Early Access: Pay Upfront or Wait for Launch?

Key Takeaways

Early access allows for player involvement in game development, providing feedback, testing, and a role in shaping the final product.
Early access games can be cheaper initially and offer unique insight into a game’s evolution, but may remain incomplete or buggy.
Despite the risks of abandonment or changes during development, participating in early access can offer a rewarding experience for dedicated players.

Early access games are abundant in the industry. While many are fun and absolutely worth your money, they come with some drawbacks that could prevent you from enjoying your time completely.

What Is Early Access?

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Early access games are games that are released before the publishers or developers think it is ready for its official release.

The reason for this is mostly to gain additional funding from interested players so that the game can continue to be developed. It’s also a great way for players to give feedback, test the game for bugs and problems, and have a hand in the transformation of the game as it approaches its official release.

Every game goes through a development process, through many versions that could be wildly different to the final version of the game. Some games will begin early access close to a finished state, while some you can play at very early stages with still a lot of work to do.

Steam is one of the most popular platforms to get early access to many games, but you can also getearly access for Xbox games or even Google Play.

Pro: Contributing to the Development of the Game

Early access games usually allow players to have an active role in how the game transforms. Players can often join Discord servers where the developers are easily accessible and their concerns, feedback, bug reports, and suggestions can all be taken seriously.

My favorite example of this is Dinkum. It’s a farm builder similar to Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, but with a lot of Australian personality. It’s developed by one person and it has a busy and active Discord server where your concerns can be seen directly by the developer.

Dinkum has grown to be an awesome game and it is partially thanks to early access. It not only gained funding, but also real player testing and feedback.

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Con: The Game Might Be in Early Access Limbo

Some games take forever to reach their official release stage. BeamNG.drive is one example that’s been in early access since 2015. Of course, the game has transformed so much since its early days that it’s starting to be recognized as one of the best rally simulators, but the game itself is still very reliant on community-created mods, maps, cars, and plugins.

It’s more like a racing simulator sandbox than a standalone game that you can enjoy without downloading anything else.

Con: Early Access Games Are Usually Buggy

Of course, releasing a game that isn’t ready for official release is going to have problems. Depending on how far along the game is, you could experience game-breaking bugs, performance issues, and inconveniences.

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Valheim was released in a pretty early state. While you were able to complete the game, there were many features that the developers still wanted to implement. The building mechanics were frustrating and limiting, and the spider biome was still completely empty. My friends and I also faced frequent crashes and connection issues despite having no connection issues on any of our computers.

Despite those issues, it was still a wonderfully fun game that we put 90 hours into within just a week and we only looked forward to how the game would improve over time.

Pro: Early Access Games Are Usually Cheaper

While it’s not always the case, there have been many times where early access prices are lower than the release price.

Developers often won’t justify putting up a high price for a game that’s still not complete, so in exchange for your early investment into their project, you’ll pay a lower price. Early access players will sometimes even be given special items or cosmetics to signify their support for the game before its release.

However, there are cases where the price goes down after release. This could be to gain more sales, or because early access players have given feedback about the price. Either way the price goes, you should only buy it if you think it’s worth it.

ThankfullySteam refunds are pretty easy to do ; so long as your playtime is less than 2 hours or you’ve owned the game for less than 14 days, you can refund it.

Con: Incomplete Story/World/Mechanics

If the game was ready to go, it wouldn’t be in early access now would it? You’re very likely to experience many features missing, from plots, places, or even whole mechanics.

Palworld is a great example of that. It was released and became a massive success, but only had the bare essentials. There were just a few small islands to roam around, repetitive elements, missing bosses, and a lot of in-progress features.

You’re often left waiting until the updates roll out to get more of what you were promised. This is usually why games like Palworld have a very steep drop in player count after a few weeks. Without many of the features that would’ve kept players busy and having fun, it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing more to the game except waiting for future updates.

Pro: Experiencing the Game’s Transformation

While you should know that you’re paying for something that’s incomplete, it should still be worth it if you enjoy it.

It’s always very exciting to hear about a huge update coming to the games you enjoy, adding whole new ways to play the game, story progression, or even whole new worlds. It’s almost as if you’re getting a new game without needing to pay anymore. It’s also partially thanks to your purchase and contribution that the game is able to progress.

Rust, Valheim, BeamNG.drive, Baldur’s Gate 3, and other games have transformed so much since their first early access release. Of course, games can still drastically change over time even after official release, but when it comes to early access, you get to see that on a faster time scale.

Con: The Game May Become Unrecognizable

A game’s transformation may be a blessing or a curse depending on what you’re looking for and what the publishers and developers eventually decide to do. Some games may end up greedier than they started off, with way more microtransactions added to the game or even just a change in direction.

The game you used to enjoy playing might be completely different in a bad way and not what you paid for.

Con: Risk of Abandonment

While officially released games do get abandoned, the risk of abandonment for early access games is a bit higher. There are many reasons for this, but there are a few red flags to watch out for.

If a game releases in early access as a last-ditch effort to get funding, it’s already at a very high risk of getting abandoned, especially if not many buy the game. Indie releases with solo developers also get abandoned pretty often because it’s hard to live off of a game unless it’s a massive success.

However, there are also green flags to watch out for if you want to know if the risk is low: busy communities, developers constantly talking about and delivering updates, clear development roadmaps, and of course, popularity with lots of players buying the game.

With more and more games opting to go early access, you should always keep in mind if it’s worth its price or not. Ask yourself if you would pay the amount they’re asking for despite the game not being in its best state, whether it’s worth waiting for those updates, or if you can afford to lose what you spent. What matters the most is that you enjoy what you paid for.

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Early Access: Pay Upfront or Wait for Launch?