I propose 2024 is the year of early access games boycott.
Bring back completed games only.
100% the way to play video games these days.
I bought Deep Rock Galactic, Subnautica, annd Satisfactory in early access and have no regrets. These are great games and I would rather pay to be a beta tester on them than play many AAA finished pieces of junk. I think in general it’s not a bad thing to be wary about early access but I’m not sure it warrants an all or nothing approach.
Nuance? On the internet? Get the fuck out of here.
There’s nothing wrong with buying early access games. You as a buyer just need to be happy with the current state of the game at the time of purchase.
And the price should reflect the game’s current state/value, not some hypothetical roadmap.
So more like Kerbal Space Program, less like Kerbal Space Program 2.
Exactly this. I tell my friends not to get their hopes up too high about Palworlds eventually being completed because the studio has a history of abandoning titles in early access. I’m not telling them not to buy it or that it’s not worth purchasing, but to weigh if where it’s currently at is worth the price they’re charging.
The studio may use the funding they got from its spike in popularity to actually complete a title just as well as they might sell out to a bigger studio (I’d imagine The Pokemon Company would love to buy then bury it), or abandon it entirely. We don’t know what the future holds and we do know the studio has a history, so keep that in mind when you’re purchasing or when you’re asking yourself if it was worth the buy.
I am not sure about the pokemon company. Palworld is a completely different genre than pokemon and therefore not really a competitor.
RimWorld, Subnautica, darkest dungeon, streets of rogue, project zomboid, oxygen not included, starsector, skull the hero slayer, dead cells, caves of qud quasimorph and universim are games i bought in early access that I do not regret in the slightest.
I’d say the biggest problem is these big companies who release “finished” games that are clearly not finished and the people who keep pre-ordering them
Add Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hades to the list
And Factorio as well.
The biggest hypocrisy are games in early access that release a DLC before v1
Nah, I’ll buy quality games whether or not they’re EA. As with everything, you have to put in the effort to find the good shit mixed in with the bad. I’ve easily had at least a half dozen EA games that I’ve bought and played hundreds of hours, and more than a half dozen “completed” games that were absolute trash. Games like KSP, Minecraft, Factorio, Satisfactory, Oxygen Not Included, and DSP are some of my most played games, and all bought during early access/pre-release. And those are just the ones that come to the top of my head lol.
When you buy something early access you have to know what you’re getting, and you have to understand this is potentially all you’re getting. With any early access game I purchased, I made sure that I’m okay with the game I purchasing and that I don’t feel like more justify my purchase. With that mentality I’ve never been disappointed in my choices for early access purchases, and the games I’ve purchased have all come a long way and some have even gotten to “completed”/1.0 level.
Palworlds mad fun though…so …sorry!
I haven’t played it most just read the news about it. But to me It maybe early access but it doesn’t sound like a subpar game.
Enjoying palworld quite a bit despite bugs, and the input (and money) will probably make the end product a better game. BG3 is another example of a game that was wildly successful due to EA.
I’ll judge these on a case by case basis. But I think the issue is less EA titles and more titles that are released not as EA but obviously broken.
This is more applicable to over-hyped, AAA titles. A lot of the games mentioned in comments are smaller, indie developed passion projects that get the TLC they deserve.
Where does “buying it 10 years later so that it can run on whatever the modern equivalent of a teacup is” fit in?
Playing witcher 3 on steamdeck for the first time.
Too late. Everybody buying Palworld.
Ikr. Really should have made this Jan 1st.
I respect people who wait for games to leave early access, but there are genuinely great indies in EA that are more polished than most AAA titles. Take each title on a case by case basis. Don’t give shitty devs/pubs your hard earned money.
7 days to die has been in early access for nearly 11 years now and I’ve had more fun in it than Starfield.
Patient gamer gang
Unite
Nah, I’ll continue spending my money on whatever I want, thanks.
Yeah, after all that Baldur’s Gate 3 early access thing came out terribly.
