The 5 most promising new MMOs and MMORPGs for 2022

How does the list of the most promising games come together? The list is a selection by our author Gerd Schuhmann. He has been responsible for the major online games on MeinMMO since 2014.

The selected players are those online games and online role-playing games that will appear in 2022 or at least be playable in an alpha / beta that he considers to be the most relevant games and from which an interesting twist is expected in 2022.

A game like Star Citizen, which has been in continuous development for years and has not announced a high point for 2022, does not appear in the list.

We last updated this article on January 6th, 2022. Crowfall, Elyon and New World were released in 2021 and are therefore no longer part of the list. The reports on the 5 other new promising MMORPGs have been supplemented with current information.

Crimson Desert – focus on story and campaign

Genre: Open World Action-Adventure| Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X| Release: Indefinite

This is Crimson Desert: Crimson Desert was once planned as the new “flagship” -MMORPG from Pearl Abyss. The South Koreans have made millions with Black Desert, especially with the mobile version, in recent years and are investing the money in a new engine and new games. Meanwhile, Crimson Desert is an “open world action adventure” with an additional multiplayer mode.

Crimson Desert is specially oriented towards the West, wants to offer a story campaign and more PvE content than its PvP-heavy predecessor Black Desert.

The player is supposed to lead a gang of mercenaries. The look is reminiscent of Game of Thrones, certainly not by chance.

A special feature is that the player will play the hero “Macduff” in the single player part. In the multiplayer part of the game “Another Journey”, however, the player can build his own character.

In addition to a PC version, Pearl Abyss also wants to offer versions for PS4, Xbox One, PS5 and Xbox Series X. The goal is for Crimson Desert to get on as many platforms as possible.

A release of Crimson Desert was planned for the 4th quarter of 2021.

But in July 2021 it became known: Crimson Desert will no longer appear in 2021. The release date has been postponed to “give the game more time”. Pearl Abyss wants to bring new ideas into play.

There is no new release date for Crimson Desert yet.

How has Crimson Desert developed so far?

• It had been known for a long time that Pearl Abyss was working on a new engine on which all future games should appear. The Korean MMORPG specialists now consider the Black Desert engine to be obsolete.
• In August 2019, it was said that Pearl Abyss is planning a new large MMORPG that has a particular eye on the western market.
• In November 2019, Crimson Desert was unveiled with a first trailer.
• In 2020 Pearl Abyss announced that they were moving away from the “pure MMORPG” and focusing more on single-player. It is even said that Crimson Desert is “its own genre.” The concept sounds like Red Dead Online: Single player with a fixed character – then multiplayer with your own.
• In July 2021, it was said that the game would be well received in the first feedback but that it would take longer to develop.
• Pearl Abyss gave a foretaste of what the game will look like with a trailer for DokeV. Although the MMO is aimed at children, it was already enthusiastic about the Gamecom with its graphics.

This is Crimson Desert at its best: So far it sounds like a game with a linear story, like Red Dead Redemption 2. The NPCs are supposed to play an important role. But MMORPG aspects such as mass battles and trade should also be served.

In the best case scenario, story fans get a good, long campaign, the endgame turns towards MMORPG and offers the opportunity to play interesting PvE content.

Pearl Abyss has so far developed Black Desert a lot, so you can probably expect the same for Crimson Desert. For now, the game looks strong and next-gen on screenshots.

This is Crimson Desert in the worst case: It is not yet clear how the gameplay is going and what the activities should be after the story.

Apparently Pearl Abyss wants to develop an open-world action-adventure for western console players, which also offers multiplayer elements, i.e. a game analogous to Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Elder Scrolls Online.

Whether Koreans really meet the taste of Westerners is still open. In the worst case, Crimson Desert would be a blockbuster game with an attached online part that offers little long-term motivation after the campaign is through.

Here you can find the latest information about the Crimson Desert.