How much would you pay to test an MMORPG? OK, but how much would you pay to test an extraction mode spun out from a crowdfunded MMORPG? It’s a trick question; the answer is negative dollars because QA testing is a career not a charity, so the companies should be paying you, which is something we hope MMO gamers bear in mind as the Pantheon community barrels toward testing of its newly unearthed 247 spin-off.
Meanwhile in beta news, Quinfall saw a delay to next year, Fractured set its early access relaunch for November, and ARK Survival Ascended finally slow-shuffled its way into a shockingly quiet early access.
Read on for the whole list of MMO testing news from this week as well as our ongoing list of all the games in testing that we’re watching. I mean, if you’re gonna give away your time to test, fine, but don’t pay for the privilege too.
Book of Travels heralds a content update with new locations, events, and a death system ‘that isn’t the end’
Lost Skies shows a snippet of gameplay while it gets ready to send out more beta keys
Valheim previews Ashlands’ new weapons, more lava, and a ‘mysterious contraption’
Pantheon argues 247 extraction mode is meant to satisfy replayability and runs parallel to MMORPG loops
Ship of Heroes refurbs its camera, addresses feedback, and floats another demo event
NCsoft’s battle royale brawler Battle Crush enters open beta on PC and Android until October 30
Eternal Tombs showcases game footage from a recent public raid test
Testing Pantheon’s 247 mode won’t be cheap, according to Visionary Realms’ latest infodrop
Tarisland’s Ranger looks like the comfiest hunter class fantasy
Wayfinder teases mid-season update 2’s Reaver King as devs tackle performance and events
ARK Survival Ascended has finally hit early access on Steam to ‘re-energize the classic-ARK experience’
Nexon’s shooter THE FINALS enters cross-platform open beta October 26
Corepunk plans for its next test phase starting November 4
Turkish sandbox MMO Quinfall delays closed beta to January 2024
Palia has launched European servers, and yes, you still play cross-region
Fractured relaunches early access on Steam November 8 as team works unpaid
Guild Wars 2’s Through the Veil and new zone launches November 7, followed by a weapon proliferation beta
Anime hero shooter Second Wave shares gameplay footage and thoughts from its first beta
Star Citizen’s second day of CitizenCon shows updates to character creation, FPS gameplay, flight, and frontier locations
CIG says Squadron 42 is ‘feature complete’ and entering polish phase in new gameplay trailer
Star Citizen shows off new ships and offers vague details of ship release timing
Star Citizen demonstrates new visual effects, destructible items, server updates, and engineering gameplay
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
MalingeringThe 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: Closed testing
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
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: Next beta in November
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: Closed alpha (delay drama)
The Division Heartland: Closed testing
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing
ECO: Early access
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Beta
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 beta access, relaunch November 8
Fractured Veil: Back in closed development, early access delayed to 2024
Frozen Flame: Early access
Genfanad: Alpha
Ilysia: Early access
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Last Oasis: Early access (abandoned?)
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Closed testing
Monster Hunter Now: Closed beta
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Multiversus: Returned to closed testing
Nightingale: Ongoing closed events
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Outlaws of the Old West: Early access
Palia: Open beta
Pantheon: Intermittent backer alpha, new extraction spinoff
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: Intermittent open beta
SamuTale: “Paid closed alpha early access” according to the developer, which is just early access, come on dude
Seed: Active development, playtest through October 29th
Seekers of Skyveil: Closed alpha on October 20th
Shadow’s Kiss: Early access (but read this first)
Ship of Heroes: Beta testing
Skull and Bones: Closed beta
Spellcraft: Alpha
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Tarisland: Beta
Throne & Liberty: Korean closed beta, western launch delayed into 2024
Trimurti Online: Stress testing
Valheim: Early access
V Rising: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
The Wagadu Chronicles: Alpha two
Warcraft Rumble: Full launch November 3rd
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.
