Jimquisition: Salt of the Earth - A Steam Fail Story

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Grand Master

Lingwo

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Steam Early Access does need some quality control.

While it is a good idea in theory, developers feel like they can keep that game in early access forever.

 

I'd like to see some stats to see how many early access games have actually been released as a final build.

Only one on my games list was State of Decay. Fair play to them. The game was content complete they just wanted to get the PC exclusive features nailed down.

 

There should be a contract in place to say you must release this game within this time period.

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Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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I don't think it's right to lump them all together because of a few bad apples, who are more often than not unexpecienced indie devs and one man bands who haven't a clue how to deal with critique. The list of games I include below are all great examples of Early Access and how to do it right, but they weren't all smooth rides (and some still aren't). They also come from experienced studios/devs or sequels to already successful indie games. Do all of them need to be in the program to begin with? Probably not. Unless your game is organic in the same way something like Minecraft was, i.e Rust, Starbound it doesn't really need to have that level of feedback. What the devs of these games understand though is how to integrate the feedback from players into their own vision to help mould the final product.

 

ArmA3

Audiosurf 2

DayZ

Frozen Endzone

Galactic Civilizations 3

Godus

Hawken

Kerbal Space Program

Magicka: Wizard Wars

Men of War 2

Prison Architect

Ridge Racer Driftopia

Rust

SolForge

Starbound

Toy Soliders: Complete

Wasteland 2

1...2...3...Kick It

 

The games which have kicked up a fuss in the press (War Z, Garry's Incident and now Earth: Year 2066) all had major problems long before they were on Steam. War Z was a retooled version of War Inc Battlezone to jump on the DayZ bandwagon. Earth Year: 2066 is using free assets straight out of the Unity Engine etc. Is better quality control needed? Yes. Is that unique to Early Access? No. Aliens Colonial Marines anyone? Same issue, different league of play. If these games weren't in Early Access they could still have easily been released in the state they did for the same price tag. WarZ wasn't even part of Early Access and still isn't offering the features they announced nearly 18 months ago!

 

The other problem is people think of Early Access the same way they do Kickstarter. They aren't the same for a variety of reasons but the obvious one is you are playing the game while it is being developed compared to backing something that otherwise wouldn't be funded. Very rarely do you ever get a build of a game to play through Kickstarter until it's either in beta or released as part of your tier before going public (Shadowrun/Broken Age). Hence why developers like Bohemia include warnings in all caps on their store page. If the gamer treats it like Kickstarter, they're doing it wrong.

 

Pricing seems to be completely opposite though which is where I don't understand the way Valve have implemented it or at least allow it. Minecraft was cheaper to begin with while in development and steadily cost more as time went on through alpha, beta and final release. Whereas, Steam/Valve is allowing devs to put the full price tag on the product from the very beginning even though you might only have a bite size chunk of the game with no guarantee it'll even be finished, (nor will you be refunded if it's cancelled). From a consumer protection point that needs to change, never mind the price needs to correspond with the amount of content you actually get.

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Grand Master

LittleNeutrino Veteran

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I do not think it is fare to lump all early access games into the same pool. Yes there are some that almost seam to exist purely to scam people. However, even outside of steam there are a lot of games that you can "buy" prior to official release that are amazing. Starbound is fantastic and its early access. and Minecraft was being sold for over a year prior to being officially released and it is a shining example of how good games can be. But as he says there are also those that are just deplorable horrible games that might just be scams.

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Grand Master

trooper11

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The other problem is people think of Early Access the same way they do Kickstarter. They aren't the same for a variety of reasons but the obvious one is you are playing the game while it is being developed compared to backing something that otherwise wouldn't be funded. Very rarely do you ever get a build of a game to play through Kickstarter until it's either in beta or released as part of your tier before going public (Shadowrun/Broken Age). Hence why developers like Bohemia include warnings in all caps on their store page. If the gamer treats it like Kickstarter, they're doing it wrong.

 

Pricing seems to be completely opposite though which is where I don't understand the way Valve have implemented it or at least allow it. Minecraft was cheaper to begin with while in development and steadily cost more as time went on through alpha, beta and final release. Whereas, Steam/Valve is allowing devs to put the full price tag on the product from the very beginning even though you might only have a bite size chunk of the game with no guarantee it'll even be finished, (nor will you be refunded if it's cancelled). From a consumer protection point that needs to change, never mind the price needs to correspond with the amount of content you actually get.

You hit the two point that I think are the biggest issues with Early Access:

1. Users don't really grasp what the program is meant to offer. This is as much Valve's fault as it is the users themselves. Valve has not done enough to regulate the program and make sure that developers are on the same page about what expectation they should be pushing to the end users. Your right that this is not Kickstarter, but its easy to see why end users might mix the two as similar.

2. Price. Its just ridiculous that you can be charged full price for a game that is barely functional sometimes. Even if its a beta with a fair amount of content and the developer engages with the end users, keeping them updated, I still don't agree with full price. Full price should only be reserved for the final game release. There should be a scale that drops as you go farther back in the development cycle.

Still, I find it hard to buy into these programs even when I'm happy to see that the developers are active with end users, responding to feedback, etc. They are still just glorified demos that aren't even feature complete. Demos use to be a free incentive to attract users, but now programs like this almost discourage a developer from releasing a demo. Heck, even betas use to be free. Now, many developers are choosing this route instead, and why not? I don't blame them for trying to generate more money to put into their game.

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Grand Master

LaP

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Well i just checked the game's Store page and imo there's enough clues that the game is bad to not buy it.

 

For one the screenshots look terrible. Most of the reviews were negative. Anyway there was enough negative reviews for me to question the quality of the game. Also i don't recall the game to be featured anywhere so you got to look for it.

 

Why would anyone pay 19.99 for an unproven game in early access ? If you pay 19.99 because there's like 10 positive reviews then maybe the problem is not the way early access works.

 

His point would be better if the game had like 100+ positive reviews and only a few negative ones and if the game would be featured on the store homepage.


Steam Early Access does need some quality control.

While it is a good idea in theory, developers feel like they can keep that game in early access forever.

[...]

There should be a contract in place to say you must release this game within this time period.

 

I agree with this.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Grand Master

Anibal P

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Only if you request the refund. Pathetic. If they were a European company, they would have been burnt to the ground by now.

 

That would be a damn good reason to stay here in the US, there's a system to be refunded if you are not satisfied, you should use that option, it's your responsibility to get your money back as a consumer if you aren't happy 

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