All the MMOs coming in 2022 and beyond

Casing nothing, the year 2021 has been quite busy with big MMO releases. We were able to discover New World, Sword of Legends Online and even the latest extension to Final Fantasy XIV, Endwalker. The year 2022 is likely to be just as busy, and more generally the future of MMOs looks bright, with many important releases on the horizon.

In order to find you among all the proposals, we list here the major MMO releases to come in 2022 and beyond. You will find the MMOs that should be talked about in the coming months, and we list here only the projects that are well announced, with at least one title and some images to put in our mouths. Here are the MMOs coming in 2022 and beyond.

Mortal Online 2

Mortal Online 2 will have been long overdue, but the news around the game has moved well in 2021. After a beta and early access, the title is now preparing its launch in its full version. The first-person MMO, mainly oriented around PvP, should therefore be talked about a lot this year, hoping that it does not miss its launch.

The Star Vault studio however intends to ensure the sustainability of the game and already promises multiple updates to come after the release, some of which will be major, since we are talking about the migration of the MMO to the Unreal Engine 5, to term. Is it still necessary that the game meet its audience during its final release, scheduled for this beginning of the year.

Broken Ranks

Also scheduled for release on January 25, Broken Ranks is an atypical MMO that does well by offering a dark fantasy universe in isometric view. It is also not the only one on this list to offer an angle of view such as this, but the game also has the particularity of setting up turn-based battles, RPG style, all with seven playable character classes.

The game has had several beta tests in recent months, and it seems to be finally ready to be released in free-to-play at the start of the year. The game client is already available for download on the official website.

Zenith: The Last City

We continue this list with another MMO that was released very recently, and not just any MMO, since Zenith: The Last City is an MMO fully playable in virtual reality thanks to the Oculus Quest 2, Rift and PlayStation VR headsets.

The title will emphasize exploration, in particular by gliding, but also by letting your character climb walls. Apart from this large playground that will be offered to us, we can also fight against creatures or even pirates, and also indulge in lots of additional activities, such as cooking.

Lost Ark

Lost Ark is THE big MMO release not to be missed this year. However, the title is not new, but it will have taken several years before reaching us in the West. After a bit of a delay, the free-to-play hack'n slash MMO is ready for release here.

The particularity of the title obviously lies in its gameplay, roughly summarized in "MMO Diablo", with five character classes that evolve into other advanced classes. The game will offer a very vast universe to explore (which you can even travel by boat with a crew), and PvP will also be part of it. It is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and complete MMOs of the moment, which can be enjoyed both in groups and solo.

Star Wars: Knight of The Old Republic – Legacy of the Sith

To celebrate its tenth anniversary with dignity, Star Wars: Knight of The Old Republic is going to make its little revolution with the release of the Legacy of the Sith expansion, which was originally scheduled for release at the very end of 2021 before being pushed back.

This new adventure will allow us to continue the adventure, with new quests centered on Darth Malgus and the exploration of a Sith temple. We will discover a new outpost on a new planet, Manaan, and several key characters will return. On the gameplay side, it is above all the fighting styles that will bring more freedom, and an overhaul concerning the management of objects and equipment will also be implemented.

The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle

A new chapter will soon begin for The Elder Scrolls Online. The MMO remains the best way to wait for the release of The Elder Scrolls VI, and it renews itself once again by preparing a massive extension, which will send us to the ancient land of the Bretons (and not Bretons, not Kouign-Amann on the horizon).

This expansion will therefore introduce a new area, a brand new story, a brand new card game called "Tales of Glory", additional world events, two new companions (Braise and Isobel), and a whole bunch of additional challenges to be done in a group. In short, still dozens of hours in perspective in this MMO which is starting to have a good longevity.

The Day Before

Looking like a mix between The Last of Us and The Division, The Day Before immediately seduced lovers of a post-apocalyptic atmosphere, with a dose of survival and fights against infected. The game showed itself a lot in 2021, and was finally able to reveal a release date set for this summer, if all goes as planned.

The title will then ask us to survive in a devastated city, where we will embody characters in search of food among the ruins of civilization. If the city will be the scene of clashes between humans, more generally, the countryside will be more conducive to meeting the infected, with an even more present dimension of survival and horror.

Camelot Unchained

As for Camelot Unchained, it's radio silence, to the point where the title seems to have become an Arlesian over the years. It must be said that the title is very ambitious: Camelot Unchained wants us to live our own story, where each of our decisions counts, and where each of our actions has an impact on the world around us. With its concept of Kingdom against Kingdom, the MMO stands out from its competitors and it intends to play on it.

However, the title has not really given any news for a while. Last year, we hoped that 2021 would allow him to resurface, but it did not happen. 2022 may be the right one?

Avatar Reckoning

If all goes as planned, in 2022, Avatar should return to cinemas with the arrival of a sequel to the cult film. Simultaneously, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an ambitious game developed by Ubisoft, of which little is known at the moment, could also be released.

But that's not all, since an MMO should also be in the game. Avatar Reckoning is developed by the Archosaur Games studio, and will obviously only be available on mobiles. We recently got a single image, which doesn't reveal much, but we know that the game will run on the Unreal Engine 4, and that it should feature shooter-like gameplay, with PvP as well than a story-driven single-player mode. A beta should take place at the beginning of the year, and could logically teach us a little more.

Aion 2

Here again, and like many games in this list, Aion 2 has been very discreet in 2021. However, NCsoft promises us that the title should offer itself a launch world this year, without us being able to get our hands on other information for the moment.

All we know is that this sequel-prequel (since the title takes place nine centuries before the plot of the first game) should change habits a bit by throwing away the closed class system, with skills related to the use of weapons. For the rest, it's a bit of an unknown for the moment, hoping that a delay is not already planned.

Lineage W

Lineage W gave us false joy at the end of 2021. Following a major presentation of the game, NCsoft then promised us a global launch for the title during the November, but complications came to undermine this plan. The title was then only released in Asia for the moment, and we hope to see it land this year with us.

This MMO therefore promises to bring us a more accomplished version of Lineage than ever, this time with great battles and fortress sieges in order to be even more impressive. With its availability on several platforms, the title has everything to talk about, and should interest console players who are rarely entitled to MMOs.

Dual Universe

We've been hearing about the ambitious Dual Universe for a while now, which we actually had the opportunity to test and highlight during our AG French Direct, devoted to the presentation of French-speaking games. Novaquark's space MMO should logically be talked about again in 2022, since it should be released this year, if all goes well.

The game is taking its time before coming out, having multiplied the alphas before releasing a big beta still in progress, and the studio is obviously right to do so since the potential of this MMO is great. The title offers a very rich science fiction universe, with a huge playground to discover and a sandbox aspect full of possibilities. We therefore hope to be able to enjoy it in its final version very soon.

Blue Protocol

With the success of titles with manga aesthetics like Genshin Impact, we think that Blue Protocol has every chance of being a hit in the future. This MMO headed by Bandai Namco is ambitious in more than one respect, especially when you see its artistic direction, served by a nice cel-shading that really gives the impression of playing an anime. And we can already salute his music, with themes composed by the legendary Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on the Titans, Kill la Kill…)

Unfortunately, the year 2021 has been very quiet for the game. If we had some scattered news at the start of the year and during the summer, radio silence during the second half of the year. We therefore hope that the game will be talked about again very quickly, with good news at stake.

Project BBQ

We could put Project BBQ (no, that's not the name of your summer vacation project, or your favorite sauce) in the same drawer as Blue Protocol thanks to its manga aesthetic, but the MMO seems to be even less concrete than Bandai Namco's game.

Very action-oriented, the game takes place in the Dungeon & Fighter and offers us to embody unique characters to choose from before going on a mission. The title was also present in our list of MMOs that we wanted to see again in 2021, and it is missed. We hope that 2022 will be the year when he will be talked about a little more, even if we suspect that his priority will be the Asian market.

Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

Guild Wars 2 is one of the most enduring MMOs of recent years, and ultimately, few expansions have seen the light of day so far. But to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the ArenaNet MMO is going to offer itself a new adventure with End of Dragons, which promises to bring a breath of fresh air to the community.

In particular, we will be able to discover the Canthia region, new group missions, fishing, new specializations, attack missions, and many other new features that should help to breathe a kind of renewal for the title, in order to keep its community even longer. We also tell you everything we think of this extension, which we were able to discover before its release, in our last preview.

Ashes of Creation

Developed by the teams of the Intrepid studio, Ashes of Creation is an MMO which should not be released in 2022. And for good reason, the title has announced its passage under the Unreal Engine 5 a few months ago. With this new graphics engine, the MMO displays high ambitions and real graphic promise for the genre. If the release still seems distant, he will still speak again in the year, since he plans to deploy his Alpha 2 during the year, which will last several weeks and which will be playable by a handful of players. players, before anticipating its beta phases.

Ashes of Creation will immerse you in a fallen world without any trace of civilization for a long time that will have to be rebuilt and repopulated. In terms of gameplay, the MMORPG emphasizes its sandbox side with creation and crafting, where the world will evolve according to our actions.

Particularly ambitious, Ashes of Creation will shape its towns and cities in real time according to the quests carried out and the needs brought, with the possibility of destroying what has been created to redo it as you wish. Several class archetypes will be available, as well as guilds and mounts, and the economy should play a big role, with a system of trade caravans that will be used to trade and which can be attacked by other players.

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen was originally the project of Brad McQuaid, one of the creators of the famous Everquest, and it is therefore not for nothing that Pantheon intends to return to the sources of the first MMOs by encouraging interaction between players.

The PvE dimension is therefore strongly pushed here, with an MMO feeling of the 2000s that will appeal to the most nostalgic. Unfortunately, the game is taking a long time to come out of its pre-alpha, although the alpha could slowly be shaping up for 2022, given that the studio has received more funding in the past few years, which will help it to maintain game production.

Blade and Soul 2

After a successful first episode, Blade and Soul 2 takes on the world of mobile MMOs (albeit cross-platform) and has already entered the Korean market, with some controversy in passing concerning its economic model, based on unpleasant Season Passes.

This sequel changes habits a bit by removing classes and basing the evolution of characters on the different weapons to be wielded in the game. The year 2021 will have been the occasion for the game to make its first launch , before we can perhaps seek to seduce the Western market, but for the moment, NCSoft has not really given any news concerning an exit at home.

Palia

Palia is one of many MMOs that will focus on the interactions between players and their environment. Drawing influences from Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing or even Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the title intends to offer both a community experience and an experience that can be enjoyed solo.

There will therefore be housing and a large world to explore, by building our own camp and even being able to fall in love with the different characters, with romances to boot. The title has gone through a pre-alpha, but hasn't really given a release window yet.

Plan 8

Unveiled alongside Crimson Desert and DokeV, Plan 8 is another ambitious new project from Pearl Abyss. However, unlike the other two titles, it is also the quietest, since it has not been talked about for many months. Moreover, it is not possible that its structure will also evolve since the two aforementioned titles were initially to be MMOs before evolving into single-player games.

In the meantime, the first images of Plan8 gave us a glimpse of a graphically impressive MMO, mixing exploration and confrontations against other players, like any good looter shooter. The title takes place in a futuristic universe, where you can equip exoskeletons, which grant various powers and other skills. It should bring a real breath of fresh air to the multiplayer shooter, being defined as "a new generation shooter" and we hope to have news in 2022, at least to confirm that it remains an MMO.

Bitcraft

Among the big behemoths on this list, there are also projects from slightly less renowned studios and publishers, such as Clockwork Labs, which is working on its sandbox MMO Bitcraft. And even if the project is not as talked about as others, it should still be noted that it raised 4.3 million dollars to be produced, which is not nothing.

Bitcraft will be all about its community and how it interacts with the world. Here, it is not the action that will be prioritized, but the creation, with a world that we can shape together. As if Minecraft became an MMO of some sort, hence the name of the game, which recalls that of Mojang. We should know very soon if the promise will be tenable, since the game should be entitled to a pre-alpha.

Chrono Odyssey

Chrono Odyssey is a big-budget MMO with wild ambitions. Developed by South Korean studio NPIXEL, the game caused a stir with its first trailer released in late 2020, which hinted at what was billed as gameplay footage that was way too good to be true.

Previously known as Project S, the title will present the story of a special organization, responsible for fighting against twelve gods. We will be entitled to unique classes, kingdom against kingdom content, and obviously very dynamic action sequences. The icing on the cake is Cris Velasco who will be in charge of the soundtrack, after having worked on God of War or Resident Evil VII. The title should enter beta in 2022, at least we hope so.

Tower of Fantasy

There has been talk about Blue Protocol being a strong contender for Genshin Impact, but it's actually Tower of Fantasy that is often compared to miHoYo's game, especially through its characters.

The MMO dimension is not particularly predominant in the title, but it is difficult not to list it here. Tower of Fantasy offers us a futuristic universe that is entitled to gacha mechanics, and an anime aesthetic. The title has already been released in China, and unsurprisingly, it is a success so far. The question of its release in the West is still on the table, but we imagine that one day or another, the title will make its way to us.

Gran Saga

Does this Gran Saga illustration remind you of something? Well no, despite what one might think, the MMO has nothing to do with Cygames and its Granblue Fantasy license, and this resemblance was also the subject of many controversies around the title.

Gran Saga offers various regions to explore and is based on the Gran Weapons system, where characters learn and customize their abilities through weapons, not classes. The game was released in early 2021 in Korea before releasing in November in Japan, which suggests that its global release is gradually approaching.

Odin: Valhalla Rising

2021 has been a big year for Odin: Valhalla Rising, which got its release in Korea and was obviously a success for Kako Games. The title launched with panache and even needed additional servers to hold up, despite some negative feedback heard by the studio, which intends to correct them.

This MMORPG presents itself as a "mature" experience, with a large world to explore, and this is what the game encourages to do, since many secrets are hidden in the different places, which do not waiting for players to be found. It is not yet known when the title will make its way to the West, but we imagine that the Lionheart studio is already making sure to stabilize the situation of the game in Korea before venturing into other territories.

The Ragnarök

The Ragnarök impressed us when it unveiled its first gameplay videos, and the title gave some news in 2021 by sharing a new trailer, which once again hinted at a vast world (divided into regions), and frenetic action.

Finally, we still know little about the title, except that the characters will be quite free in the choice of skill customization, and that it will be possible to face creatures and then train them. A priori strongly oriented towards PvE, a PvP dimension should also be present, and each region should be entitled to its own particularities of gameplay.

Rise

We continue with the titles about which we don't know much and which took a vow of silence in 2021 with Rise, an MMO which above all promises to place its story at the heart of the gaming experience, delivering powerful and captivating storytelling, like a real adventure game.

At first sight, looking at the first gameplay video of the game, we are initially far from suspecting that it is an MMO, since its camera is not the most banal for a game of the kind. However, the NXN studio promises us a community experience, and will make PvP one of its battle horses. We are now awaiting more details, especially on its mobile version which promises to be a little different.

Corepunk

Corepunk is not an MMO like the others, and we can see it directly thanks to its universe and its rather particular artistic direction. With its isometric view that gives it the air of hack'n slash (especially for the loot part) and its steampunk atmosphere, the game intends to make us explore a vast world while taking part in gigantic battles in groups.

The game was supposed to be entitled to its beta for the month of December, but it was finally postponed to spring 2022, without further details. A postponement justified by the team who wants to provide the best possible experience from the start to its community.

ArcheAge 2

Without a doubt the furthest project on this list. ArcheAge 2 is for the moment only a promise, of which we know little except that it will run on the Unreal Engine 5, while taking up what made the strength of the first episode.

Only here, the last time Kakao Games mentioned the game in 2021, it was simply to warn us that we would still have to wait a lot of time before seeing the game arrive, since its release would be for the moment scheduled for the year 2024. And again, we would be talking here about a release in Asia, which pushes the release in the West even further. In short, be sure that the title will take its time.