtest on October 11th
SamuTale: “Paid closed alpha early access” according to the developer, which is just early access, come on dude
Scars of Honor: Next test October 26th
Seed: In pre-release, test run starts October 24th
Seekers of Skyveil: Continuing alpha testing, closed beta in September
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Ships at Sea: Early access
Sky: Children of Light: Open early access
Smite 2: 24/7 closed alpha for paying members
Soulframe: Open pre-alpha planned for 2025
The Spell Brigade: Early access
Spellfarers: Early access
Supervive: Open testing November 20th
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Stars Reach: Pre-alpha started
Temtem Swarm: Closed beta
Tombstone: Closed testing, release planned for this year
Tower of Aghasba: Early access planned for November 19th
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.
