discussion Do you think the era of early access games will ever end, or will it get worse?

[SSlivs_]

Do you think the era of early access games will ever end, or will it only get worse?I just don't believe it's ever going to end. The very fact that there are too few games that you can safely start playing on release without encountering critical bugs and soft logs

 

[SegmentCoalescing]

It won't end but I don't think it's going to get that much worse.
There's nothing inherently wrong with early access, it's just being abused. Some games are basically complete while others have a lot of promises but no content at all.

 

[tritus]

It won't stop but I don't think it can get much worse. They can't extend the early acess too much bcs the people who bought it early would stop playing.
Something else that is getting worse in recent games is devs releasing unfinished products and "finishing" the game through patches. All the fault goes to the greedy companies behind these games

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[appreciate143]

I will just wait for completed games rather than early access .

 

[User_111574]

As an honest pirate, I always wait for the final versions of games.

 

[user2386]

Its never going to go away - the model has been proven on too many games to count that one can basically 'sell' a game they have no intention of ever finishing (or maybe they do, but they get lazy because the money is coming in), and rake in money for years on end. It collapses eventually, but if one can get years of income, from a value perspective why wouldnt they do it?

 

[fidgetspinner]

early access by itself is not an issue. The problem is drip feeding content and monthly support fees. Baldur's Gate 3 would not have been the success it became without it's 3 years early access period and the feedback the community gave. but look at the opposite of the spectrum with porn games and VNs. Porn creators have a big incentive to release a great 0.1. That's how they get eyesballs on their project. They also have a lot of incentives to make the following 2-3 release quality product. But the minute they get a somewhat sizable pool of suckers subscribers the incentive change from making great shit to milking that shit for as long as you can. You've just created passive income for yourself. Sure you'll work on the project because a good percentage will leave if you don't deliver, but a lot of brainwashed porn addicts will stay subbed even if you don't release shit. So instead of working 10-20 hrs per week on it you slow it down, you release monthly render you worked maybe an hour on and you coast for 2-3 months. Then when you feel the dip you release another update which is not a quarter the size of past update and you claim you have personally issue you're dealing with. Those brainwashed addicts will gobble that shit. repeat that and you've now made a project you could have finished in 1-2 year into a decent salary for 5-6.

Baldur's Gate III had an entry cost of $60. Not cheap but on par with the industry's price. No monthly support fee, no bullshit. How much you think the average Patreon has paid for Summertime Saga over lifetime?

 

[AlBetGam]

As with all things, it will end when it stops being a profitable option for the businesses. But right now it's too tempting to get paid for giving players access to an in-progress project, plus you get mass quality checking from your playerbase, and there's no downside because few players are actually going to wait until a project is finished before buying.

 

[pingviniman]

Early access is the bane of modern indie games.It gets to the point of absurdity when the game has less than a minute of playable content.And unfortunately it's only going to get worse.

 

[GockGaming]

Are you talking about early access lewd games or early access normal games

 

[abarosant]

It will get worse. I can see Bugisoft and Electronic Shit selling preorder to their early access quintuple A videogames.

 

[pingviniman]

Are you talking about early access lewd games or early access normal games

unfortunately all of them.

 

[GockGaming]

With all of the new ai tool it just means solo developers will be able to make more early access games with them

 

[WigglyWorld84]

Not end... it might evolve, but the new paradigm is here.

This genre has made it all that much worse with the "patreon model."

For nonpron games, my success rate is over 50%, so I dont hate EA on principle. Minecraft started this ganster shit and it was fun to play that during development. I did get burned a few time. A couple went Free To Play, so that stings a bit.

 

[dmcloudthe1st]

It won't stop but I don't think it can get much worse. They can't extend the early acess too much bcs the people who bought it early would stop playing.
Something else that is getting worse in recent games is devs releasing unfinished products and "finishing" the game through patches. All the fault goes to the greedy companies behind these games

Do you know what nemesis means?

 

[tritus]

Do you know what nemesis means?

No. Care to explain it to me?

 

[dmcloudthe1st]

No. Care to explain it to me?

"A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent, personified in this case by a 'orrible cunt, me."

 

[Deleted member 37798]

It will never end since some companies finance themselves by doing this. The problem I see is that testers who did a great job are no longer hired and now we are the players who, with comments and bug reports, are solving the problems.

 

[ICEMAN]

I think early access games are here to stay, but it might get worse if developers keep using it as an excuse to release unfinished products. That said, it can still be great when done right.

 

[Dummy256]

As long as Internet exists and is universally available, early access will flourish.