Pros and Cons of Early Access: What Game Developers Should Know

Early Access has become a part of many game development cycles and has been gaining quite a bit of popularity in recent years. Some early access games feel like a finished game, and some feel like they were rushed out to create hype but the gameplay isn’t quite…there.

You see games that are available in their early access state everywhere and you might feel compelled to follow suit and do the same for the game you are making.

It’s tempting. I know…

But, it’s not always a good idea to release your game in its unfinished state. Let us talk about the pros and cons of early access.

The Advantages of Early Access

Below are some of the advantages of releasing your game in an early access state.

Earn While Developing

The first advantage is that you can enjoy a game and try it for a fraction of the price. Most new Triple-A games are $59.99, while Early Access games can vary from $20 to a maximum of $45.

AAA titles have substantial development teams and support from major publishers. That means they also have all the necessary resources to market their game widely without having to release it until it’s ready.

For indie developers and new studios, this isn’t an option. Early access games are usually sold at a lower price than what a fully-developed game would sell for to coincide with how they’re still in a sort of “alpha” state. This works as an incentive for players to purchase your game in its unfinished state.

According to Ubisoft, the average development cost of a AAA title released for Xbox, PC, and PlayStation ranges from $18.8 million to $28.2 million. 

Because these numbers far exceed the funding capabilities of smaller developers, Early Access provides a much-needed opportunity to generate the revenue needed to continue developing your games. In combination with crowdfunding, it is now also possible for individual developers to realize their projects, even if they only have minimal funds to invest in advance.

Creates A Hype Early On

Fortunately, early access allows you to present your vision to the crowd and actively engage them at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, by empowering your players, you increase your engagement and reduce the risk of financial bankruptcy.

The marketing potential of the start in Early Access cannot be overlooked either. If you go this route, more eyes will be on your game, and if there’s something exceptionally entertaining, word will get around. Steam users are likely to wish list your game even if they don’t buy it immediately, expanding the potential customer pool as soon as you release it. 

Even if your game stays in Early Access for a long time, you can still benefit from the accumulated advertising. For example, the number of concurrent players and viewers on Twitch skyrocketed when Besiege launched after five years in Early Access.

Your Players Are The Testers

What Makes a Great Video Game? You could say a game by players for players. Early access empowers players by actively involving them in the development process, so much so that it’s becoming a community-driven project. 

Is your game missing a great opportunity or not reaching its full potential? Your players will let you know and point out opportunities for improvement that you may not have noticed. Building a solid relationship with its players makes for a very successful Early Access release. 

In this respect, getting feedback from the community through formal and informal channels was even more critical. This was done through the Mantis Bug Tracker, but informally, various social communication channels were tracked, from forum posts to comments on social networks like Twitter.

With around 5,000 titles released annually on Steam alone, it’s not easy to get heard amidst all the noise. This is why so many releases rarely make headlines, even in dedicated gaming circles. 

Early access allows you to start your game much more relaxed, building an audience and increasing awareness over time. By the time you’re ready for a full launch, you should already have enough focus to avoid many launch-day challenges that other studios often face. 

The best thing developers can ask for in this case is the impressions from the community itself. Crowe described this as a “self-serving bubble of interest” because these are honest impressions that players respond very well to, but this could also go awry, as seen in DayZ.

Direct interaction with community feedback is also a “culture shock” for many developers that first have to be overcome. So when it comes to communications, balance is essential: According to Crowe, radio silence is terrible, but broken promises are even worse.

Instead of relying on armies of beta testers (like most AAA developers do), your real players will be the ones providing feedback on how to improve your game. While you should have a playable title with a decent amount of content and be free from game-changing bugs, players who buy Early Access games usually expect some issues. 

To that end, Early Access players are effectively playing testers who can provide a constant stream of feedback on bugs and other issues. Your players will be happy if you show that you are actively involved in developing and improving the game.

The Disadvantages Of Early Access

Early access isn’t without any flaws at all. There are things to consider before you follow the trend and release your game in an unfinished state.

You Are Selling An Unfinished Game

All this leads to serious disadvantages, especially for consumers. Buying Early Access means buying an incomplete product without guaranteeing it will actually be completed. There’s hardly ever enough content in the initial Early Access release to justify the price.

There are numerous stories of games being released into Early Access, sold by the ton, and then abandoned. Even when the game is over, there are problems.

Lots of low-quality scoops and asset swaps dominate early access from time to time. Many players see the platform as a haven for these throwaway titles. If you don’t separate your gambling from the rest, people might subconsciously label your gambling as just another money heist. 

Risk Of Players Losing Interest And Trust

Although the official release may be months or years away, remember that your Early Access customers are still waiting for updates and bug fixes. They do their dirty work testing the game, and it’s your job to fix bugs as soon as they appear. Otherwise, the audience will start to lose interest.

Worse, developers not responding during early access can result in a complete loss of trust. Fixing a bad reputation after years of ignoring community feedback isn’t easy. 

With Early Access, you also risk slowing down the official release. If you have a problematic pre-release, are unable to respond to community feedback or business-related concerns that are delaying development, you risk players ignoring your game. They charge a discounted price during early access but the total price at launch. You want to maximize buyers at launch time.

Another disadvantage of early access is that if the game takes an average of 3 to 4 years to develop, you may play for a long time. Think of all the games you’ve played. Is there a game you’ve been committed to for 3 or 4 years? We doubt any of us have these days. The next game comes out in a year, and so many games are coming out at the same time we’re all confused.

If you’ve played the game for a year or two, chances are you’ll get bored and won’t play it for a long time, if at all. This ruins the experience of the person playing the game. You’ll never really know what the “final” version of the game will look like. 

Early Access Games Are Hard To Give A Rating

In this sense, the Early Access model gives developers more room for maneuver and the opportunity to provide their own concepts more depth. However, on the other hand, it also involves other areas that are still changing.

The trade press has a problem with the qualification of this title. The “alpha/10” concept poses a problem for many developers: the numerical rating a game receives from a magazine during its Early Access phase does not change after release. Polygon recently updated the rating from 6.5 to 8.0, but the initial rating on Metacritic remains the same and is solely in the hands of the review aggregator.

The decision for an Early Access sales model is also associated with a more significant communication effort. In this context, it is essential to clear the official game material’s development status in the form of trailers. The break-out day of a project could go completely wrong if players were the first to see the trailer from day one of the projects, even though they had already been working on it for seven months.

The game was much more advanced, but the latest trailer is simply the latest and most challenging for users to see or find.

Early access also requires that expectations brought into the project from different quarters are managed appropriately: Developers need to be aware that the debut in which their product is the “hot property will soon disappear. What makes the first figurehead version “great” will soon be considered normal. With the switch to Early Access, however, this privilege was exchanged for others: developers must keep the best for the last,” which in this context means parts of the game content, and deliver content to the players in phases.

But problems can arise here, too. For example, Crowe reported that “whatever you hold back can also be your greatest weakness.” With Arma 3, a significant map update would have forgotten to test the new content on 32-bit computers, angering many users with incompatibilities.

When To Release Your Game on Early Access?

If you’ve decided that Early Access is apt for your game, there are a few considerations to keep in mind to strengthen your chances of success. As with many things in life and business, timing is critical.

• Early access is designed for games in the alpha or beta stages. A nearly finished game will not do you any good and will take away many of the beta testing benefits you would otherwise get. Customers expect significant changes during Early Access. If your game is almost complete, posting it here could cement your reputation as a developer who ignores community feedback. 
• At the same time, releasing an early incomplete build will not work very well either. Your game should have enough content to get people excited about it. If it cannot be played, it will make a wrong first impression that could jeopardize your release. You also won’t get enough feedback at this stage to make it worthwhile. People can’t give substantive advice if they only have a proof of concept to work with.

Games That Were Successful In Their Early Access Stage

ARMA 3

ARMA 3 falls into this genre, continuing the legacy first started by the likes of Rainbow Six and Soldier of Fortune. 

Aside from all those fast-paced run-and-gun shooters, one subgenre quickly falls into oblivion: the tactical shooter. As the term suggests, tactical shooters also ​​involve slower-paced gameplay emphasizing clever maneuvers, strategic action, and gritty realism. 

ARMA 3 was one of the first twelve games to enter the Early Access program. At this point, it was already more than 20 months in development. Another six months passed before the final version was released. The question that pops up is how successful ARMA 3 was. Within eight months of release, it surpassed a million copies sold milestone. 

Looking back, it’s respectable how little time the game spent in Early Access.

Divinity: Original Sin

The story behind the development of Divinity: Original Sin is uplifting enough to fill any game developer’s heart with a healthy dose of hope. This RPG fantasy is the fifth in the series and presents as a prequel to the game that spawned the series in the first place, Divine Divinity. 

Before its latest title, the Divinity series wasn’t top-rated, often overshadowed by opponents like Ultima, Baldur’s Gate, and Diablo. Not to consider it a bad series, because it wasn’t. It never achieved the critical mass needed to propel it to the forefront of gaming.

That is, until Divinity: Original Sin entered the scene. It began with a Kickstarter campaign in March 2013, raising over $1 million in funding. The original October 2013 release date was pushed back, and the game entered Early Access in January 2014. Another postponement later, and the game was finally released in June 2014.

Wasteland 2

The original Wasteland debuted in 1988. Wasteland 2 was released in 2014. Which hit RPG game has there ever been that took 26 years to produce a sequel? While the game’s spirit lived on in the form of the Fallout series, it wasn’t enough for the creator of Wasteland. 

The game’s Kickstarter campaign launched in March 2012, raising over $600,000 in 24 hours and reaching the campaign goal of $900,000 within two days. And by the end of the campaign, Wasteland 2 had raised above $3 million in funding. 

With funding secured, the development team worked on the project for more than 20 months before it reached Early Access in December 2013. It was officially released in September 2014 to rave reviews.