You should get your whites whiter and your shores brighter when Brighter Shores goes into testing in late October ahead of a full release in November. Are you looking forward to that one? If so, well, there’s that to look forward to! Meanwhile, those of you looking for something that’s a little more friendly should keep your eyes on Project Friendship, which it turns out is indeed still progressing. It’s the cozier pseudo-MMO on the way from Spry Fox, if you’ve forgotten.
Meanwhile, Fragpunk’s closed beta is live, so if you were invited you can take part. Eternal Tombs is doing some of the ol’ testing this very weekend, and Scars of Honor is going to test again later this month. And we’ve removed Fractured Veil from our list, as the game has gone to ruin without ever having technically launched, so… that’s not good for fans. Or the people who made it. Or anyone, really.
I’d make another joke about how I have got to stop doing these stories sequentially, but for whatever reason the end of the intro is just the best place to put the smaller stuff. If it was bigger it probably wouldn’t have crashed and burnt, right? Maybe. Besides, you don’t want to hear me, you just want to get into our full roundup of games in testing below, or our list of prominent beta news this week. As always, let us know if something skipped test phases down in the comments!
Star Citizen shows off new character creation choices and successfully crams dozens of players into a tram
My Time at Evershine devs: Get our Kickstarter to $2.5M and we’ll leap past early access
Game dev accuses Fntastic of asset flipping to create its upcoming co-op platformer Escape Factory
ArcheAge Chronicles video highlights its acrobatic combat and vast persistent online world
Kickstarted survival sandbox Fractured Veil is sunsetting this week, having never left early access
Stars Reach’s world reshaping tool test rewarded curious players with ‘spectacular’ death
Pax Dei outlines adjustments to its landscape, enemies, and PvE progression in its next patch
Project Friendship, Spry Fox’s new cozy MMO, just opened tester signups
Valheim will introduce a new cooking and farming skill with its bog witch swamp biome update
Here’s the timeline for New World Aeternum preloading and launch by region and platform
EVE Online reveals Revenant expansion, EVE Frontier wraps up fourth test, EVE Vanguard plans ‘biggest update yet’
Colony sandbox MMO SEED is in ‘pre-release,’ plans October 24 test run
Pax Dei previews a journal feature ahead of a map geography revamp
Brighter Shores confirms November launch date following October 22 closed beta
Albion Online is offering big gold raffles for players who test Horizons this morning
Pax Dei weaves a lore-focused audio story of the creation of its world
Medieval MMO Anvil Empires introduces cargo ships to cross the ocean blue
Lord of the Rings Online begins testing its Legacy of Morgoth expansion
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
Arc Raiders: Launch in 2025, tech beta signups for October
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 Mobile: Closed beta in China, full game is shutting down
Book of Travels: Early access
Brighter Shores: Closed beta on October 22nd, November release planned
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
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
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
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
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 November 15th
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: “Pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha” testing wrapped up
The Spell Brigade: Early access
Spellfarers: Early access
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
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.
