So if you've spent any time browsing steam in recent months you've probably noticed that
It's been somewhat flooded with early access games at first there was some novelty to it
But now it seems to be the mode de jour for every other game hitting steam
So let's talk about that on one hand, I think early access is great
It allows small developers to get access to a large pool of testers
And it gives under-funded developers a way to bring in the money they need to finish their games. make no mistake
Those are both very very big pluses
I just wish they didn't come with so many very big minuses as well. The first obvious problem with this system faces the consumer
Early access games are strictly caveat Emptor
There's no guarantee that these games will ever be completed. In fact with the huge number of them
I've seen hitting steam lately
I'd wager a fair amount of them won't ever get a full release
and there's no system in place to handle this
There's no way they can return your money if the product is never delivered
I mean most of the time the devs spent that money trying to deliver it
but it's never a good feeling to get notified that the game you paid for is never actually going to be completed if you even
Get notified at all. There's also
No baseline for what state a game has to be in in order to be considered early access.
some of the games I've played in early access could easily be labeled a complete game as is others are in such a state that they're barely playable
and while many of you may have long ago embraced
digital distribution as a whole, the core game consumer base is just beginning to accept a
digital distribution and Mass
Steam grew and
thrived on having its releases be more convenient
easier to install and more reliable than their retail counterparts
I'm kind of worried
What having buggy and potentially unship evil experiences littering the store front
is going to due to new users confidence in steam as a platform?
Now those are some fairly troubling consumer facing problems,
but I don't think they're even the worst of it
I think early access actually poses an even larger quandary for developers.
First up is the problem of retention
The early adopters who are willing to jump into the game when it's incomplete and unfinished
are usually the people who are the most excited about the product.
These are the people who are totally pumped by the idea of what this game has to offer and they'll go around
telling everybody how awesome
it's going to be.
These are your Evangelists.
These are the people who are going to go convince all their friends to buy the game too -
but many of these people don't
End up sticking around all the way to launch
I mean
how many times have you played an early access game for a few weeks
and then forgotten about it when something new came out to
Occupy your time.
Or how many times have you said man?
That was fun?
I'm gonna come back can play more of this when it's actually released,
and then never did
if I asked you right now
How many of the games you picked up as early access have been officially released
since you bought them would you even know for sure?
I sure don't know
many of the Devs
I've talked to have started to have grave concerns about the fact that
they end up losing a lot of what would normally be their
Hardest core community before their game even comes out
which means fewer people who are putting together
guilds and creating fan sites and teaching noobs how to play,
and if the hardest of the hardcore are fairly likely to drop off in
the six months between when something goes up for earley access and when it actually launches
How much more likely are the rest of the people who picked up the early access version
On a lark
to completely forget about it
Well before launch.
This segments your community
and if you're trying to do anything with multiplayer that can be disastrous for a small developer
Normally on your launch week
your multiplayer servers are slammed with people who want to try it out
but with an extended launch
your servers will just be a
Constant ghost town at all hours
as people wander in and wander out
looking for a game
And then just giving up,
all because you haven't been able to focus your community at any point
into the critical mass you need to
Create a vibrant multiplayer experience
which leads to the issue of poor word-of-mouth
Even though every early access game comes with a clear disclaimer that the game is
Incomplete and
doesn't represent the final product it's hard for people to really
internalize that
James was recently at a dinner with some devs who were lamenting the fact
that on forums they already found people making comments like
" Eh, I Played that it was only okay"
when they had only seen a bare-bones version of the game with barely any of the features yet implemented
Were still a lot of those people aren't going to go back and reassess the game when it hits full release.
After all, they feel
Like they played it already.
so when someone mentions it on a forum or a friend asked them about it
What are they going to say?
"Eh, I Played it It was only okay"
for smaller titles this type of word-of-Mouth can be devastating
not only does it anchor
Expectations where you don't want them?
but it lowers the amount of general hype around the game and
therefore the likelihood of it getting more press or publisher attention.
In a time where there are floods of games coming out every month
you can't afford to have people judge your game in some half-finished state
But this mushy release date issue also leads to larger problems with press and hype
by not having a single day that you can focus
All your media efforts on
and with members of the press hearing about your game off and on for months
It makes it much harder to get the sort of attention you desperately need when you finally do launch your game
So overall as much as I love the idea of having a system to help
devs get testers and supplemental revenue to finish their games
I'm worried that's in the end
unless you have a stellar early access experience to present to people
the early access program will cost and
Developer sales and visibility
and may make consumers Dismiss games they might have loved if they just waited to experience it as a full release
Approach with caution
whether you're a dev or a player for all it's good early access can backfire on you very easily
See you next week