Let's talk early-access

Early-access is a thing now on PC. Selling your game with only ideas in place and a whole bunch of content yet to come seems to have hit home on the platform.

Ark: Survival Evolved has been in the top sellers on steam for a while. Going even further: the whole 'survival' genre did really well on PC, with 99% of those games having an early-access model.

But now that consoles and the industry in general are becoming more and more open to this idea. Let's reflect back on this: Is early-access a good thing ? a bad thing ?

Has early-access met your expectations ? What games have you been happy with ? Which ones have you been disappointed with ? Did you like getting into a game early in development ?

And for console gamers: is early-access on PC a feature that interests you ? are you looking forward to playing early-access games on console ?

Personally, I found early access to be the perfect breeding ground for lazy developers, as you didn't have to put as much effort into your games anymore before deeming your product worthy of selling to consumers. You could just sell a game with only half the stuff done and then never bother working on it again (as you are already selling it)

Luckily, these frauds were soon found out. And eventhough I never wanted to buy into EA, I still ended up with: Prison Architect, Dirt Rally and Killing Floor 2.

I am very happy with those games. The devs seem passionate, work with the community and improve the games over time... I really changed my stance: I don't think these games would be so great if it weren't for EA.

But not every EA game turned out so well ...

I have no problem with it. I like the fact that I can play games like Elite Dangerous on XB1. Can't wait to try Dayz when it comes out as well.

Yeah, it allows you to get into games early, and there is a big market for this. PC has shown this and I'm sure on consoles it'll be no different.

Early Access is mostly only good for the sellers, not the players. It makes finishing their product optional, makes games that are actually finished under-valued, and obscures the value-for-money principle that real developers used to have to work for and earn.

I can't think of one other product or service on the planet that I would like the early access model to apply to, and this makes it suspect.

I don't see it as the absolutely evil thing that a lot of people do. I think it works well when a game is put into early access in a more than playable state. However, many devs do just throw their games into early access when they're right at the beginning of development, that I don't like.

It will inevitably be abused in some way by someone. But I think it's a good thing mostly. Getting help from fans to build your game with feedback and bugtesting should make development a bit faster, and helps making the devs able to see what is wanted from their game. It's also fun to see how the game slowly grows. I have bought only one game that isn't finished yet, and have been very happy with the purchase. I've played the game as far as I can, and it feels good knowing more is on the way. The game is Grim Dawn, by the way, and is great so far.

Early-access food: eat our food while we are still cooking it!

Problem is, as with any great idea, that some people try and abuse the system.

And they gave early-access a bad name, and I can fully get behind people that still see it as some kind of evil.

But we can not overlook all the times that early access was done right.

Prison Architect is such a great example: Early-access and its success in EA meant it could be developed for longer and turn out to be a better game.

On the other hand we have Spacebase: Early-access and its failure in EA meant its development was cut short and it never turned out to be the game it was supposed to be.

@Litchie: Grim Dawn is a game I'm looking forward to.

If it weren't for Kickstarter or Early-access it would've never been what it is today.

Great way to scam people into giving you money.

I mean honestly, what happened to just waiting for a game to actually release before purchasing it? All this early access, preorder and kickstarter crap, are people really this desperate to gamble their money away?

I avoid all early access games.

Early Access is just a euphemism for Early Sale.

True, I feel however that this is much like all the other terrible games on steam in that it's down to the consumer to make the decision of if a game is worth it or not. For instance, when I bought minecraft there was enough in the game at the time I purchased it for me to be happy with my purchase. If you're not happy with what you get for your money at the time of purchase, then it's probably best not to buy. Gamers shouldn't be buying in the hope the game will turn out great, but purchasing because there is already a solid foundation that can be added upon.

So in short, as long as the early access game has value without being fully finished, then I have no problems with it.

Any potential it has isn't worth it since it'll get abused like patches and dlc.

People are gullible and the gaming industry knows its audience is especially so.

Meh. Not a fan. Would rather wait for games to be finished before they're available.

I have absolutely no interest in playing those unfinished games. Am I supposed to play through them with a lot of features not implemented and when they get added I just start over or what? Seems like a waste of time. The only reason for me to get early access would be low prices. I guess I'd pay $5 for an unfinished game if it was more expensive later. Of course I wouldn't play them but then I would already own them for cheap saving them for later use when they are actually done. Is this an attractive solution for devolpers? No. But I will never pay $30 for your beta tests in disguise.

On Xbone you can get to play a limited selection of those early access titles but for free albeit only for 60 minutes. Unless you want to fork out the full amount for unlimited access. I think that's a sensible middle ground.

You know there is one good thing about season passes, they never go away. Say all the content comes out and i actually want it all, you can still get it without it being a mystery. Even better, sometimes you can get Season passes on sale later on. And don't get me started on Early Access. It used to be called QA testing, and people would get paid to do it. Now, publishers have found a way to have their work done for free AND make money on top of it.

Like many things with humans EA is a good idea at his root. But with corruption it get bad and nasty.

Of all the games I bough on EA, most of them was not that much develop and most of them are abandoned project that we paid for.

For me, EA is a scam.

The need to want certain games

The need to want to play a game you are really excited for early.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug. It's what makes people spend so much on Kickstarter, is that a bad thing necessarily ?

Kickstarter made Grim Dawn, Divinity, Wasteland, Yooka-Laylee and many more games possible.

Are people/consumers careless ? Yes, absolutely ! That's what I am trying to discuss here: there SHOULD be an early access sytem, a kickstarter system. But we need to inform consumers and protect them so they don't lose their money on frauds.

I like that one

Great point. I also found that the games I bought into in EA, already had sufficient content for me to enjoy.

Thing is: like a lot of things Valve launched: at the start it was crap.

It was unclear what you were getting yourself into and if you made a wrong choice (crappy game/abandoned game): you lost your money, tough luck.

Descriptions are way more clear now: what the game is now, what it'll become, what it might become, ... Refunds are in place.

Those things help a lot to improve the idea behind EA... which is still good.

@Salt_The_Fries: Interesting. Is early-access in place already on Xbox one ?

Well, publishers haven’t done early-access yet. So far its been exclusively used by indie devs.

But you can rest assured that they are looking into these types of things. The new Hitman is early-access.

It's a shame to have your experience with Early-access be like this. It paints a bad image for when you DO see a great early-access title, ... but you don't buy it, thinking of your past experience.

Any early-access games that did meet your expectations ?

Knew someone was going to mention EA (electronic arts) =P

When EA starts with EA, there will be hell to pay

@R4gn4r0k: Can I ask what great product has been on EA?

I mean Rust was a lot of fun, but I doubt it got completed whatsoever.

@R4gn4r0k: Yes. Since E3. You can already play Elite Dangerous, The Long Dark, Sheltered and I think some 2 others with more to come this year periodically.

Yeah, most of the survival games (that started the craze) are still in early-access.

Even DayZ, which was one of the first, is still in early access.

There are many good examples of Early-access. These are the ones I bought:

- Prison Architect: Bought it because I loved managment games like these in the 90s, early 2000s.
Game was in alpha for 2 years with stuff that kept being added. Game was a huge success and the most popular Introversion game.
Game will be out soon and the way in which it launches, is possible because of all the money it made in EA.

- Dirt rally: Bought it because I wanted a realistic racing game (turns out I suck at those xD)
I bought it for around 20 euro and they said the price would go up. It's now 45 euro, so it was great buying in at that price.
Game is better because unlike with previous Dirt games, codemasters is working with the community.

-Killing Floor 2: Bought it because of the free weekend.
Most of the stuff is already in the game, from a basic gameplay perspective it's fully functioning.
It just needs more content. And the devs are dedicated.

I bought all those games because I believed in the ideas behind them, but equally so in the developers behind them.

No, no, when I see "EA" and "early-access" being used a lot too, I sometimes mix them together and get "EA access" ^-^

But early-access is the term Valve/Steam uses for games that are still in development

Very nice. I'll look on my Xbox tonight how those are shown in the store, and how that information compares to say, what can be found on steam.

Because I think it's a really good idea, but giving information to people about a game still in development is of the upmost importance :)

@R4gn4r0k: I admit I forgot these tittle. I did not get them to see if their development has been so I can only trust your words.

And I will add that these tittle does not help the bad reputation I have of EA of Steam.

KSP is one of the best games that highlight early access and greenlight. It was in EA for at least 2 years and it was an amazing journey to take with the devs. I enjoyed being part of it

So yeah, the benefits outweigh the negatives

I fully get that. I had big issues with EA too, I filtered it off in the store because I was tired of seeing ANOTHER unfinished survival game... Grrrrrrrr

But because I was so sceptical of EA, I only bought into games that I knew would get finished (because I trusted the dev, I knew them from past work)... Or in the worst case scenario: if it never got finished, at least the game was enjoyable in its alpha state.

True, there are many crap games on EA on steam right now. But there are also success stories like KSP and Prison Architect.

Did you get to know the game because of the free 1-hour trial ?

Or were you following up on development, which looked interesting to you, after which you purchased it ?

Well I bought all 3 early access titles on XOne, it's something new for me but basically I played the trials and thought the games were all great(Elite Dangerous, Sheltered, Long Dark), so I was like I want these games I might as well show them my support now and get a discount on the full price later. I did this because the "work in progress " was satisfactory for me, I guess it is a gamble so if I get a bad experience out of this I'll be more cautious in he future.

I think it's fine as long as there a no bad surprises later on, only competent devs should participate and there are some perks so I think it is fine now, will see how Elite turns out soon.

I hate them. I am the player that most the times only play through a game once because it is so many games to play and so little time. I would get bored of the unfinished game before it even get finished if it ever will be. As some here already said, finish the game is just optional...

@sts106mat: Yeah that means you really enjoyed it: if you suddenly realise you have way more hours into it than expected.

Sounds like a cool game, makes me think a bit of Freelancer.

I quite like certain games in early access. Good devs listen to the community and can push the games in the right direction in terms of development. However, here's the issue with consoles. With early access on steam I can play the game, go to the forum and write my thoughts all in one place, devs give responses and updates within those same forums. On consoles you don't have that same level of ease of interaction or community. "Early access" on consoles seems more like a revenue generating excerise to me.

It depends on the game, but what you say is generally true about console game single player. Most of them tend to be more one and done than the games you find on PC (RTS, turn based strategy, sim, RPG, MOBA, MMO, etc). I wouldn't want early access on games like UC or Halo campaigns for example.

I used it on X1 and it's pretty cool and a nice little perk I suppose.

Minecraft was early access.

Look at it now.

hmm I might have to get crack'n on Elite Dangerous for X1 then. When does it launch proper?

Some very solid points.

A good dev that is not banking on the success of Early-access can make a great product.

And yes, there is a larger barrier between console gamers and the devs. But they can use their smartphones to go to the forums too ^^

I was just thinking the other day how well integrated the steam community is... Interactions between devs and gamers, a place for the community to post their screenshots and guides, it's amazing.

True, I would never purchase an SP campaign in EA.

Though I would like to play Grim Dawn for example, I'll wait until all the acts are in it, before purchasing.

Dunno if it was the first early-access game.

But it sure as hell was the first to get it right.

I was Anti-Early Access for a long time and thought that it lowers the standard of video games and everyone is trying to use it as a cash grab instead of bringing a good game and convincing pubs/users that his product is actually good and should be supported.

But after Steam refund policy, I am fine with it. There are few graphs that I've seen recently (can't remember links anymore) where it was shown that a lot of cash grabbers are crying that their "art pieces" aren't selling anymore and it showed huge amount gamers refunded and lose of money for devs making those "art-pieces".

There were also some great games in the past like Divinity: OS among few others, that would not have been as good as they were (full of features) if it wasn't for early access. I think first it was completely broken but now with refund policy, things are balanced for now, and I have no problem with it anymore (at least for now).

Yeah singleplayer games probably what i think of

Well on the one hand it allows really small developers to make games with bigger ambition, but one the other hand it allows developers to get lazy.

I have one or two 'early access games' and the progress although there, is super slow.

There can be benefits to deadlines, they make people work harder and they make people more decisive. I think there needs to be rules curbing abuse from developers.

Early access example:

"Here dear victim, excuse me, it was a lapses lingua, we meant dear "consumer", purchase our game and shell out 60 bucks so you can have a taste of what´s coming, once we have your money you´ll get like 20% of the game to keep you busy for the next 3 months when we finally .... decide to delay the game for a couple more months because we haven´t had time to complete it, once those 2 months have passed we will deliver your game ..... broken btw, which will gives us another 30 days before we finally patch it. Meanwhile you can purchase some DLC for our game, there´s some cool stuff there." Thank you for your purchase !

@Cloud_imperium: Yeah, I was really sceptical at first too.

But I buy into early-access the same way I buy into any game: I want to know about the Developer and the idea behind the game has to interest me.

The refund policy has helped it so people can get their money back on downright abandonware.

Eh I have mixed feelings. I wish I could get a refund for DayZ, those lazy ass***** just took the cash and talk about future plans for the last year. No serious or worthwhile updates in the meanwhile. Not even for some of the worst bugs in game.
I bought also Rust when it came out and it was good but when they changed the engine I was not really happy...

Contagion was also EA back then and those developers just left without saying anything. They had alot of plans and they just left the game with some bad maps, bad gameplay and shitty netcode, hoping that the workshop community would do everything for them. Not happy with it.

Killing Floor 2 is a mixed bag for me, the developers are promising ALOT but they are soooo slow, altough it's very polished already atm. But not worth it to buy. Also they first said to be fully woking on that title, Killing Floor 2 wasn't out for a couple of months and BAM they show us Rising Storm 2 trailer...

Sooo I'm somewhat disappointed with every EA title I own. I feel it's a way to ripp people off. At the end it's never what they promised, and if you look at DayZ, it's already outdated and it feels like nothing has been changed since it came out.