Broken on release: Is early access ruining games?

As games are being made by many more indie developers, its fair to say that we have a fair choice of incomplete games, but the question is whether that is a bad thing or not.

[SynGamer]

Not at all. Early Access often enables players to contribute their idea's and feedback to the developer(s), who are then able to ACTUALLY implement and make changes to the game.

I look at "early access" games as "paid beta's. It's kind of the opposite of what we're use to, but I love the idea of getting to try a game early AND help make it better.

[Doogle300]

I totally agree. Early access on paper is great, but it's the ones that slip through the cracks like War Z that spoil it.

[SynGamer]

Completely agree, but thankfully shitty games like that are quickly pointed out by the media and gamers alike.

[PurpHerbison]

Yet gamers played the hell out of War Z regardless, and it's saddening.

[Kivespussi]

It's great for developers with passion and great ideas but don't have enough resources to complete the game. I mean at least they note everyone that "hey, the game is still not finished and will be very rough around the edges. If you don't want to support our work or don't want the game before it's ready, do not buy this just yet". I think that if you want to point fingers in someone for releasing broken games then point the fingers at EA's direction. BF4 is a kind of game that shouldn't be released when they did. It has gotten better with patches but still isn't working like it should.

[wsoutlaw87]

Ya i thought the dayz guy handled it very well telling everyone straght that the game will be very buggy and rough and just pay if you want to support development.

[Infamous298]

Am i the only who thinks that early access games are overpriced???

[1nsomniac]

No the majority of them are not heavily over-priced but for the concept of early access (content-wise) they are over priced.

There's a voxel god sim game on steam (compares itself to Minecraft) at the moment, cant remember the name, but it's £40 & has nothing in it & has been like that since about November I think. There's a lot of complaints on their forum.

Don't know why anyone would pay £40 anyway

[Vanna]

I totally agree

It gives gamers a chance to try them out and contribute to ideas, fixes etc

The problem is many including media seem to treat them as complete or are not able to fully grasp what an alpha state truly means.

[sinspirit]

Definitely. MineCraft was in Alpha when people were able to buy it. Basically early access. If not for that the game would not be as phenomenally huge.

StarBound and Prison Architect are more great examples which I have purchased. If not for early access then some of these developers without much money would be forced to release broken games entitled as full releases. Early Access means putting your game up earlier, pulling in funding, and having even more development time to put in, which so far seems to get rid of the idea of DLC as these common updates pull in consistent funding and keep players playing because they have more to look forward to every week or so with the updates.

I personally find it amazing to watch a game evolve with updates. To a developer it must really be like watching your baby grow up.

[ATi_Elite]

Early access is AWESOME!

Stop crying about it being broken because you are playing a Pre-Alpha game.

That's like buying a used car with no engine in it and crying about how it doesn't drive fast.

You are warned and informed of what you are getting into.

(WarZ is a bad example because WarZ was a complete rip-off and just a money grab from the start).

DayZ went from being a one man Mod to a Complete overhaul by a very small team in about 1.5 years. Most games take 3 years and a ton of people to make and DayZ while very very playable still has a ton of things Dean will add. Also DayZ is more complex than most other games as still nothing is like it.

I like early access because lots of times you get to play with the Devs and actually have Devs implement some of your suggestions.

Project Cars is a complete MONSTER because the Devs just took all the great gamer ideas and put them into the game.

Firefall is another early access Game that Devs played with gamers on a Daily basis and Firefall has become a Great MMO-FPS-RPG as well as a Flawless eSport all becuase of a great Dev/Gamer early access relationship.

If early access is done right the game will be made with gamer input thus insuring a strong community and a great game.

[SpiralTear]

I can see people being upset with buying a game that technically is still in the works. However, this isn't kept in secret or anything. As long as the early access is advertised as being "in development", then gamers shouldn't be pointing fingers at the developers.

War Z was a big problem, I totally agree, but I think it was also a lesson that digital distribution services need to take early access games seriously and not let just anything pass on the storefront. Just because a game is technically incomplete doesn't mean it should be downright broken.

Early access isn't ruining games, but I still think there's a lot that the gaming industry needs to learn to really make this idea work.

[SnakeCQC]

With early access; you know what you are getting. Atleast im not being charged full retail for bugs etc. People can always look at the comments section of steam or research what they buy.

[Hartsy]

At least with early access you know what your getting, a game that's not finished, when you pay full price for, something like battlefield 4 that's already been in beta! Then yes that's the side that leaves gamers and especially fans more than angry.

[SirBradders]

Think of it this way instead of a small studio worth of people creating and testing the game to the point of player perfection you have a million people in day z terms.

[Jyndal]

I notice that a few comments are pointing out War Z as being the example for a poor early-access game. It's true that the game had more than it's share of problems, and still suffers from cheaters, poor optimization, and limited response to simple issues that could be dealt with rather easily, but the fact remains that the game is still around, and still making money.
I think early access allowed the team at Hammerpoint to slowly shape it into something that's actually rather fun to play now. I'd recommend tossing out the 15 bucks on Steam (7 bucks if it's on sale) and trying it out if you haven't yet.

[wannabe gamer]

but it was never in the early access program. it should have been but wasnt. neither was in in greenlight

[denero1]

lmao early access is about what we get at retail from big publishers so it's all good at least you know what walking into a road that's under construction whereas with big companies they tell you it's safe to travel the road on foot

[Hazmat13]

lol i love Inside Gaming's view on this and on DayZ.

[n4rc]

Shareholders ruin games.. Not early access

Ea stock isn't held by gamers, its investors.. Games are simply a revenue stream..

The problem is.. For a long time.. Games were kind of a fringe industry.. The truly money grubbing left it alone and the creative drove the industry..

We had it good.. Lol..

Some still see the value and payoff of quality.. But many dont

[hkgamer]

depends what kinda early access.

Early access for full retail? Beta? Alpha?

With beta and alpha, its definitely not going to be running smoothly.

It's not really early access that is ruining games, its jsut the developers or publishers trying to get as much money from buyers as possible.

Also the very buggy early access games are probably like that because of the developers and not because of early access. Look at BF4 for example, a buggy mess even when its released. some games are just buggy no matter what

[Jovanian]

As long as the devs are open and honest about it and provide a big laundry list of things not yet implemented or reasons not to buy early access (like DayZs developer, rocket), I think its fine to do early access

Or you could use one of the most powerful tools at your disposal, the INTERNET! There are literally people whose job it is to play these early access games and give their opinions on it. Use your resources people. Its 2014

[Lon3wolf]

It cannot ruin anything as long as you understand what Alpha/Beta games are and the issues they may have. Going by the posts on a lot of Alpha/Beta access pages a lot of people are expecting a full bug free releases, and they are very vocal in a bad way about it. I have paid for few early access titles now and not regretted one.

[Xof]

Everyone should read Swen Vincke's blog post on Early Access. For those who don't know, he's been in game development for decades and helms Larian Studios, the people behind all of those fantastic Divinity games.

http://www.lar.net/2014/01/...

Swen's post does an excellent job of explaining the Developers' perspective on Early Access. The user comments are also very much worth a read, as they point out some of the dangers and common mistakes developers make with Early Access all the time (like not labeling Early Access games as alphas/betas, which results in consumer confusion).

[kB0]

Simple answer, yes.

It's unfortunate, but it's the truth.

Slapping Early Access onto a game becomes an excuse to release unopitmized code, while still taking in profits.

While big companies such as EA and Activision release incomplete games as complete, they most of the time at least patch it to being playable (mostly big titles).

With Early access you have a chance ot never see your money ever again. It's a gamble and the Steam User agreement lets you know that you don't get refund.

I personally will not be purchasing any more early access games. I still have dead linger in my list uninstalled, it made no progress.

I got lucky with a few that are fun and seeing progress.

Minecraft, Sir your being hunted, zomboid, Prison Arch, contagion, don't starve, Dream, starbound, master reboot.

I have seen more early access evolve, but rarely have I seen them live up to their initial scope.

It's also very embarrassing to see people use school and work as an excuse. When you publish a game and are taking in people's money. This becomes your main focus. You can still got to school or work or w.e...but don't use it as an excuse.

Hope to see this rectified...or at least give people and option to give game back if they don't like it.

[Doogle300]

The dead linger is still i development though. It's unfortunate that it hasn't got a wider recognition. It's a slow progress, much like Cubeworld, but at least there is SOMETHING playable in the mean time. I have full confidence in how far dead linger will go. Each update has improved the game vastly, it's mostly a case of beautifying it a bit so it will appeal to a larger consumer base.
I do know what you mean though, it is a gamble, I just feel that it's a gamble sometimes, that you will have to wait a long while to get any pay out on. game development can take years to finish off a good title, and that's with huge AAA developers, the indie devs have a lot more pressure on them as a lot of their target market is used to games being made by bigger and faster companies.

[NeloAnjelo]

You know you're getting with Early Access. However, with Sim City and Battlefield NO EXCUSES

[Thepharaoh]

Nope