What is Early Access?
But with the help of the consumers, the developers can build the game up alongside the gamers, who will give them feedback, inform them of bugs and glitches and suggest features and content.
The Pros and Cons
To not make this post too long (which I intended to do at first), I'll sum up the objective pros and cons.
The Pros:
- It provides small developers monetary support, without tying themselves to big companies (e.g. Sony, Microsoft);
- It could give the developers more recognition and potentially become more successful;
- Developers get more support through word of mouth.
- With the consumer's feedback, the game can be more polished when it will be fully released.
The Cons:
- Consumers (knowingly) buy an unfinished product;
*The product may never be fully finished and/or released; - The price of the product will be the same as when it will be released;
- The full release of the game is much less of a bang, due to its exposure over a period of time;
- Empty and broken promises will be made;
- Consumers get tired of the game before it's even fully released.
Why am I against Early Access?
It's really simple. I don't like buying something that's not finished or has no clear future. It's not the only thing. There's cases of Early Access games being nothing more than cashgrabs. There have been cases of developers uploading a quick Zombie Survival game template from Unity (Unity is a game engine), hoping 13 year old kids would latch onto it, grab their mom's credit card and proceed to buy a piece-of-crap.
And this is not limited to Early Access. It happens with a lot of crowdfunding projects. A crowdfunding page is started based on the hopes and dreams of people wanting something badly. As soon as they rake in enough cash, they run away and spend the money on booze and strippers.
A Zombie Survival game template from the Unity engine. Source
Keep in mind that Steam had no official refund policy yet. That's right. You could purchase an unfinished product and cannot even refund a game if a product is unplayable for you. I suppose we have to thank Australia for the refund policy. It was the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) who sued Valve for not having a refund policy. The ACCC won the lawsuit, Valve conceded and (finally) implemented a reliable refund policy in June 2015. Who knows, without the lawsuit we might still not have had a refund policy through Steam...
Do I have Early Access games? Yes. Yes, I do. But I only get those games if they truly peak my interest. And it should be either Free to Play, given to me by someone or incredibly cheap somehow (we're talking about €2,- or less). Some examples of good games with proper developers in Early Access is Brawlhalla, Golf it! and Speedrunners.
Brawlhalla, a Super Smash Bros.-esque game. Source
You know what might be one of the worst things about it is? It's ruining the way people look at new games. Gamers becoming more accepting of unfinished products. "Oh, they're going to fix it at some point." Yes, but WHEN? 2 weeks? Months? Years, even? They're becoming more accepting of mistakes. If there was an Early Access thing for a Samsung smartphone, for example, would people buy a phone, and only part of the functions the smartphone will eventually have?
And I know there's a substantial difference between hardware and software. But is there really? Should there be a difference?
"But IKEA sell their chairs in pieces and you have to assemble it yourself". Yes, but it is a finished product and intentionally disassembled so it's easier to package it and cheaper for you to buy. They do not sell you a tree and tell you: "Hey. Psst. If you want a chair, buy this tree. And let's saw this tree together, because I need your help." That's what Early Access is: A tree that you yourself have to turn into a chair. And you're paying for it.
This one always cracks me up. Source
A couple of close friends of mine don't share my view of this whole ordeal. They gladly throw money at the screen just to be able to be one of the first. And if I so much as whisper a complaint, they tell me to "stop hating on it" and "I can do whatever I want" and other uneducated arguments...
Alright, that's enough of me rambling on. Obviously I have a negative view on it, so it's rather difficult for me to see it in a positive light.
Well written
Thank you. Appreciate the comment!
Early access is a tool that should be sparingly used, but it does seem to be very much overused by developers.
Great post! Would you mind if I included it in today's "best of gaming"?
I agree on that with you. Overusage is always a bad thing.
And sure, I'd be honored to have it in included! Thank you very much.
I'm completely against buying early access games, the very few that I own were a result of moments of weakness and buying just to play with some friends, but the hype quickly wares off before the game has reached its maturity.
On a separate note, is DLC really any better? developers are now incentivised o split a game up and sell it in pieces rather than sell a finished product, not even many season passes now which include all DLC, its become the norm for season passes to have a limited amount of updates attached to it, its all very ridiculous and with the way development has improved over the years its become much easier to develop games, you see blockbuster releases on one year of production, at the risk of sounding old I was used to waiting 4-5 years before a game was ready for launch back in the good ol' days.
Nice Post OP!! keep 'em coming!
Yeah, I've been baited into buying terrible games, because my friends told me they were good. That's when I decided I will not ever rely on my friends' opinion alone.
Oh and DLCs are something I could go on for a long while, but that's something for another time...
Glad you like the post.
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