Amazon's publishing of NCSOFT's free-to-play MMO Throne and Liberty is currently in open beta and will run until July 23, 2024 at 10 a.m. PT, similar to Lost Ark's Western release in 2019, Amazon Games announced that it has acquired the publishing rights to Throne and Liberty outside of Korea in 2023.

Steam's listing for Throne and Liberty is a bit sparse, but it appears to be a medieval fantasy MMO set in “the vast open world of Solisium. Since all players have the ability to transform into animals and move through the environment, it is clearly a vast open world that can be traversed as a bird. To be honest, my MMO career has been too long to be able to transform into a bird.

On the other hand, under the description of mature content, the developer helpfully warns that Throne and Liberty has “cutscenes featuring sandworms.”

Throne and Liberty is two-for-two animal-wise: the first is the “sandworms” and the second is the “sandworms.

According to the Throne and Liberty website, the game has no classes, and your combat ability is determined by which two weapons you bring to battle. This is impressive for an MMO that does not require you to have a different character when you want to change your play style. There also seems to be a guild PvP mode, where you can sabotage the other guild's tax convoy. This could be surprisingly good fodder for inter-guild warfare - usually they just fight over crystals.

In terms of numbers, the Throne and Liberty beta seems to be generating interest. Shortly after the beta launched yesterday, the number of concurrent players jumped to nearly 60,000. At the time of this writing, the number was hovering around 38,000 and increasing. Nothing makes a weekend more boring than an open beta.

To access the beta, go to the Steam page for Throne and Liberty and click the “Request Access” button. After the beta period, Throne and Liberty will be released on September 17, 2024.