New on Steam: An MMO heavyweight launches this week – but many already suspect a scandal.

A controversial MMO highlight launches in Early Access on Steam – along with many other exciting new releases.

An exciting week awaits on Steam: With Ashes of Creation, an MMO heavyweight that fans have been eagerly awaiting for years is finally launching in Early Access. But that’s not all – there’s plenty more to discover besides this highlight!

Highlight of the week: Ashes of Creation

Ashes of Creation is one of the most ambitious MMORPG projects of recent years. The sandbox online role-playing game promises a vibrant fantasy world in which your decisions can make or break cities. You can found settlements, trade, take part in sieges, and dynamically shape the game world of Verra.

However, the early access launch is not without controversy: There is heated debate in the community about whether the jump to Steam is coming too soon. Some fans fear that the game is still in its unfinished alpha stage and that this is a premature cash grab. On social media, the project is even being called a scam – especially since Ashes of Creation already has a failed battle royale spin-off and discussions about monetization behind it.

Lead developer Steven Sharif reassures fans: Early Access is a necessary step to bring more testers on board and gather valuable feedback for further development. Player reactions are divided: While many MMO fans are eager to finally explore the huge open world for themselves, others are skeptical about the decision to make a technically immature game available to the general public.

Ashes of Creation remains an enormously promising project, but it now has to prove in Early Access that it can live up to the high expectations – and that it’s not just being released because the creators are slowly running out of money.

More exciting Steam releases of the week

Monday, December 8, 2025

• Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut: The popular action-adventure series returns—and how! Yakuza 0 (the chronologically first chapter of the saga) is being released as an extensive Director’s Cut. This version adds brand-new cutscenes, offers full English voice acting for the first time, and even includes an online co-op mode called Red Light Raid, where you can team up with friends to take on hordes of enemies. You slip into the roles of fan favorites Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima and fight your way through neon-lit streets, gamble in arcades, and pass the time with all kinds of quirky mini-games.

• Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias (DLC): The city-building game is getting its first major expansion this week. Fractured Utopias confronts you with an explosive scenario: different factions with different visions of the perfect society are competing in your city. Each group pursues its own utopia – but in the end, only one can survive. As the leader, you must make difficult decisions to enforce your preferred ideology while fighting for survival in the freezing cold as usual.

• Skate Story: Well, if that doesn’t sound like typical Devolver: You control a demon made of glass and pain who has to skate through the underworld—all the way to the moon, which he must swallow at the end to gain his freedom. What sounds crazy turns out to be an incredibly stylish skateboarding adventure: you glide through surreal neon landscapes, accompanied by an atmospheric synth soundtrack. The controls require a delicate touch, but reward cool tricks and creative routes. Skate Story has been delayed several times, but now skateboard fans can finally get their hands on this extraordinary work of art.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

• Death Howl: Gloomy, tactical, and emotional—Death Howl combines soulslike gameplay with deckbuilding elements in an unusual way. In this game, you take on the role of Ro, a grieving mother searching for the soul of her deceased child in a nightmarish spirit world. But instead of fighting with a sword or shotgun, you face your opponents with playing cards: you build a deck of powerful attacks, magical totems, and defensive maneuvers. The mood of Death Howl is deliberately dark and reminiscent of Dark Souls – including challenging boss enemies and a mysterious world that you must gradually unravel.

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

• The End of History (Early Access): The End of History is a medieval sandbox RPG entering Early Access that offers you almost limitless freedom. As a nameless wanderer, you enter a feudal world that continues to turn without you – NPCs pursue their goals independently, kingdoms rise and fall. You decide which path to take: Will you become a righteous knight, a cunning thief, a clever merchant, or even the king of your own empire? The End of History already offers all core features – from combat and diplomacy to city building – and the developers want to shape the rest of the game’s development in close collaboration with the community.

Friday, December 12, 2025

• Terminator 2D: NO FATE: There is no fate except the one we create for ourselves – this is a famous quote from Terminator 2. In keeping with this, Terminator 2D: NO FATE lets you relive the cult film Terminator 2 – Judgment Day in a completely new way. In this official retro action game, you fight your way through side-scrolling levels brimming with 90s charm as the pixelated Arnold T-800 or Sarah Connor. Iconic scenes and locations from the film (from the escape from the mental hospital to the steel mill finale) are recreated in detail in 16-bit graphics – including a fitting chiptune version of the Terminator theme. In addition to the movie moments, you can expect brand-new levels and alternative storylines with multiple possible endings. Depending on how well you stand up to Skynet, the fate of humanity could turn out differently.

• Everdream Village (Early Access): Are you in the mood for a cozy break? Everdream Village invites you to create your own little paradise. In this colorful life and farming simulation, you take over a sleepy village that you can build and manage according to your own ideas. You grow fruits and vegetables, keep cute animals, and gradually expand your village cottage into a magnificent estate.

• Alchemy Factory (Early Access): This is where tinkerers and hobbyists will get their money’s worth. This building game combines medieval alchemy with modern automation à la Factorio. As a budding alchemist, you will build your own magical factory step by step: you will construct devices, mix potions, and set up conveyor belts to automate the production of your goods. At first, you might be brewing simple healing potions over a cauldron, but soon your workshop will be filled with the clatter of complex machines grinding ingredients, bottle elixirs, and pack finished products into crates. Your goal: to build an efficient production chain and maximize your profits without the place blowing up in your face. Thanks to multiplayer support, you can even invite friends to your factory to tinker with increasingly sophisticated designs together.

That brings us to the end of this week’s Steam highlights. As always, the coming days will bring many more smaller DLCs, insider tips, and indie projects that we can’t cover here. You can also find a complete overview of all new game releases this month in our video above, which gives you a compact guide to the biggest highlights.