Early Access - What's the Fucking Point?

[ASDASDASD_Smasher]

So basically I wonder why this shit even exists? It's only use is to sell incomplete trash to people by making big promises and then running away with the money. Even worse, for many devs it kills the incentive to ever finish their game when they got rich already by releasing barebones shit. This whole thing is harmful for game industry.

 

The actual good and finished games that went through early access would have made it there anyway. It doesn't require early access for devs to keep supporting a game and making new content. They should remove this stuff from steams

[Grey Cloud]

 

BG3 had early access. WH40K had early access. Lots of games had EA but very, very, very few devs run away with the money.

Many games didn't have EA and still came out as 'incomplete trash'.

 

2 hours ago, ASDASDASD_Smasher said:

The actual good and finished games that went through early access would have made it there anyway.

You have absolutely zero evidence that this the case.

 

2 hours ago, ASDASDASD_Smasher said:

It doesn't require early access for devs to keep supporting a game and making new content.

Who is saying that it does? Maintaining support and making new content requires money.

[joezreezal]

agreed 100%

[FauxFurry]

The point is to give user feedback as well as additional funding to implement changes based upon said feedback. Its primary function is not Quality Assurance but rather, fundamental alterations to the product which is going to be released to the market.

If one has no interest in providing it nor the faith that a project will ever be finished, it is up to the individual to use their powers of discernment to decide for themselves to not purchase access to the Early Access product.

If you want to know what is being changed and why, read the EA period patch notes as well as forum/Patreon comment section feedback and EA reviews.

[Reginald_001]

Subnautica.

[Grey Cloud]

1 hour ago, FauxFurry said:

it is up to the individual to use their powers of discernment

Perish the thought. 😱

[Unflavored Sardines]

I keep reading EA as Electronic Arts rather then Early Access!

[belegost]

14 hours ago, Reginald_001 said:

Subnautica.

BG3

DOS 1&2

Minecraft

Pillars of Eternity 1&2

Wasteland 2

Rimworld

Don't Starve

Factorio

KSP

Prison Architect

Kenshi

Bannerlord

The Long Dark

My Summer Car

...

 

I could probably go on.

 

 

[BadxKarma]

5 hours ago, Unflavored Sardines said:

I keep reading EA as Electronic Arts rather then Early Access!

You got EA brain like people got taco nek syndrome from eating Taco Bell lol

[shrtjsrtj]

My annoyance with it is that I'll either get bored of the game before it's ever finished, so I never see the final product or if I wait til it's finished a lot of the info about the game on wikis/YT/guides are out of date and wrong, so it's annoying to look anything up.

 

That second part also affects live service games too, and it can be frustrating there as well. Nothing worse than coming back to Street Fighter after a long break and none of my combos/setups work anymore.

[Zorai]

As others have said, there's a good list of games that we wouldn't have if not for Early Access. The argument that the game was gonna be good regardless falls flat when you actually stop and think about how these games got successful, which was people getting it Early Access, which helps fund the game, and all the suggestions and ideas, as well as the numerous bug fixes, that help.

 

Saying Early Access is bad because of all the bad games is flawed, since I can just state many games that didn't have it that were just as bad, if not worse. Call of Duty Black Ops 7 springs to mind, as well as numerous other games that aren't Early Access, yet are genuine trash when compared. Hell, dumpster dive on Steam for a bit and you'll see hundreds, if not, thousands of games that aren't in Early Access that are genuine trash.

 

Point is, it ain't Early Access that's the problem, its the devs that don't listen and just wanna release a bad game.

 

On 11/22/2025 at 4:06 PM, Reginald_001 said:

Subnautica.

On 11/23/2025 at 7:07 AM, belegost said:

BG3

DOS 1&2

Minecraft

Pillars of Eternity 1&2

Wasteland 2

Rimworld

Don't Starve

Factorio

KSP

Prison Architect

Kenshi

Bannerlord

The Long Dark

My Summer Car

...

 

I could probably go on.

 

 

 

Palworld and Darkest Dungeon also come to mind. There's a lot of good games that started Early Access, as well as Kickstarter, like Hollow Knight.

[El_Duderino]

The biggest selling point I can see for Early Access is that it helps small studios or even sole artists fund the creation of their game. Including games that cater to niche audiences which would have likely never stood a chance of receiving any sort of funding during development. Some examples were already mentioned by others above. Patreon and the like can only partially make up for that and also come with added liabilities and complications (not least that one has to set up one's own distribution channels, DRM, etc.)

 

I've seen a few cases of EA games where it looks that it turned into a "take the money and run" scenario, but most of those looked dubious at first glance as they more or less blatantly copied other successful EA games right from the start. (That recent "hype" of store/restaurant simulator games comes to mind.)

 

Even for bigger game devs, EA can be very useful to test their creations with a broad audience that no form of beta testing or even professional QC can emulate. Even Skyrim mod authors typically live through that: No matter how long and intensively one tests a mod, it's almost guaranteed that somebody will find new and exciting bugs or incompatibilities once it has been released.

[Grey Cloud]

5 hours ago, shrtjsrtj said:

if I wait til it's finished a lot of the info about the game on wikis/YT/guides are out of date and wrong, so it's annoying to look anything up.

This is annoying but I'm currently having that problem with EU V due to a flurry of hotfixes in the first few weeks of release of the 'finished' game. Currently it's on version 1.0.7 with a v1.0.8 beta available as a sort of mini-EA for the actual v1.0.8.

[travelmedic]

I've got to totally disagree with the OP.  There are some games that could have benefited greatly from early access, if the game devs approached it with an open mind and listened to feedback.

 

For example, Starfield.  In spite of its faults, Bethesda knows how to make a good game, or we wouldn't still be playing Oblivion/Skyrim/FO4 etc.  There's a lot I liked about Starfield, and overall I still think it was a decent game, but if BGS had gotten some early feedback about the number of load screens and barren planets (just as a couple of examples), it might have been enough to prompt them to make some changes before releasing a finished product.

[Zorai]

15 hours ago, travelmedic said:

I've got to totally disagree with the OP.  There are some games that could have benefited greatly from early access, if the game devs approached it with an open mind and listened to feedback.

 

For example, Starfield.  In spite of its faults, Bethesda knows how to make a good game, or we wouldn't still be playing Oblivion/Skyrim/FO4 etc.  There's a lot I liked about Starfield, and overall I still think it was a decent game, but if BGS had gotten some early feedback about the number of load screens and barren planets (just as a couple of examples), it might have been enough to prompt them to make some changes before releasing a finished product.

 

In absolute fairness, imo, no one is playing those games because they're "good". Its primarily because they're so damn easily modded. The fact that a vast majority of people are pissed off at Bethesda right now for simply updating FO4 kinda shows this. Especially since it also brought a ton of bugs with it and its a decade old game at this point.

 

If not for mods, I would've only played FO4 once, be greatly disappointed with its terrible direction, then go back to NV or FO3. I've never met anyone who enjoys base, vanilla Skyrim or FO4. Oblivion I'll give a pass too.

Edited November 27, 2025 by Zorai

[Count Chocula]

It gives people the opportunity to be beta testers and pay for the privilege. What's not to like? Unless my memory fails me, I have played one game in early access in my life, Baldur's Gate 3, because someone else who did not know it was early access bought it for me. 

 

And if someone claims to have never met someone who enjoyed unmodded FO4 or Skyrim, the response to that is that they obviously haven't met very many people who play computer games. As works of fiction, there's no computer game I have played that works very well. But as games, the vast majority of the games I have played are fun entertainment. Saying no one plays Bethesda games because they are good just smacks of feigned, hipster-like world-weariness.

 

Whether or not FO4 is a good game has nothing to do with Bethesda's decision to pointlessly update it.

Edited January 8 by Count Chocula

[FauxFurry]

On 11/27/2025 at 3:03 AM, Zorai said:

 

In absolute fairness, imo, no one is playing those games because they're "good". Its primarily because they're so damn easily modded. The fact that a vast majority of people are pissed off at Bethesda right now for simply updating FO4 kinda shows this. Especially since it also brought a ton of bugs with it and its a decade old game at this point.

 

If not for mods, I would've only played FO4 once, be greatly disappointed with its terrible direction, then go back to NV or FO3. I've never met anyone who enjoys base, vanilla Skyrim or FO4. Oblivion I'll give a pass too.

I see people who enjoy playing BGS games unmodded in the Steam forums on a regular basis. You could probably find a few in some of the most recent threads right this very moment. 

To quote Xenon the Noble (one of those people who does not run modded games generally) in the Fallout 4 forum: "The game WAS fine. Then New Bethesda came along and trashed it. New Bethesda needs to get their act together'

[Zorai]

21 hours ago, Count Chocula said:

And if someone claims to have never met someone who enjoyed unmodded FO4 or Skyrim, the response to that is that obviously haven't met very many people who play computer games. As works of fiction, there's no computer game I have played that works very well. But as games, the vast majority of the games I have played are fun entertainment. Saying no one plays Bethesda games because they are good just smacks of feigned, hipster-like world-weariness.

 

Whether or not FO4 is a good game has nothing to do with Bethesda's decision to pointlessly update it.

 

32 minutes ago, FauxFurry said:

I see people who enjoy playing BGS games unmodded in the Steam forums on a regular basis. You could probably find a few in some of the most recent threads right this very moment. 

To quote Xenon the Noble (one of those people who does not run modded games generally) in the Fallout 4 forum: "The game WAS fine. Then New Bethesda came along and trashed it. New Bethesda needs to get their act together'

 

I know people enjoy and play the games unmodded. But the point was mainly the fact that the majority prefer modded from my experience. Especially when they're some of the most modded games out there. That's why I gave a pass to Oblivion, as that game is, imo, fine without mods. Skyrim as well for the most part. That, and I did use quotation marks on the word "good" to more so highlight that they're flawed. My fault for not using better wording there. I was half asleep writing that.

 

My comment on Fallout 4 is mainly from the fact that I genuinely hate the direction they took with it personally in terms of story, mechanics, NPC interactions, etc. To say it was fine is accurate, but I cannot personally consider it to be better then its predecessors. No hate towards the game, just towards Bethesda.

[Heinos]

everyone detailed very good why it exist so here is my short why

too much games used the early access because if those project where made for a greater community it would be one of the best forms to make money and feedback on it.

there is very good examples on games that did like that a grew so good today that i wouldn't call it a just a game but a entire piece of art like Darktide now, it's still growing, but before was still a little L4D but warhammer 40k

now there are odd examples of games that even in early access were strugglin too much to make a 1.0 like 7 days to die
or examples of these games that ended badly like cube world and never recovered

today because it's early access gives little to no concern or fear because only greater communities use these practices like Hytale that is going to release an early access in january and i hope that game goes fine cause i was waiting to much to see if it's a deserving labor of love for those who grow tired of minecraft's littler updates

and if the concern is from the crowfunding then i don't know what to say, there is people that has higher expectatives i think

P.D. i hope this is readable
 

[landess]

While I've been disappointed with a few early access titles  - I decided to just wait. Being 'first' isn't all that.

 

My observation with this concerns Multiplayer titles.

 

Many 'YouTubers' want to be first and that has led to them jumping on early access titles - So these games get free advertising and a boost to their player base. And as usual once the game is considered finished and is officially released, the hype is already spent. Many have moved on . . . .

[Jyratx]

On 11/23/2025 at 9:52 AM, BadxKarma said:

You got EA brain like people got taco nek syndrome from eating Taco Bell lol

When you say that, do you mean that my brain is so full of seething hate and rage of EA that my brain is fried?

[Canaris]

On 11/22/2025 at 8:21 PM, ASDASDASD_Smasher said:

So basically I wonder why this shit even exists? It's only use is to sell incomplete trash to people by making big promises and then running away with the money. Even worse, for many devs it kills the incentive to ever finish their game when they got rich already by releasing barebones shit. This whole thing is harmful for game industry.

 

The actual good and finished games that went through early access would have made it there anyway. It doesn't require early access for devs to keep supporting a game and making new content. They should remove this stuff from steams

To give chance to indie devs who might not have enough money up front to fund the entire thing.

 

Ill take indie dev on EA over modern triple A any day of the week.

[Torsten Torsten]

On 1/4/2026 at 11:01 PM, Canaris said:

To give chance to indie devs who might not have enough money up front to fund the entire thing.

 

Ill take indie dev on EA over modern triple A any day of the week.

Subnautica and The Forest are two of the best examples I can give. For good EA games.