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]

Monster Hunter World isn’t doing lockboxes or lootboxes either

34
Add Monster Hunter World to the pile of games that are standing against the exploitation of lockboxes and lootboxes. Multiple Monster Hunter devs told...

The Repopulation preps for ‘massive’ patch next week with world bosses and fishing tournaments

12
Mark your calendars for next Wednesday, November 8th, because this is the day that The Repopulation will get back on the patch train once...

Pantheon’s Brad McQuaid on alternate rulesets and multi-server MMOs

42
Pantheon's Brad McQuaid has another new blog post up - he's on a roll this week - this one on alternate rulesets in MMORPGs...

Wild West Online resets early access for November 15, still plans 2017 launch

17
Following all the delays and weirdness this past fall during which the game was declared "just not ready yet," the team behind Wild West Online...

Warframe developer Digital Extremes is building a new ‘free-to-play action MMO’

36
Sharp-eyed readers caught some interesting information in Digital Extremes' latest company report. The Warframe developer slipped in a line that it was working on a...

Dual Universe’s pre-alpha launch was ‘a huge and fantastic moment’

31
With limited-run tests on September 30th and October 21st, Dual Universe is taking small steps for dev-kind into the pre-alpha world. The team reports...
smacks

Crowfall shows off new UI windows (and some eye candy for the nerds)

6
"Boxy and functional" is not usually a compliment unless you want to get slapped or are describing a Volvo. But when it comes to...

Fortnite’s patch today adds mute to voice chat and boosts quest item drop frequency

1
Fortnite's smallish 1.8.1 update is live today, and probably the most important addition is actually something that helps you delete things from the game:...

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: Patch delay, avoiding the Chinese ban, and PUBG as a ‘multiplayer thriller’

5
Were you looking forward to the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds patch scheduled for today? Vaulting? Climbing? The new vertical maps? Sorry. It's not happening. Yet. "We had...

Wild West Online continues to postpone persistent alpha, posts female character render

10
Wild West Online's pattern of delays in its testing process continues. Back in August, the team behind this western MMO posted a schedule that...

The Stream Team: Doing Dauntless’ Dark Harvest

0
Just because it is All Saints' Day doesn't mean that that Halloween reveling is over! No, Massively OP's MJ will continue celebrating the season...

ECO drops a massive alpha build with world laws, player contracts, and fishing

3
It is high time that we check back in with ECO, that multiplayer world ecosystem simulator, because there's some major happenings going on in...

Black Desert adds militias and platoons, starts closed beta signups for Southeast Asia

3
Black Desert's November 1st update is sporting a couple of new ways for players to group up and pursue a common goal. The militia system...

Bless Online addresses Steam launch questions, but still has no public monetization plan

19
Pretty psyched that Bless Online is coming to the west on Steam in 2018? So are we! But there are many questions about this...

Hellgate: London revival project opens its alpha to everyone

36
Still finding yourself pining away for Hellgate: London on occasion -- or perhaps you missed out on it the first time around? This 10-year-old...

Indie vampire fantasy MMO Shadow’s Kiss has already reached its Kickstarter goal

22
Still bummed over the loss of World of Darkness and Revival? Shadow's Kiss may be for you. Last year, we covered the vampire fantasy...
wood

Ashes of Creation offers a peek at its Alpha Zero environment

14
Point the first: Can we all agree that "Alpha Zero" is a really cool name? It seems weird that we don't have dozens of...

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is heading to Xbox One in December

0
For too long, the Xbox One has not had nearly enough games in which you wander aimlessly through a town looking for guns before...

Project Genom is finally implementing questing and begins work on weather

0
Early access sci-fi MMO Project Genom has a dev team update that's bigger than it first appears. "The first small quest appeared on the...

Escape from Tarkov adds a small arsenal, eyes open beta, and celebrates Halloween

2
What happens when you take a city full of trigger-happy mercs and toss in even more weapons and instruments of destruction? Escape from Tarkov...

ADVERTISEMENT