Alphas & Betas

MMOs in various stages of testing and crowdfunding, playable and… not. Don’t forget to follow our Betawatch and Make My MMO columns for a weekly rundown. [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Pax Dei addresses more bugs, appeals to content creators, and outlines ‘DNS debacle’

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Pax Dei continues to provide updates both general and granular across its various communications channels, though the one that most players will likely care...

Palia’s Bloomin’ Bounties patch gives players loot and cheevos for partying up

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Against all odds, Palia and its slimmed-down development team are pushing forward to flesh out the cozy mini-MMO, as the Bloomin' Bounties patch rolls...

Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds teases housing, planetary governance, and languages for the unnamed MMORPG sandbox

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It's pretty clear now that Raph Koster and Playable Worlds are not just counting down to something dumb and we're going to get something...

Pokemon Company’s threat of potential legal action against Palworld appears to have fizzled out

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During the height of Palworld's popularity, gamers threw a lot of accusations in the direction of developer Pocket Pair, claiming plagiarism of Pokemon's designs...

Fractured’s latest early access patch adds an optional sub, token exchange, and cosmetic perks

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As promised, Fractured Online is rolling out patch B.2.1 today. It's got a low-key name, but it's a pretty sizable offering out of the...

Greg Street’s Ghost dev studio talks prototypes and progress from a recent ‘innovation week’ session

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The way Fantastic Pixel Castle is putting together its upcoming MMO Ghost certainly appears to be quite different from the usual game dev trajectory....

Corepunk preps for an early July alpha test with some massive changes

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The next bout of testing for mixed genre Corepunk is almost upon us, as studio Artificial Core prepares a third alpha test to run...

Guild Wars 2’s new housing looks like WildStar’s islands plus the old Hall of Monuments

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Ever since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2's Janthir Wilds expansion, there's been considerable debate among core Guild Wars 2 players and dedicated MMORPG housing...

Anvil Empires shares improvements to the game world’s natural features and fort building

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When you're trudging through the fields in Anvil Empires, it's probably a good idea to stop and smell the flowers... or at least appreciate...

The Stream Team: Returning to co-op FPS Starship Troopers Extermination

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It's been quite some time since MOP's Chris has gotten out into the bug-infested firefights of Starship Troopers: Extermination, and since he's in the...

SMITE 2 readies its third alpha weekend for June 27 with three more characters in tow

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Third time's the charm, or at least the next in a series of steps for SMITE 2, as the MOBA has tied down some...

‘Single-player MMORPG’ Erenshor adds cloud saves, improved friendly AI, and Steam Deck support to its demo

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Near the middle of last year we started reporting on Erenshor, a game that attempts to recreate the experience of playing a classic MMORPG...

Age of Water makes tweaks to trader resources, research, post office rewards, and dolphin sightings

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The water world of Age of Water continues to get adjusted and tweaked by Three Whales Studio, as the nautical survivalbox (survival bathtub?) continues...

Diablo IV opens public testing of Season 5’s new activities and quality-of-life June 25

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Diablo IV has barely had time to let its Season 4 release settle and it's already gearing up for Season 5, and if you're...

The Stream Team: A fresh start in the survival sandbox of Palworld

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Do you ever get the desire to hit the reset button on life? That's kind of what MOP's Chris is experiencing this Sandbox Saturday...
Duel.

Betawatch: Tarisland launches, ASKA and Pax Dei open early access

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We're saying farewell to Tarisland from our Betawatch listing for all the right reasons: The MMORPG officially launched this morning, meaning its beta is...

Anime hero shooter Second Wave and its developer shut down after a disastrous dev cycle

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Over the course of last year, we had been reporting on Second Wave, an anime-styled hero shooter MOBA from developer Challengers Games that looked...

Slayscape, the procedurally generated battle royale RPG from Shroud of the Avatar’s execs, opens its Steam page

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The weird tale of Slayscape continues to unfurl. As a refresher, this self-described blend of battle royale, extraction FPS, and "RPG flavor" with procedurally...

EVE Vanguard engages its latest subscriber-only playtest with new map and mechanics

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Yesterday wasn't just the summer solstice; it was also the start of the Solstice event/playtest for EVE Vanguard, the integrated FPS mode of EVE...

‘Co-op PvE space adventure’ Jump Ship shares 10 minutes of gameplay from the devs

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At the top of last April we got new word on Jump Ship, an upcoming "mission-based co-op PvE space adventure" from Keepsake Games that...