Should Civ6 do Early Access?

[SupremacyKing2]

The new Master of Orion has been released as Early Access and it got me thinking. I know it is not Firaxis' way of doing things but should they consider doing Early Access for civ6?

I can see some pros and cons with Early Access:

Pros
- The company gets some money sooner that can help with paying for development.
- Players get their hands on the game sooner so less wait.
- Company gets feedback from players who are actually playing the game that can help better tailor the game to what players want. Also, the feedback will be from a bigger sample of players than just a closed beta group. A bigger sample and more feedback means better chance at catching more bugs before release.

Cons
- Some players might get turned off by a game that is not finished yet. I see on the MOO forum that some players seem to be judging the game as if it is the final release even though they know it is not.

 

[danaphanous]

this works best in cultures that are used to alpha/beta releases and like testing/improving them.

I don't think the civ community is like that, though it could be with some work so it's likely there will be a lot of ranting and judging. However, in terms of making a quality game it's the way to go since as we saw with vanilla civ V they don't have the manpower or forsight to catch all the bugs or polish it without the community. It took a lot of patches for that to happen which could have been saved with early-access testing thus saving them money.

 

[Nobody]

Don't they normally just release the alpha as the finished product. Then the real game is the 3rd expansion.

 

[Redaxe]

I'd be ok if there is a special beta sign-up intended for serious gamers to do some testing to help log errors and help with balancing- maybe to get a discount on the final product.

But I strongly believe that software should be as stable and polished as possible before it is released although it seems like this way of thinking is a relic from the 90s. How many other things do you buy and are expected by the company to accept that they won't work?

Will you buy a new model Ford if you are told by the dealer that there is a chance the brakes won't work?
Or an engineer telling you that the bridge he just built might collapse?
Or the builder of your new house telling you that the roof might collapse on you tonight when your sleeping?
Or a restaurant serving a raw chicken to a customer because the chef couldn't be bothered to cook it?

To the OP I'm very cautious about buying games 'off-the-plan'. I spent in and bought Elemental - War of Magic believing it was going to be Master of Magic 2.0. Well that was a disappointment although Stardock did their best to regain the trust of their customers by giving Legendary Heroes away for free.

Then there is Worlds of Magic which failed dismally according to the review - yet it hyped itself up to be something big. I'd rather play the waiting game.

 

[Gorbles]

Comparisons to real-world products that are generally assembled by machine / on an assembly line rarely work out well, chief.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

Don't they normally just release the alpha as the finished product. Then the real game is the 3rd expansion.

What true words, for Nobody to have said...

---
Closest thing to early access I think Firaxis culture would do is a closed beta. And then it wouldn't help quite so much as loosing hundreds more players on it would.

 

[civ5newb]

paying to play test their game ? nope!

 

[AuganM]

Ahem, No

 

[x2Madda]

I think it would end badly for Firaxis to EA a main line game like Civ6.
Something smaller like sid meiers spaceships would certainly work because no one has any expectations when it comes to a brand new IP.

I think the main thing that needs to change is that Firaxis needs to meet player expectations. They have done just fine coasting on eventually releasing great games after patches and updates but Civ5 blew up in a big way after the expansions and that momentum rapidly fell with every game after that, barring x-com 2, a game which also has received mostly positive attention but is fostering the mantra of 'wait for the expansion'.

Even I find myself just waiting for Civ6, the expansion, that will hopefully fix everything wrong with Civ6 at launch. Since that won't be until December 2017 (Or march 2018 if delayed) can we consider the release of Civ6, later this year, to be early access by default?