Despite popular fiction such as Ready Player One, Sword Art Online and Dot Hack popularising the concept of the virtual reality (VR) MMORPG, its existence in reality has so far proved somewhat elusive. That may be about to change as Ad Alternum Game Studios has announced the end of its closed Alpha of VR MMORPG OrbusVR and the upcoming date of its open Alpha phase.
There were over 450 players involved in the Closed Alpha testing, who played a total of 3,000 hours during the testing period. Bi-weekly tests would show off newly introduced features that were added to the game, such as new areas, story quests, dungeons and professions such as Alchemy and Fishing.
“We’ve had tremendous participation and enthusiasm from the VR community during our Closed Alpha testing period, and we’ve made some great strides in adding new features and improvements to the game,” said Riley Dutton, Lead Developer. “We’ve been hard at work getting things ready for everyone who’s interested in the game to check it out, and we can’t wait to see so many new faces in-game.”
The closed Alpha was only available to players who had previously backed the Kickstarter campaign, or pre-ordered OrbusVR on the official website were able to be involved. Despite those limitations, the developers were enthusiastic about the level of feedback and community participation from the Alpha players.
The Open Alpha stage of testing will begin on 28th July, 2017. Details on how to apply to be part of the open Alpha are available on the OrbusVR website. Developers at Ad Alternum are expecting the title to enter Beta testing in late August, 2017, with an expected release into Early Access at the end of 2017.
VRFocus will continue to bring you new on OrbusVR and other in-progress VR projects.