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]

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...

Multiplayer Viking-themed survival settlement manager ASKA begins its early access

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Surviving in a wilderness is never best done alone if at all possible, but there's one survivalbox that has you managing not just your...

Raph Koster’s nine Playable Worlds teasers (so far) hint at the MMORPG sandbox you always wanted

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As we covered earlier in the week, Raph Koster's studio Playable Worlds has been tweeting what appeared to be a countdown accompanied by a...

Funcom’s Joel Bylos explains why Dune Awakening is an actual, factual MMO

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In an era where game studios are either backpedaling on calling their MMOs "MMOs," it's refreshing to see one studio come outright and take ownership...

MMO sandbox Fractured bumps launch to later in the summer than anticipated

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Last night on Discord, Dynamight Studios' Jacopo Gallelli apologized to Fractured fans, telling them that among the eight-person staff, he was the person who...
This is not Permea.

Guild Wars 2 previews Janthir Wilds’ land spears for Elementalists, Mesmers, and Revenants

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Here we go: ArenaNet has finally dropped a dev blog on the final third of Guild Wars 2's classes destined for spear usage come...

SGF 2024: Previewing Funcom’s Dune Awakening, from PvP philosophy to the survival MMO label

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I must admit I went into Summer Game Fest with pretty low expectations. I was MOP's "E3 guy" back when E3 was a concern,...

Wayfinder’s new AMA covers monetization, 1.0 content, and reception to Echoes

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Now that Wayfinder's Echoes update is live with its new optional offline mode, the folks at Airship Syndicate have sat themselves down to talk...

The Stream Team: Peeking into Pax Dei and giving away two keys for the MMO

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Today has brought another game into the wilds of early access: It's Pax Dei release week, and MOP's Chris is going to take a...