Some weeks, everyone is going whole-hog on beta developments. And some weeks you have two back-to-back holidays coming up so everyone decides “eh, let’s take it easy this week” and the big news is that Star Wars: The Old Republic is beta-testing its Mac launcher. That might seem a little less exciting than other news, but if it does, that might also be because you’re not playing on a Mac.
Wargaming’s Steel Hunters beta is on for one more weekend if you’re looking for a new mech multiplayer game. It seems as if “hunt” is an odd verb in this case being as steel is not found in the natural world, but maybe I’m misreading that and it means the hunters themselves are steel. That would make more sense. I wonder what they hunt. Ducks, maybe?
Finally, Stars Reach showed off its playtesting publicly for the first time, although you should be aware that “playtesting” does not mean “polished launch product,” which is why those phrases are spelled and pronounced differently. Also no ducks.
If you are all about hunting ducks, don’t look down in our roundup of beta news just below because you won’t find ducks there. We’re happy to let you check that out, just as we’re happy to let you find our list of games in testing just below. But there really aren’t any ducks there. Well, some of the games might have ducks, actually. Feel free to let us know if there are ducks in the comments down below, or let us know if something slipped into a new test phase.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s early access launch weekend saw over 2300 concurrent Steam players
Path of Exile 2 is adding inter-map fast-travel and a bunch of buffs and nerfs in its next update
Palia introduces snowball fights, in-game board games, and curtains in the Holiday Homestead update
Dune Awakening shares closed beta stats and answers questions about PvP death and Landsraad benefits
Corepunk’s servers have been offline for nearly three days as a result of database and infrastructure issues
Ghost promises it’s an MMO and not a lobby title, discusses wider gameplay and design plans
Nightingale’s winter update adds player-hosted servers, resource automation, and a new winter event
Star Citizen alpha 4.0 releases as a ‘preview’ version that runs parallel to the ongoing alpha 3.24.3
Wayfinder pumps out a quality-of-life patch with nightmare mode and Eventide holiday event
Co-op skyship survivalbox Echoes of Elysium will be published by Snail Games
Monsters & Memories announces plans for an eight-hour stress test December 21
The Stream Team: Cozy winter vibin’ in the Holiday Homestead of Palia
Ashes of Creation starts up the second phase of Alpha Two this weekend
Pax Dei plans another ‘cleaning session’ to wash away inactive build plots tomorrow morning
Sandbox MMORPG The Quinfall announces early access release date of January 25
There’s still no ETA for the return of Corepunk’s servers, but there are test shards up now
Digital Extremes delays Soulframe’s eighth prelude test phase into 2025
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 on January 15th, 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
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bellwright: Early access, developers of abandoned Last Oasis
Bitcraft: Third alpha starts the week of November 11th
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: Early access
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
King of Meat: Alpha test December 4th through the 14th
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Legend of Ares: Open testing ahead of relaunch
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Pre-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: Paid “open” beta
Palworld: Early access
Pantheon: Early access
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, early access planned for January 25th
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, plans for launch in 2025
Ships at Sea: Early access
Sky: Children of Light: Open early access
Skygard Arena: 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
Star Resonance: Closed beta in China, rebrand of Blue Protocol Mobile following main title’s shutdown
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Stars Reach: Pre-alpha started
Temtem Swarm: Early access
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
ZeroSpace: Public beta through November 24th
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.
