Early Access Games on Steam

Sonereal · Feb 2, 2014

The top two selling games on Steam for the last few weeks have been Rust and DayZ, and Starbound is up in the top ten as well.

Is it just me, or is Steam missing the point of its own early access program? It is one thing to allow unfinished games on Steam through the early access programs, but I feel that putting games like Rust, Starbound, DayZ, and Divinity on the front page and advertising the bejeesus out of those games is irresponsible.

Again, that's not to say I'm against early access or anything. I do own a couple of games sold through early access around the time the program began, but it does feel like things are getting a little out of hand when two early alpha games are outselling finished games. I do see why people would buy those games based on the concept of those games, because there really isn't any game like the DayZ (except the one we don't talk about in polite conversation) or like Rust.

What do you guys think?

grandad1982 · Feb 2, 2014

I feel like they can suffer from to much burn out. I own a few and try not to play them to much as I want to wait for the final product with all its potential features and polish. Im pleased the Banished guy didn't go this way.

Dell19 · Feb 2, 2014

I haven't brought an early access game yet, mainly because full releases usually have enough bugs when they first go live so a game in development seems like something I wouldn't enjoy. It doesn't help that the price of the alpha games seem like they are as expensive as a full release would have been.

FriendlyFire · Feb 2, 2014

No one is FORCING you to buy early access or preorders or kickstarter.
That said I got burnt on.

Diablo 3 (preorder)
CastleStory (kickstarter)

Never pre-order or early access ever.
Take all kick starter promises with a grain of salt as hyper and expectations are sky high and under delivered.

GoodGame · Feb 3, 2014

Youtube Let's Plays and video reviews are your friends here.

GenMarshall · Feb 4, 2014

GoodGame said:
Youtube Let's Plays and video reviews are your friends here.

That's what got me to get Starbound.

Thorgalaeg · Feb 4, 2014

I bought two games last year. Assetto Corsa, which was Early Access and X:Rebirth which was not.

Funnily enough, i would say Assetto Corsa is far more polished and bug-free than X:R. X:R one is a total mess unfinished and full of bugs (leaving appart it is total crap IMO).

coanda · Feb 4, 2014

FriendlyFire said:
Never pre-order or early access ever.

I've gone with Early Access a couple times that I thought were worth it. Just don't assume there will be massive improvements. Maybe a few bugs get fixed, a couple features added, but for the most part expect WYSIWYG. Sometimes, early-access games are already worth their price.

As far as pre-ordering though, I agree. Terrible idea.

civvver · Feb 4, 2014

Eh I won't buy anything not on sale so it doesn't affect me. There are so many other games to play besides the early access ones. If people want to buy em go for it. The only thing I dislike is when a game is in early access or pre-order for a loooong time. Like I feel like Don't Starve was available for pre-order a year before it was done.

Rub'Rum · Feb 4, 2014

Right now, I can't say I enjoy the whole concept of early access that much. It seems you have a choice of either 1) getting sort of burnt out on the game and put most of your hours in it when it's just in barebone state, experiencing an inferior-ish product and having a moderate-okayish amount of fun or 2) wait until the game is "finally released" and it's actually been so long that it has become sort of irrelevant and it's lost in that giant swarm of games you need to play from your Steam back-catalog and gog.com purchases and whatnot.

Trying to find the right balance. The thing is... These 2 options can be exactly the same for games that are "full-released" without early access. At this point I consider most Paradox games and Total War games to be "early access"-style crap on their release dates... So you wait out until it has everything that should have been there from the start, you wait out until it's fully functional... and it eventually falls into that option 2 of half-irrelevance "got it for 5$ in a sale" kind of thing where you don't spend as much time playing as you should.

GAGA Extrem · Feb 4, 2014

Well, I think Early Access can be quite good. It just depends on how it is used.

Kerbal Space Program is certainly a fantastic game, even while in early access. I had hundreds of hours of fun with it so far.
...however, the core mechanics of the game where already functional when it was released on steam. That can't be said for other games.

Starforge, on the other hand, is a prime example how NOT to do early access. I bought the game a year ago and it seems as if almost no developement took place. It is still barely playable in what I would call "Pre-Alpha". A game like this should *never* have been released on Early Access.

Another big problem with Early Access is the fact that many devs don't give good information about their game, but rather an outlook of the fantastic future that it will have. Steam should really proof-read the descriptions before allowing *any* game to go Early Access.

However, ultimately, it is up to the consumer to stay informed and only buy what you either believe in, or what is fit enough for your enjoyment. And NEVER EVER preorder.

Thorgalaeg · Feb 4, 2014

I forgot about KSP! The third game i bought last year. One of the best games i have ever tried and it is only an alpha!

I think the times of big good finished PC games are mostly over. Currently the big companies are all consolised so the only nice PC games right there are small indie games or not so small but unfinished and in perpetual development status, like KSP.

Rub'Rum · Feb 4, 2014

GAGA Extrem said:
Another big problem with Early Access is the fact that many devs don't give good information about their game

They love to point out to their twitter feed or specific game forum as information source (I don't have time to browse so many forums or read so much stuff), and the community of fans is usually hostile to anyone who comes in with questions regarding the development because "Didn't you read last month's update on the development blog!??!" or "you should have expected this or that because it's been said before that bla bla" or whatever else. But the thing is, when you put your game on early access, the store page should be a lot clearer about what to expect, and there should even be in-game warnings of what it is you can expect to happen.

Malachi256 · Feb 4, 2014

I consider buying a game upon release to be a risky investment, so paying anything for early access is an even greater risk. Someone who follows up such a risky investment with whining is simply a moron.

FriendlyFire · Feb 5, 2014

Thorgalaeg said:
X:R. X:R one is a total mess unfinished and full of bugs (leaving appart it is total crap IMO).

And to think that Egosoft delay XR release date by more then a year.
I blame stupid XBOX for ruining everything, simplified controls my butt hole. :mad:

I wonder how much development time was flush down the drain trying to develop it for the xbox.

Dont worry Thorgalaeg
I learnt my lesson the hard way too

Thorgalaeg · Feb 5, 2014

Yeah Egosoft taught me not to pre-order a game nor to buy the first day it gets out never again, better wait some weeks so it is properly reviewed. I didnt buy it directly from Steam though (got it at half the price somewhere else), otherwise i would have requested a refund.

civvver · Feb 5, 2014

Why is kerbel space program still in development anyway? It's been in there forever and I thought most people agreed it's a finished game.

Thorgalaeg · Feb 5, 2014

They want to add lots of things: A much deeper career mode with money and contracts, better physics, resources mining...

In fact the planned features list is pretty long.

Maybe it stays in development forever. Which i have not any problem with, if it gets better and better.

civvver · Feb 5, 2014

I'd release it and make those things free patches but hey I'm not the developer and it seems they have sales without.

Thrawn · Feb 5, 2014

civvver said:
I'd release it and make those things free patches but hey I'm not the developer and it seems they have sales without.

That's exactly what they've done. They've released the game in an alpha state, and improving it with free patches.

Personally, I haven't bought any early access titles yet. Don't really have time/money for many more games haha.

Early Access Games on Steam

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