It’s time once again for the beta testing of World of Warcraft to go into overdrive, as the next expansion is now available for people to beta test. So if you want to play through most of the content now and get burnt out before the expansion actually releases, now is your chance! If that sounds cynical to you, there are two reasons for it: The first is that it absolutely is cynical, and the second is that the expansion’s beta testing access is literally being sold, so it’s worth considering that side of things.
While we all know that Corepunk’s most recent test was the sort of mess that usually requires a cat in a hat and a number of rhyming couplets to create, our own Carlo (who is neither feline nor wearing anything on top of his head… that we know of) shared his thoughts on the experience just the same. Enshrouded has added some musical instruments with its latest update so you can experience that #BardcoreLife, and Pax Dei has opened pre-orders for its upcoming early access launch. All of this is definitely stuff, but sadly it does not even start pretending to work together into any sort of joke framework.
So we’re just going to skip trying to hammer in humor and just direct your gaze down to the roundup of beta news along with the list of games in testing, with the usual caveats of letting us know if we missed something swapping test states or not being on the list altogether. Look, it has been a busy week over here, all right? That expansion beta for WoW isn’t even the wildest thing that happened this week. I need a drink. Anyone want to hit the bar?
Star Citizen’s May dev report shares work on new ships, new game modes, and progress towards 4.0 and 1.0
Legends of Aria’s crypto version, Britaria, goes bust over ‘financial constraints’
Concord is a team vs team FPS that promises approachable but deep gameplay
Sandbox MMORPG Pax Dei opens preorders for its newly announced June 18 early access
Choose My Adventure: Returning to Star Citizen (and fussing with tech)
Persist Online interview: CipSoft explains why Persist is an MMORPG, not a survival shooter
First Impressions: Corepunk’s MOBA-esque closed alpha was fun – with lots of room to grow
Enshrouded adds musical instruments and a new sub-biome in today’s Melodies of the Mire patch
Ashes of Creation shares a preview of its node war PvP system
Tarisland counts 3M pre-registrations, opens lore site prior to global launch
Survival sandbox Valheim expands its early access to Mac gamers next week
World of Warcraft: The War Within begins beta testing
‘Fitness MMORPG’ WalkScape kicks off a second closed beta test and shares a new roadmap
Seekers of Skyveil moves towards adding new characters, announces Steam playtest June 6 and 7
Fractured Online plans summer launch, new server, and a major PvP ruleset revamp
Abyss Online studio Old World Labs seeks to hire more staff to help its flagging MMORPG
Tarisland’s latest videos recap class choices and the casual Memory Maze minigame
Tarisland promises a balloon-popping good time in one of its many minigames
NCsoft’s Battle Crush sets early access for June 27, opens crossplatform registration today
The Stream Team: A quick run through the Wayfinder Echoes update
BitCraft shares a preview of its wide world in a new cinematic video
BitCraft delays its second closed alpha test to July 8
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.
33 Immortals: Closed testing
Abyss: Early access
The Adventurer’s Domain Online: Early access
Aero Tales Online: Early access
Age of Water: Early access
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, early access on June 20th
Battlebit: Early access
Battle Crush: Early access June 27th
Bellatores: Closed testing
Bellwright: Early access, developers of abandoned Last Oasis
Bitcraft: Alpha 2 on June 17th, 2024
Blue Protocol: Launching worldwide in 2024, technical tests starting November 8th
Book of Travels: Early access
Brighter Shores: Launch planned for Q3 2024, MMO scale not yet clarified
Camelot Unchained: Closed beta, planning to launch in late 2025
Chronicles of Elyria: Pre-alpha, again
Chrono Odyssey: Closed testing, plans for 2025
Cinderstone Online: Closed beta
City of Titans: Alpha
Concord: Launch for August 23rd, beta planned but unannounced
Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore: Early access
Corepunk: Early access planned for 2024, second alpha delayed yet again
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?)
Dreamworld: Pre-alpha
Dune Awakening: Closed testing, signups now
ECO: Early access, full launch planned in 2024
Eleven: Closed alpha
Enlisted: Reinforced: Early access delayed for an indeterminate time
Enshrouded: Early access
Eternal Tombs: Closed beta in April
EVE Vanguard: Second beta ongoing
Evercore Heroes: Paid testing, updates stopping with a focus on a redesign
EverCraft Online: Weekend-long open test starts April 19th
Final Stand: Ragnarok: Early access (officially, really)
The First Descendant: Final test on May 25th
Fractured Online: Paid early access, launch this summer
Fractured Veil: Early access
Frozen Flame: Early access
Ilysia: Early access
Inferna: Early access
Kurtzpel: Closed beta
Legendarium Online: Paid alpha access
Lost Skies: Pre-alpha
Marvel Rivals: Closed alpha
Monsters & Memories: Intermittent pre-alpha
Mortal Exodus: Closed testing
Nightingale: Early access
Noah’s Heart: Beta
Odd Giants: Alpha
Once Human: Closed beta finally starting after delays
Osiris: New Dawn: Back from the dead, not on Steam any longer
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: Alpha June 2024
Pax Dei: Closed alpha
Perfect New World: Closed beta
Pow Vista: Open beta (mobile)
Predecessor: Free-to-play open beta, yet another Paragon do-over
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: Early access
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
Ships at Sea: Early access
Sky: Children of Light: Open early access
Smite 2: Signups open, second alpha weekend ongoing
Soulframe: “Pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha” testing wrapped up
Star Citizen: Backer alpha
Starbase: Early access open alpha
Tarisland: Launches June 21st
Throne & Liberty: Western launch delayed into 2024, live in South Korea
Tombstone: Closed testing, release planned for this year
Tribes 3: Rivals: Early access
Trimurti Online: Stress testing, open beta February 13th
Valheim: Early access
Valiance Online: Closed beta
Vindictus: Defying Fate: Open testing
WalkScape: Closed beta until June 15th
Waven Early access
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.
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