Problem with Early Access is that it allows the devs to get money before they finish the game, thus completely killing their motivation to finish said game. I mean why would they? They already made bank.
I mean sure there are some amazing success stories with Early Access (Rimworld and Deadcells come to mind) but in general I still find the entire concept really dumb.
There’s nothing wrong with Early Access. You know what you’re getting. You also get to weigh in on functions which is cool. It’s only when a game is released unfinished as “complete” that it’s a problem.
I mean compared to a game completely dying in the water or never being finished due to running out of funding, at least Early Access puts something out there. Just need to be aware of what you’re buying
I don’t know that this is really accurate these days. Seems to me like early access is a way to gain traction for a game that can’t afford to invest a lot in marketing as much as it is about funding production and getting some testing feedback.
What games where early access and did deliver? For me Factorio comes to mind and Minecraft in a way even though it wasn’t called early access just Alpha and Beta. I don’t know if Terraria was early access aswell at some point.
Earl access can be great for both gamers and developers.
Devs get a ton of feed back and direction for their game and players to have more impact of games direction. The players also usually get extra content or they get it for a discounted price.
Devs/publishers being honest about their game is way more preferred than lying about the status of their game.
I got Ark in early access for 20$ and got Scorched earth for free. Now while some may say Ark never made it out of early access it made a long way.
It also can be very enjoyable to getting a lot of balance and content changes when a game is still in development with no meta.
I got downvoted to hell a few months back for making this remark about a game that’s been “Early Access” for over 2 years. That definitely is super cool that the devs have been working with the community and changing things to please everyone (hah!), but if you’re years away from doing something maybe stop telling people about what you’re doing? I don’t even know how many games I’ve finished at this point only to get a Steam update “Random Shooter <X> is available now!” and completely forgot the game wasn’t even released when I was playing it a year ago. It’s a stupid trend, I’m fine with beta and alpha testing, but what is this trend of paying any sort of double digits for a game they tell you isn’t even close to being done?
Or just do it like CDPR. Just release it and claim it isnt early access, patch it over 2 years and have their brain dead fans collectively get amensia about the horrendous release and praise them to high heavens for drip feeding them the product into an almost finished state over 2 years.
I’m not gonna lie, there have been some solid games that came from Early Access. Minecraft, Subnautica, Satisfactory, Hardspace Shipbreakers, Slime Rancher, it’s not all bad.
I mean, early access is explicitly meant to solve the “game not finished and out of money” problem, with the idea that the game will eventually be finished and sell a lot more (at a higher price) then, and many successful games did use it legitimately.
What is a much bigger problem (and happens much more often) is that they *don’t* slap an “early access” sticker on it, and instead sell their pre-alpha garbage as a finished game.
They release full games like that now though
Baldurs Gate 3 has been in EA for a weirdly long amount of time
What if companies went back to putting games on cartridges and you had to physically buy them all the time again?
*ea, dice, ubisoft. Just release it.
But your gonna finish the game right?
…
Right?
Early access can be a great tool to develop a game the way people actually want if the devs stick to their schedule
Problem with Early Access is that it allows the devs to get money before they finish the game, thus completely killing their motivation to finish said game. I mean why would they? They already made bank.
I mean sure there are some amazing success stories with Early Access (Rimworld and Deadcells come to mind) but in general I still find the entire concept really dumb.
Sadly, lately a lot of the early access games have been better and released in a more complete state than most AAA games.
yes… that’s exactly the point of early access.
or if you are AAA not even bother with the Early Access tag. Just let the mofo out there and let hype work its magic
Star Citizen up to half a billion, hope other studios don’t start getting ideas
It’s why I haven’t bought Baulders gate 3 but I love what I’ve seen of it so far
Cutting edge take
There’s nothing wrong with Early Access. You know what you’re getting. You also get to weigh in on functions which is cool. It’s only when a game is released unfinished as “complete” that it’s a problem.
Never really delved into the realm of early access, anyone here know any good early access games or are they more trouble than they are worth?
I mean compared to a game completely dying in the water or never being finished due to running out of funding, at least Early Access puts something out there. Just need to be aware of what you’re buying
I don’t know that this is really accurate these days. Seems to me like early access is a way to gain traction for a game that can’t afford to invest a lot in marketing as much as it is about funding production and getting some testing feedback.
What games where early access and did deliver? For me Factorio comes to mind and Minecraft in a way even though it wasn’t called early access just Alpha and Beta. I don’t know if Terraria was early access aswell at some point.
despite its issues, this is not a bad thing.
Earl access can be great for both gamers and developers.
Devs get a ton of feed back and direction for their game and players to have more impact of games direction. The players also usually get extra content or they get it for a discounted price.
Devs/publishers being honest about their game is way more preferred than lying about the status of their game.
I got Ark in early access for 20$ and got Scorched earth for free. Now while some may say Ark never made it out of early access it made a long way.
It also can be very enjoyable to getting a lot of balance and content changes when a game is still in development with no meta.
I’ve only done this with one game every and it worked out amazingly.
I bought Wildermyth very early on, played the one scenario they had and enjoyed it quite a bit.
I moved on to other games but came back to it the other day, years after first playing it.
There’s like 800% more content, it’s so much smoother, and still a ton of fun.
I’d like to think my $10 helped.
just stop buying these games
It’s “Cyberpunk” and “Gta The Trilogy Edition”)
It’s a funny joke, but some of the best games of recent years have come through Early Access.
Yeah, but some indie games it’s legit.
Early Access isn’t all that bad. It’s just practiced wrong. Very wrongly.
I got downvoted to hell a few months back for making this remark about a game that’s been “Early Access” for over 2 years. That definitely is super cool that the devs have been working with the community and changing things to please everyone (hah!), but if you’re years away from doing something maybe stop telling people about what you’re doing? I don’t even know how many games I’ve finished at this point only to get a Steam update “Random Shooter <X> is available now!” and completely forgot the game wasn’t even released when I was playing it a year ago. It’s a stupid trend, I’m fine with beta and alpha testing, but what is this trend of paying any sort of double digits for a game they tell you isn’t even close to being done?
You can remove the “and we ran out of money” tile if you really want to be accurate
Or just do it like CDPR. Just release it and claim it isnt early access, patch it over 2 years and have their brain dead fans collectively get amensia about the horrendous release and praise them to high heavens for drip feeding them the product into an almost finished state over 2 years.
If you havent played satisfactory in early access you’re missing out
I’m not gonna lie, there have been some solid games that came from Early Access. Minecraft, Subnautica, Satisfactory, Hardspace Shipbreakers, Slime Rancher, it’s not all bad.
At least marking it as early access let’s the customers see before purchase that it isn’t finished.
Most big publishers will just release the game without any early access marking and call it a finished product when it isn’t finished.
I mean, early access is explicitly meant to solve the “game not finished and out of money” problem, with the idea that the game will eventually be finished and sell a lot more (at a higher price) then, and many successful games did use it legitimately.
What is a much bigger problem (and happens much more often) is that they *don’t* slap an “early access” sticker on it, and instead sell their pre-alpha garbage as a finished game.
3 years later the game is actually done, but died 2 years and 11 months ago.
Edit: I’m looking at you, battlefield 2042
Cracks me up that 7 Days to Die is still in early access after 9 years. Guess it was reeeaalllyy early access. (I do love 7 days to die though)
As if.
Nowadays they just release it full price, unfinished or not.