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]

Dune Awakening explains why ‘spice is power’ for this upcoming survival MMO

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Even those most tangentially aware of the Dune franchise are aware that everyone in that setting is pretty crazy about spice. This resource fuels...

Star Citizen says alpha 3.23’s personal hangars would have made the game ‘literally unplayable’

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This past weekend, we reported on the news that Star Citizen had to delay the addition of personal hangars and other related gameplay elements...
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Nightingale confirms crafting and quality-of-life improvements with next patch

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While Victorian-era survivalbox Nightingale has mostly been focused on fixing things and adjusting features, the devs at Inflexion Games appear to be ready to...
yarr

Whatever happened to Wildcard’s pirate-themed sandbox MMO Atlas?

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It might be by design that we've collectively forgotten about Atlas, the piratical survival sandbox MMO by Wildcard substudio Grapeshot Games that was at...

Space exploration sandbox Starship Simulator successfully funds at over $497K

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Getting to command, tinker, fix, explore, decorate, and control your own detailed virtual spaceship looks even more promising with the recent news that FleetYard...
The windows

Tarisland opens a dedicated pre-registration website with milestones and quests

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Do you wish to pre-order Tarisland on the Windows? No, we're not making a joke or a typo, that's what the official dedicated pre-registration...
Somehow, Palpatine returned

Betawatch: World of Warcraft heads for another expansion test cycle with The War Within

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Like Oscar Isaac folding his arms and lowering his head with an exasperated sigh, we must report to you that somehow, World of Warcraft...

Past Fate projects early access launch sometime in the third or fourth quarter of this year

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Currently, the sandbox MMORPG Past Fate is in a closed alpha state (except for when it deigns to run open alpha tests). It would...

Fallout 76 begins the first phase of public testing for its Skyline Valley update

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What does a nuclear apocalypse do to a place like Shenandoah National Park? Fallout 76 players are now able to find out -- at...

Star Citizen pushes back alpha 3.23’s new hangars and cargo missions, adds in water physics instead

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For the past several weeks, Star Citizen has been talking up the features of its upcoming alpha 3.23, often calling it one of the...

World of Warcraft shares the patch notes for its first phase of The War Within alpha testing

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The time has come for those who signed up or bought in to test the next expansion of World of Warcraft: The self-described "public...

Ghost dev Brian Holinka broadly discusses the MMO’s combat model

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The name of Brian Holinka will very likely be familiar to MMORPG fans, primarily for his work as lead combat designer for World of...

V Rising demos its new Dracula-themed endgame zone, Ruins of Mortium

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Vampire survival sandbox V Rising continues its efforts to drum up hype as it seems certain to lap Valheim when it fully releases on...

Post-layoffs, Palia is celebrating its alpha anniversary with a new buyable bundle

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We've all been figuratively holding our breaths to see what would happen with Palia after the last month of mess, and now the game...
Meness and Ausrine, sittin' in a tree...

Not So Massively: Godsworn made me break my ‘no early access’ rule

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I'm pretty blasé about most monetization in games, but there are a few things that I don't like, and charging for early access is...

Fractured adds new playable demon races and cash shop with its May 8th Invasion update

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Dynamight Studios formally announced Fractured Online's next patch last night: Dubbed The Invasion, it heralds the arrival of two new player demon races, specifically...

Kickstarted MMORPG Legends of Aria is relaunching as Legends of Aria Classic on May 9

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When last we looked in on Legends of Aria, it was fading fast into unfortunate obscurity. The Kickstarted MMORPG - originally known as Shards...

The Quinfall will let you dress up your horse and have a hornet for a pet

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Gameplay videos are continuing to spill out from Quinfall, this time granting curious players a look at the current pet and mount systems that...

Last Oasis, four years in early access, finally releases its modkit and teases season 6 (again)

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Last Oasis has been a side-eye magnet in the MMO world for a few years now. The "woodpunk" survival MMORPG had the misfortune to...

Gaijin’s ocean adventure MMO Age of Water delays early access a week

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Gaijin's seafaring survival MMO Age of Water was intended to rolled into the smooth ocean of early access tomorrow, but it's choppy waters instead,...