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In-Development Indie MMORPGs

francisbaud
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MMORPGs require years of hard work, both in the art and engineering departments. At the beginning, in the late 90's, MMO games were mostly innovation of the West, but nowadays, as far as I know, Korea, Japan and China are the countries that develop the largest chunk of modern AAA MMORPGs. Here in the US and Europe, the big projects from big publishers coming out in 2021-2022 are pretty limited to New World (from Amazon). On the other hand, indie titles (including AAA) are thriving and many of them propose very innovative features, as listed below. I have picked 12 of which I consider the most popular in-development indie MMORPGs.

If you've suggestions on how I could improve this post please let me know!

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen [Pre-Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unity 5
  • Spiritual successor to EverQuest
  • Deeply social: dungeons require teamwork and group strategy
  • Thrilling climbing system
  • Perception system: the world reveals its secrets through the environment

Crowfall [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: $38M || Engine: Unity 5
  • Spiritual successor to Shadowbane
  • Player-created worlds with parcels of terrain and pre-fab building pieces
  • GvG/RvR campaigns that guilds or factions can win
  • Deep crafting system inspired by Star Wars: Galaxies

Camelot Unchained [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: RvR || Budget: ~$20M || Engine: Unchained
  • Spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot
  • Large-scale RvR battles and sieges with more than a thousand players
  • Open world with islands that players can move to strategically reshape the world
  • Block-by-block construction with server-side stability and destruction

Dual Universe [Beta]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$25M* || Engine: Unigine 2
  • Single shard persistent universe shared by all the players
  • Voxel-based universe: player-made cities, stations and warships
  • Space warfare: pirate ships, coordinated attacks, skirmishes
  • Player-controlled global economy: mine, craft, build, optimize, barter and trade

Ashes of Creation [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$30M* || Engine: Unreal 4
  • Nodes system: player participation influences the type of content in the surrounding areas
  • Open world housing: players have the ability to survey and develop land anywhere in the world
  • Castle sieges with hundreds of players with many moving parts
  • Harsh, unforgiving and stunning environment

Saga of Lucimia [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unity 5
  • Sandbox environment: no quests and no minimap
  • Tabletop gaming: all about team-based gameplay and friendship
  • Progression system based on skill selection rather than generic classes
  • Inspiring lore, myths and legends

Gloria Victis [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Realistic || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$4M* || Engine: Unity 5
  • Skill-based combat mechanics à la Mount and Blade
  • Class-less system with diversified equipment
  • Open world with housing, territory control and sieges
  • Complex crafting system: leatherworking, armoursmithing, weapon forging

Star Citizen [Alpha]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvP || Budget: $348M || Engine: Lumberyard
  • Spiritual successor to Freelancer
  • Procedurally generated and handcrafted stunning worlds
  • Open world PvP with high speed dog fights with multi-crew ships or intense FPS warfare
  • Exploration: hidden outpost, abandoned ships and beautiful sunsets

The Repopulation [Alpha]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvE/PvP || Budget: $? || Engine: Hero Engine
  • Housing options: instanced housing, persistent world housing and player city housing
  • Be a hero, villain, thief, diplomat, home builder, tamer, crafter or entertainer
  • Servers with different PvP rulesets
  • Mission system: complex multi-stage missions tailored specifically for a character

Project Gorgon [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: +$1M || Engine: Unity 5
  • Exploration: many hidden secrets awaiting discovery
  • Ambitious skill-based leveling system allowing the player to combine skills
  • Old-school MMO with innovative ideas, such as morphing into animals
  • 16 combat skills, 71 trade skills, 11 beasts skills

Mortal Online 2 [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: $? || Engine: Unreal 4
  • Open and realistic sandbox world
  • True, real-time combat where outcomes are decided by skill rather than levels or gear
  • Become a legendary crafter whose goods are traded across the globe or a famous warrior studying the art of combat
  • Individual reputation: people will recognize you by the impact you've made on the world

Rise Online [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus PvP/PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unreal 4
  • Spiritual successor to Knight Online
  • Full PvP-based maps and events
  • PvE content like missions, creatures and bosses that take several groups to defeat
  • Two sides of this endless war between kingdoms: Protean and Lunaskar

Cross post. *Personal estimate, may be inaccurate
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