Early Access?

[DaHeckIzDat]

How do you feel about developers selling their games on early access?

I used to be against it because it literally has people paying for an incomplete product, but I've come to see it in a more positive light in the past couple years. Small developers can't afford big teams of playtesters, so selling early copies of their game can help them identify the problems they still need to fix before the full release. Of course, they have to be open about the fact that it's in early access, and they have to continue fixing and updating the game even after it's made a lot of money (*COUGH*STUDIOWILDCARD*COUGH*). And the game needs to be, like, 90% complete before they do this. When I first played Palworld, it was in early access, and while there were still a couple bugs and a few rough edges, there was nothing stopping me from enjoying the vast majority of what the game offered. Towers of Aghasba, on the other hand, is still a buggy, broken mess that's being held together with toothpicks and bubblegum. Palworld did early access right, but Towers of Aghasba needed a few more months in the oven before it should have ever been made available to the public.

And as far as I'm concerned, big companies like EA and Ubisoft should never release games on early access. Why would they need to? They already spend millions of dollars on these games, they can absolutely afford a team of playtesters to work out the kinks.

What do you guys think?

[Voor]

What’s the harm? Wider pool of players means more feedback and improve the overall quality of the game.

[Quick_Man]

I don't mind early access as long as it legitimately is early access and not just "pay us for the privilege of playtesting this beta we couldn't be bothered testing ourselves". Unfortunately, much like how I don't mind microtransactions when they're reasonable too, the scale tips further and further towards the unreasonable.