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]

Prettiness!

The official guide to Blade & Soul’s January 19 launch

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Are you ready for Blade & Soul's launch on January 19th? Are you really ready? I mean, you might have played a lot of...

Project Gorgon gives away free gifts for the new year

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It's a very happy new year in Project Gorgon, as this week's patch brings not only a home for animal players but also free...

Divergence Online calls for an indefinite moratorium on ‘gaming yelp reviewer bullshit’

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Still waiting for Valve to approve Divergence Online for its inevitable Steam early access release? Stained Glass Llama's Ethan Casner is too. While we...

Origins of Malu is launching in stages early this year

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Wondering whatever happened to Origins of Malu? Apparently the devs were working elsewhere for a while but have now turned their attention back to...

Linkrealms announces winter beta, Steam early access in March

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Linkrealms developer Mythyn Interactive announced today that it's planning a Steam early access launch in March 2016 and as well as a fresh round of beta testing in...

ARK lets you hop around on a prehistoric kangaroo

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Bet when you woke up this morning you didn't know that you were going to learn what a Procoptodon was. Well you are right...

Oculus Rift will begin accepting preorders this week

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All right! Who's ready to hand over what will likely be more than $350 for virtual reality equipment? Oculus announced today that pre-orders for the...

First impressions of Black Desert’s closed beta test, part two: Crafting, gathering, and economy

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On Friday, I took a look at the classes, combat, and tricky mechanics of upcoming sandboxy Korean-import Black Desert's first western closed beta test....

Hardcore sci-fi sandbox Divergence Online preps for Steam early access launch

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Sci-fi sandbox Divergence Online is on the way to Steam's early access program -- at least, it will be when someone at Valve wakes...

Escape from Tarkov starts taking preorders

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Gear up, mercenaries: Escape from Tarkov has started taking preorders for four different game packages, even though the title hasn't gone into testing yet. The...
Hello? HELLO? AVON CALLING!

Shroud of the Avatar previews the towns of Resolute and Aerie

6
The new year is here, and it brings with it the promise of more content and options in Shroud of the Avatar. Not in...

Valiance Online tests new client-to-server architecture, previews new website

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Crime never sleeps and superhero MMOs never take a holiday from patching. Valiance Online has been hard at work whipping up a couple of new...

The Underground is a cute 2-D sandbox

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"Do anything, craft anything, be anything." That's the promise of The Underground, a 2-D MMO that harkens back to an earlier era of online game...

How to abuse Blade and Soul’s character creator for evil and amusement

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There are two types of MMO gamers when it comes to character creation. The first group attempts to craft a character that looks terrific...
Make My MMO

Make My MMO: Crowfall’s big reveal (January 2, 2016)

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This week in MMO crowdfunding news, crowdfunding is dead. Just kidding. But a whole lot of you said you're not planning on Kickstarting anything...

City of Titans gives a glimpse of its character creator, hints at 2016 testing

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City of Titans doesn't seem to mind that some of its demo videos came to light over the past month, although the studio said that...
Yes please.

Betawatch: Vessels, crows, and testing schedules for Crowfall (January 1, 2016)

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This week wasn't just the end of a year, it was the start of a long string of news from Crowfall before testing resumes...

The9’s CEO is throwing over a million bucks at Chinese Firefall players

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It's kind of a nail-biting time to be looking in from the outside when it comes to Red 5 Studios and Firefall. The past...
I can see you now.

First impressions of Black Desert’s closed beta test: Classes, combat, and mechanics

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Over the course of my first day in Black Desert, I did a lot of the things you'd expect from the first day in...

Dogma: Eternal Night shows sewer demo

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Dogma: Eternal Night is not about to let a failed Kickstarter campaign get it down. After admitting to a "difficult year" in 2015, Prelude...