Last year, an indie studio made up of former CCP Games and Electronic Arts developers called Arctic Theory announced work on a new MMO called Annex. The game is being billed as a post-apocalyptic survival game with a “romantic gold rush” theme that’s set in a world recovering from an ecological disaster on a global scale.
As with most survival games, Annex promises plenty of open-world exploration, unlockable biomes, world building, and cooperative play. The game primarily focuses on PvE content with players working to rebuild settlements and reshape the post-apocalyptic world alone or with their friends.
Over the past few months, the studio has made significant progress on the game’s development which has now been rebranded as Pioneers of New Dawn. They’ve also confirmed plans to begin closed alpha testing sometime in Q4 2023. The team promises transparency and regular communication with the community and a focus on gathering “authentic” feedback from would-be testers.
“There’s a trend in our industry of making grand announcements about groundbreaking features and immersive world-building mechanics in games that often fall short at launch, especially in the MMO genre,” said Arctic Theory Co-Founder and Creative Director Gísli Konráðsson. “While our approach for the rollout of Pioneers of New Dawn may not be groundbreaking, it is designed to deliver on our promises from day one, and allows players to experience the game as it grows and evolves.”
Speaking of transparency, the Pioneers of New Dawn website is now live with a boatload of information for you to digest while waiting on more news about the upcoming alpha test.
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