If you didn’t believe that Skull and Bones would ever hit open beta, or really any beta, you aren’t alone. I have been making this joke for the past several weeks. But when we’ve even had a stream showing off the game’s open beta, it is possible that the game has actually gone into something resembling an open beta. It may, in fact, be true. I know, I’m just as disturbed as you are, in no small part because now I’ll have to figure out a new joke. Maybe something about dolphins?
Elsewhere, Nightingale has not been delayed again (shocking everyone who has followed this title) and is in fact launching its early access earlier than originally planned. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. We’ve even got Trimurti planning an open beta for February 13th! Stuff is in motion.
Despite what we may have thought going into this list, there has actually been tons of stuff going down in the wild world of betas this week; you can see it from the list just below. You can also see our full list of games in testing below that, and you can let us know if something is missing or skipped to a new test phase without us catching it in the comments. Those are still further below that. Below that is the footer. There’s stuff there, too, although I don’t think I need to explain it to you here.
Scars of Honor is a throwback to the ‘golden age’ of MMOs with a $200K Kickstarter
Not So Massively: Stormgate isn’t delivering a revolution (yet)
Nightingale, counting nearly 50K testers, is launching early access two days earlier than originally planned
Palworld vows to keep servers online ‘without regard to cost’ (despite monthly cost of nearly half a million dollars)
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen shifts to a six-week seasonal dev cadence with boosted backer accessibility
Star Citizen’s Cloud Imperium teases upcoming alpha 3.23’s possible features
Dune Awakening’s latest video snippet is all about playing both solo and with friends
Tencent’s Tarisland drops a video guide to its Ranger class
Enshrouded’s first major patch addresses bugs, crashes, multiplayer stability, and world reset timing
Star Citizen begins its Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year, and free fly events for February this weekend
Wayfinder previews interface quality-of-life and damage reduction balancing
Trimurti Online joins Steam Next Fest with a demo build today, plans open beta February 13
Monsters & Memories recaps player testing – and teases in-game housing
Indie MMO sandbox Fractured Online unveils its Endgame Changer patch coming February 21
Players rolled nearly 50K characters during Nightingale’s stress test last weekend
Lord of the Rings Online U39 hits Bullroarer for Corsairs of Umbar instance and raid testing
Star Citizen firms up April’s alpha 3.23 features and recounts development progress for January
Tarisland discusses its business model and in-game economy in a new video
The Stream Team: Sailing the open beta seas of Skull and Bones
Two weeks into early access, Kickstarted survivalbox Fractured Veil patches up and merges servers
Myth of Empires’ epic new trailer teases biomes, building construction, and warfare
Throne & Liberty KR holds its first PvP siege and explains the activity’s mechanics
We consider an MMO to be in open testing if it features free, public signups and will server wipe prior to launch. An MMO is marked in closed testing if it’s running a private test phase that cannot freely be accessed by the general public; it’s often under NDA as well. Early access and crowdfunded MMOs whose tests we deem legitimate will be included. So-called “open beta” soft-launch MMOs with cash shops, no sign of launch in the west, or limited interest for our readers will not be listed, nor will games that are NFT/blockchain scams; we also do not list expansions, with occasional exceptions. Finally, we’ll mark games “malingering” if they’ve been in a certain tier of development for a long time with no clear path to launch.
Open testing
Closed testing
Paid access
Legit MMORPG
Multiplayer
MalingeringAbyss: Closed alpha
The Adventurer’s Domain Online: Early access
Aero Tales Online: Early access
Age of Water: Paid closed beta
Anvil Empires: Intermittent alpha
Arcane Waters: Early access
Arcfall: Pre-alpha
ARK 2: Paid early access
Ashes of Creation: Alpha two in planning
Ashfall: Closed beta
ASKA: Closed beta
Battlebit: Early access
Battle Crush: Beta
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bitcraft: Alpha planned for 2024
Blue Protocol: Launching worldwide in 2024, technical tests starting November 8th
Book of Travels: Early access
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta
Chronicles of Elyria: Pre-alpha, again
Chrono Odyssey: Closed testing
Cinderstone Online: Closed beta
City of Titans: Alpha
Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore: Early access
Corepunk: Early access planned for end of winter
Craftopia: Early access
The Crew Motorfest: Closed testing
Dark and Darker: Paid early access, legal troubles.
Dark and Light: Early access (abandoned?)
Darkbind: Closed beta (probably abandoned?)
The Day Before: Early Access going great
The Division Heartland: Closed testing
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing, signups now
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Beta
Enshrouded: Early access
EVE Vanguard: First beta test concluded
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing, updates stopping with a focus on a redesign
Fae Farm: Closed testing, launch planned for September 8th
The First Descendant: Crossplay beta
Fractured Online: Paid early access, back on Steam
Fractured Veil: Early access
Frozen Flame: Early access
Genfanad: Beta
Ilysia: Early access
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Last Oasis: Early access (abandoned?)
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Pre-alpha
Monster Hunter Now: Closed beta
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha, public beta this weekend
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Multiversus: Returned to closed testing
Nightingale: Ongoing closed events
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Once Human: Beta on December 7th
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Open beta
Palworld: Early access
Pantheon: Backer alpha, 247 canceled
Past Fate: Closed testing
Path of Exile 2: Beta June 2024
Pax Dei: Closed alpha
Perfect New World: Closed beta
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
Project Crawl: Closed testing
Project F4E: Closed testing
Project Genom: Closed alpha (servers offline, abandoned?)
Project Gorgon: Early access beta
Project Loki: Closed beta
Project ST: Closed testing, open event ended
Prosperous Universe: Early access
Quinfall: Beta delayed to 2024
Return Alive: Closed beta
Reign of Guilds: Beta event in mid-December, early access planned for 2024
SamuTale: “Paid closed alpha early access” according to the developer, which is just early access, come on dude
Seed: Active development
Seekers of Skyveil: Continuing alpha testing
Shadow’s Kiss: Early access (but read this first)
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Skull and Bones: Open beta
Smite 2: Signups open, wipe-free beta mid-2024
Soulframe: “Pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha” testing wrapped up
Spellcraft: Alpha
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Tarisland: Second closed beta
Throne & Liberty: Western launch delayed into 2024, live in South Korea
Trimurti Online: Stress testing, open beta February 13th
Valheim: Early access
V Rising: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
The Wagadu Chronicles: Early access
Warhaven: Early access
Waven Early access
Wayfinder Early access ahead of full launch
We welcome additions and corrections to this list; send your info our way via tips!
Yes, MMO gamers, you too can perform the unpaid quality-control work otherwise known as game testing! Check out Massively Overpowered’s Betawatch every week for a run-down of MMOs that are still on the road to launch, even if they appear to have set up a permanent residence in a shed called early access.
