What are your expectations for an early access game?

[Brian Boru]

my hairdresser analogy

Proves my point—I mean, look at the result:

 

[Frindis]

@Brian Boru Ha ha! That was brilliant!

 

[Zloth]

If there's not a lot of info around, you dont have to buy into EA day one on a promise, wait until its been out a while and check what people are saying about it before you buy in yourself.

I don't think that will help, unless you wait several months. People give EA games points just for their planned features and potential. The reviews should be mostly positive until it gets apparent that the developers have skipped town.

The other point is a really good one, though. If you stick to developers with a history, you probably won't run afoul of any that are dishonest.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I don't think that will help, unless you wait several months. People give EA games points just for their planned features and potential. The reviews should be mostly positive until it gets apparent that the developers have skipped town.

Yea maybe, theres a risk in everything. At least if they've gone to the trouble of making something functional theres more of a chance they'll continue to work on it.

Would be interesting to see numbers on Early Access games that get totally abandoned and never see 1.0, I can only find the PCG articel from 2014 which is irrelevant now.

 

[Brian Boru]

EA will be 10 years in existence on March 20th. I wonder does Steam have something planned?

numbers on Early Access games that get totally abandoned and never see 1.0, I can only find the PCG articel from 2014 which is irrelevant now.

Some others:

2018 Reddit thread

2014 PC World

2019 Steam thread

2-month-old Reddit thread about Fraser Brown's article.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I read Frasers article, but there aren't any up to date all time numbers The Steam thread has a link to a Steam Spy search page that has about 1300 ex-ea games.

That led me to this, which is a pool of 709 games with over 30000 owners and the length of time they were in EA on average whic was pretty interesting.

No numbers that include anything you might call shovelware or that hasnt sold many though, and no idea of how many of those there are.

 

[Sarafan]

So what are your expectations for an early access game?

I literally bought only a few Early Access games. My biggest expectation is that the developers should actually hear the voice of their customers. Gamers that buy EA games should have an influence on the development process. I don't mind when the game is bugged while being released in EA, but I expect it to feature some of the final content. Basically I treat the whole EA thing as a pre-order with the optional access to a demo version or something similar. Those who expect that an early version will feature a whole game will always be disappointed.

 

[Zloth]

25-30 months in EA on average. Wow. So, what? About a year getting the game into EA-ready state? Then another 2.5 in EA. Then another half year at least supporting the game?

 

[ZedClampet]

25-30 months in EA on average. Wow. So, what? About a year getting the game into EA-ready state? Then another 2.5 in EA. Then another half year at least supporting the game?

Yep. It should probably be noted that many games that go into EA are made by devs who are broke and understaffed. And when EA games fail, it's usually because they don't sell we enough for the devs to afford to continue development, although I've seen plenty of one and two-person teams who stuck with it to the bitter end even though not many people were buying/playing.

 

[Zloth]

Though, if they are going to throw in some nice pre-order stuff....

Larian confirms Baldur's Gate 3 early access owners get Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade free

Including a set of artifacts inspired by Divinity: Original Sin 2.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Slasken]

I've bought several titles that were in early access at the time. Some of these titles would not have been possible, if not for early access. The game that has logged the most hours for me was an early access game.

 

[ZedClampet]

PCG article:

Kerbal's creator is back with a new model vehicle sim, says 'early access is not what it used to be'

Specifically related to this thread, he wonders if KSP would work today because people expect a more finished product these days.

Maybe storefronts need to let developers add a rating that shows how far along development is.

 

[Zloth]

You mean like roadmaps?