It’s just hard out here for Fractured Online, sadly. We all know about the struggles that the game had when it was being published by Gamigo, but this week saw a combination of dupes, hardware issues, failures, and multiple rollbacks of progress. That is… not good, and even if you’re still holding onto hope for the game it’s the sort of thing that makes you sort of wince reflexively. Not a great sign! It could be better!
Meanwhile, Ashes of Creation has followed through on its plan to discontinue sales of its Alpha Two backer packs. If you wanted to get in with the pack purchase but hadn’t already bought the packs, then… we’re sorry. You missed the boat. The purchase boat. This is a metaphorical boat, there are no actual boats involved here.
This week’s roundup of beta news is in list form is not a metaphor, nor is it a boat. You can think of it as a boat if you really want to, though. It’s a boat containing all of the beta news we’ve had this week, and right below that is a cruise ship filled with all the games in testing. And you can flag us down in docks to tell us anything we missed, which in this metaphor is the comments? All right, let’s stop talking about boats.
Pokémon-like Palworld launches early access today, aims to be ‘the best game ever’
The Quinfall studio Vawraek defends its use of AI and ‘ready-made assets’
Palia will reduce its beta release cadence – but not its content quantity – in 2024
Ship of Heroes asks fans to sound off on what makes raiding fun
Skull and Bones celebrates ‘hundreds of thousands of players’ in closed beta, teases open beta soon
Ashes of Creation officially makes good on its plan to stop selling Alpha Two backer packs
Final Fantasy XIV jumps the gun on Xbox open beta announcement
Funcom’s Dune Awakening outlines desert survival tips for your impending trip to Arrakis
Nightingale shares the first 20 minutes of gameplay in a video
Pax Dei promises new items, prettier skies, and shinier player tombstones in next alpha build
Fractured Online weathers downtime over a dupe exploit and a failing hard drive
Throne & Liberty KR details rank resets and economy updates happening in its January 17 server merging
Tarisland outlines balance plans based on closed beta feedback – including raid loot
Fractured Online suffered two more rollbacks and replaced server in nasty ‘streak of bad luck’
Fractured Online’s duping and hard drive downtime turns into 24-hour rollback
Fractured Veil makes more roadmap tweaks for 2024 but still projects January 18 early access launch
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
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: Back in closed development, early access delayed to 2024
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: Closed 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
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.
