How do you feel about Early Access?

[Y_A_M_A]

While on paper early access looks like great thing, it is only great for developers and they love to abuse that system.
From my experience - I've supported way waaaay to many early access games over the years and I can't say that was a good idea. ( I've stopped doing this like 3 years ago and I will never do it again! ) First thing - devs love to keep their games in early access forever and releasing DLC content for games that are not even close to being ready for release. Second - game stays in early access for many years, DLC rolling and guess what game is shut down completely ( after milking player base ) Third - devs gets money for early access and then they releasing game that should stay in EA because its a bloody incomplete buggy mess so they can get more money. ( Of course they will say everything will be fixed in time - and generally they won't do that ) The amount of lies and bluffs from early access developers ( and kickstarter projects ) over the years just blows my mind. I feel sorry for for small dev. teams that really care about they projects and want to create something great, ( and lack resources ) unfortunately I've rather bad experience from all may support so no more!
Basic idea was great but time showed that EA is simply corrupted.
My final thought is that EA should disappear for good.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Paying to have the priviledge of beta testing software? No thanks .

I dunno. It's kind of a double edged sword.

It does certainly sound a bit... foolish to have to pay for helping the developement of the game, but on the other hand giving feedback - meaningful feedback, not about why there might be low poly grass somewhere or why some of the lip sync isn't quite like real life, or some such - might actually be beneficial to the end experience.

I've done that with a number of Kickstarted games and I did it for Might and Magic X too (since, yeah, I got the game at a lower price than at release), and I think some of the feedback actually went through (enough likeminded people gave feedback, not because I was somehow so brilliant ). Granted, though, that those games had a pretty specific target audience so the feedback was bound to be about gameplay.

I think I'd actually be happy to take a stroll of the recent press build and give feedback if the purpose of it was to hone the gameplay. I might even be willing to pay for a small sum, if I knew the focus of gathering feedback was in the right place.

Possibly, not certainly.

 

[devivre]

Depends on the genre. I‘d say, EA is rather terrible for games that rely a lot on story and characters. Too many bugs or incomplete parts of the game world can be pretty bad for immersion...

For some other genres (like a sports game or an old school puzzle game...) it might be much easier though...

 

[Restlessdingo32]

I dunno. It's kind of a double edged sword.

It does certainly sound a bit... foolish to have to pay for helping the developement of the game, but on the other hand giving feedback - meaningful feedback, not about why there might be low poly grass somewhere or why some of the lip sync isn't quite like real life, or some such - might actually be beneficial to the end experience.

I've done that with a number of Kickstarted games and I did it for Might and Magic X too (since, yeah, I got the game at a lower price than at release), and I think some of the feedback actually went through (enough likeminded people gave feedback, not because I was somehow so brilliant ). Granted, though, that those games had a pretty specific target audience so the feedback was bound to be about gameplay.

I think I'd actually be happy to take a stroll of the recent press build and give feedback if the purpose of it was to hone the gameplay. I might even be willing to pay for a small sum, if I knew the focus of gathering feedback was in the right place.

Possibly, not certainly.

I get what you're saying. The idea being you pay to access the unfinished game, offer feedback and the developer takes this feedback and does something with it to improve the game. The issue I'd raise is you don't know if they're actually going to do so.

 

[Ramzah]

I rather they worked on pushing out a demo with the main game features, those are probably not going to change by the time a demo is out and players can get a feeling of what the game's about and if they like it.
Way too many games are stuck in early access hell and yet they ask for the full game price or even worse, they are riddled with microtransactions.
To be honest i wish someone would regulate early access to something like: No microtransactions allowed, can only be EA for a max of 6 months-1 year, if expectations are not met (NMS comes to mind), full refunds should be allowed when the game comes out of EA.
One can dream..

 

[SigilFey]

I often enjoy playing early versions of games. It's really cool watching the development evolve (...or devolve...) as time goes on. It's also way, waaay more effective than any QA "department" could ever hope for. Best way to find and fix bugs is to release something publicly.

So, yeah!

What I'd ask for is that studios try to more openly explain what to expect from Early Access...instead of...ahem...trying to make "sales" instead of gain investments.

Big...BIG difference.

 

[CyberLettuce]

I would rather wait for the full game. We have waited this long, I would possibly play a BETA for the Multiplayer element down the road but not the Single Player experience we will get on day one. Just gotta have faith and wait for that sweet case to arrive and then shut off the world around you for a while.

 

[MakoRuu]

I would not be upset with a "demo" that was basically just a small limited area of Night City with one mission, and a premade character and life path. Just to walk around and see everything, get a feel for the guns and the driving.

 

[parasite_avi]

This simply isn't the game that needs it. It's not an indie project with little or absent budget, it has enough people to do both development and debugging (and likely, bug hunting as well), and it is a project that is supposed to impress, surprise and (perhaps) shock the players when its out and available for everyone.

The latter three are impossible to achieve with Early Access because there would be very little (if anything to expect). Even new content wouldn't feel the same because that's just one part of the game (no matter how big it is), yet it isn't very likely to change the entire and whole experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game we've been waiting for, like, 8 years now, right? Some of us more, some of us less, but still, releasing the game in Early Access would inevitably ruin the sensation of something novel, genuinely never seen or heard or experienced before about the game, and all those years of silence and mystery and temptation and build-up would go to absolute waste.

Even if they decided to do Early Access, I wouldn't play this particular game before 1.0.

For the sake of a fair argument, I'll say that I bought Risk of Rain 2 almost immediately when it came out in Early Access. This thing only had a roadmap (which changed later) with planned features and all, but ultimately my experience would be largely the same even if I never bought it before it's 1.0 release. The reason is the irrelevance of plot and lore. This little thing is pure gameplay and shooting and surviving in a rouguelite form with an emphasis in replayability and doing the same thing indefinitely. Sure, Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG with probably a lot of branching of all shapes and sizes, but it is still story-driven; that's basically buying a raw, unfinished experienced to exhaust yourself with it and its story before it comes out for what reason? To play it later again, with all of your expectations and possible hype lost for sake of playing it again, but with fewer bugs?

 

[4RM3D]

This simply isn't the game that needs it.

To clarify, I wasn't talking about CP2077 in particular, but EA in general.

 

[parasite_avi]

To clarify, I wasn't talking about CP2077 in particular, but EA in general.

My bad. Been thinking about replying to this thread so long that I forgot about the original post.

Regardless, my message is exactly what I think about Early Access put in slightly different words: I love it, but it can't work for every title. My personal line is the importance or existence of plot in the game and whether or not it's a sandbox-like experience.

I would never buy anything like Prey (both 2006 and 2017) or DOOM: Eternal or Shadow Warrior as an Early Access game, but gladly would buy Garry's Mod, Risk of Rain, Enter the Gungeon, etc. with that model.

 

[metalmaniac21]

Waiting for the endgame piece in early access while alphatesting a half-baked on one side and pitch black on the other product? No, thanks. Developers should pay me for being a part of testing group. Not just a part of focus group, an actual alpha-tester. Age of Decadence and Torment: Tides of Numenera were lessons learnt good enough to not sign on this EA crap again. Same applies to CDPR, I'd rather read a preview that says outright that i7 7700k @ 5.1ghz is obsolete for their new game.

 

[Vaccusa]

I think it’s fair to assume an early access build is never going to happen however I suppose it could be the case as it was with Deus Ex Human Revolution that a limited press build or something of the sort could leak. My excitement for Deus Ex 3 was similar to how I feel about Cyberpunk right now.
After years of building so much anticipation for a game like either you eventually get that one beautiful moment where it’s installed on your machine and ready to play.Those moments of the first few menu screens you let play out to completion for the first and maybe last time giving way to your very first moments of gameplay is the payoff of years of buildup. However well the game does or doesn’t deliver on your expectations, that moment is a super cool one and you only get to play for the first time once.
I still regret playing the press demo of Deus Ex Human Revolution before launch. I got a glimpse into the game that I knew would end at any moment and I would be right back waiting for the full game release only this time having used up the magic of the game’s first few moments.
If there were a demo, a build leak, or an early access version of Cyberpunk it would be so very difficult to avoid but I’m certain it would be worth it to wait until release day proper.

 

[irrrregular]

Really dont care about early access, since the last years have been horrible in my country in terms of economics and currency. I only buy the games when they go on sale.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

I've bought early access titles where I was happy with the state of the game, so even if no further changes came out I'd be satisfied with it. So something like Risk of Rain 2.

 

[Drew22881]

I think it's a great way to support interesting projects from small studios. On the flip side there's a lot of trash and outright scams on EA, so buyer beware.

 

[MacSalty]

I find Early Access to be the latest in money grubbing trends. Early Access has become the new Loot Boxes and while it has worked in the past, I think could become a dangerous trend in the future. I'm looking at Baldur's Gate 3 in my current analysis. Larian Studios has had some great successes with Early Access getting their games off the ground. In fact, their last two major titles were both Early Access games. Divinity: Original Sin and Divinitiy: Original Sin 2. Their latest and greatest, Baldur's Gate 3 is also now going into Early Access. After having waited so long since their initial announcement for the game to release, I get an announcement that it's Early Access. Again. I pay them the full $79.99 + tax for a copy of the game but I only get to play the first chapter.

It's the next evolution in pre-orders and could start a troublesome trend. Rather than actually having a finished product on the horizon, game studios can start to release what they've got as Early Access. They can take community feedback and finish it with their help. This is both a positive and a negative. The vocal minority will end up getting more in the game than what the community at large actually wants to see. It also leaves you with a game unfinished in your library that you've played the first part of several times. Many people will have the motivation to go back and finish it when the game is fully finished and released. Just as many or more may find themselves in the situation where "Oh yeah I played it, it was good. I've moved on now though." They'll end up having spent full price for one quarter of a game they'll never finish. I'm not suggesting that to be the case with Cyberpunk, however it could help set this trend in motion.

I'm up for debate because I'm pretty sure I'm in a small minority that feel this way about Early Access but I can see it potentially happening.

 

[4RM3D]

Early Access has become the new Loot Boxes and while it has worked in the past, I think could become a dangerous trend in the future.

Loot boxes were never a good thing, but early access can be. It still remains a double-edged sword because it can be abused to release a buggy incomplete game under the banner of EA (reference intended) so users are more accepting towards bugs. Either way, the reality remains that certain games would have never seen the day of light if not for EA to give them a financial boost or community feedback that was needed to improve the game.

Larian Studios going EA again is a bit weird, though. They don't really need the money with the success of DOS 1 and 2, so they probably want community feedback then? I guess that's a positive thing and I do trust them. Getting BG3 sooner as a playable demo (let's call it that) is a good development. In any case, I wouldn't use Larian Studios as a bad example for EA.

 

[superpunked2077]

I get it, but dont think I will ever end up buying an EA game. Devs can just give up at any point and abandon the game, ruin it through major updates, decide they have made their money and just release it "fully" in an unfinished state etc.

In regards to CP2077, thats a hard no. Just release the game when its done.

 

[herschel7777]

I would wait another few month, EA doesnt suit well in my opinion. Taleworlds uses Early Acces for Bannerlord and it was great, but we are talking about CDPR, it would be like Rockstar giving EA to GTA 6.