It’s happening, folks: The Wagadu Chronicles is heading into early access on December 4th, just like the headline says. That means you’ll get your chance at seeing how the afro-fantasy game plays when it’s in your hand. Hopefully it’s really awesome! I’m excited and hopeful for it. We need more games in that genre! And more successful Kickstarter MMOs wouldn’t be unwelcome, either.
Meanwhile, Once Human is targeting its next beta test for December 7th if you’re more interested in weird open-world survival. It appears to be “weird” in the sense of “mutated monsters” rather than just being a deeply odd environment on its own, so that’s slightly less entrancing, but we’ll take what we can get.
Obviously there was more beta news this week; there always is, after all. And you can check it all out in our roundup just below, as well as our list of games in testing below that. Let us know if something slipped into a new test phase along the way down in the comments! That’s always cool. (When you let us know, not when it happens. You got it.)
Pax Dei announces ‘Home Valley’ alpha for next week, focusing on player housing
Ship of Heroes revamps targeting brackets and tab-targeting ahead of next test
Star Citizen’s Intergalactic Aerospace Expo free-to-play event returns November 17
Monsters & Memories schedules a short stress test for this Saturday
Wayfinder suffers layoffs as Digital Extremes transfers the game fully to Airship Syndicate
Wayfinder will ‘fast-track’ its plans to address experience progression complaints
Throne & Liberty elaborates on monetization and PvP concerns following its showcase video
Tarisland previews the Battle of Ancash raid and reintroduces the Warrior class ahead of November 15 closed beta
Greg Street’s Fantastic Pixel Castle hints at the possibilities of its ‘Ghost’ MMO in hour-long Q&A
Palia’s present patch provides popular personalization and plot perks
ArcheAge 2 confirms another delay and a focus from large-scale factional PvP to small group PvE and guild PvP
Kickstarted MMORPG sandbox Fractured Online relaunches early access on Steam today
Lost Skies’ latest dev blog features guns, ship pieces, angry mantas, and squishy materials
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen claims ‘solid forward momentum’ thanks to art change and 247 extraction mode
The Wagadu Chronicles confirms a Steam early access launch date of December 4
Perfect New World’s next test gets a new class, battle royale, new areas, and a November 14 start date
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
Battle Crush: Beta
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bitcraft: Alpha planned for 2024
Blue Protocol: Launching worldwide in 2024, technical tests starting November 8th
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: Next beta in November
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?)
The Day Before: Closed alpha, delayed until December
The Division Heartland: Closed testing
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Beta
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing, updates stopping with a focus on a redesign
Fae Farm: Closed testing, launch planned for September 8th
The First Descendant: Crossplay beta
Fractured Online: Paid early access, back on Steam
Fractured Veil: Back in closed development, early access delayed to 2024
Frozen Flame: Early access
Genfanad: Alpha
Ilysia: Early access
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Last Oasis: Early access (abandoned?)
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Closed testing
Monster Hunter Now: Closed beta
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Multiversus: Returned to closed testing
Nightingale: Ongoing closed events
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Once Human: Beta on December 7th
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Open beta
Pantheon: Intermittent backer alpha, new extraction spinoff
Past Fate: Closed testing
Path of Exile 2: Beta June 2024
Pax Dei: Closed alpha
Perfect New World: Closed beta starting November 14th
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
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: Beta delayed to 2024
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: Active development, playtest through October 29th
Seekers of Skyveil: Closed alpha on October 20th
Shadow’s Kiss: Early access (but read this first)
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Skull and Bones: Closed beta
Spellcraft: Alpha
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Tarisland: Second closed beta November 15th
Throne & Liberty: Korean closed beta, western launch delayed into 2024
Trimurti Online: Stress testing
Valheim: Early access
V Rising: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
The Wagadu Chronicles: Early access on December 4th
Warhaven: Early access
Waven Early access
Wayfinder Early access ahead of full launch
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.
