Poll: Would You still Early Access / Pre-Order a game today?

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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In the last few years.

Elite: Dangerous (very pleased)
Planetary Annihilation (quite pleased)
Subnautica (early days, but it's being made by the Natural Selection 2 guy so I have plenty of faith)

I've yet to regret backing a game, although I've got the least hours out of planetary Annihilation because I'm not that much of a RTS guy (it's still good though).

Any kind of early access/crowd fund is a calculated risk, I've put money only into the ones where I felt they had a specific objective and a plausible map of how they intended to do it.

E:D is the one I felt was most risky at the time, but it's turned out brilliantly and continues to grow and improve.

Any studio attached to a named publisher doesn't get a look in for this kind of thing, neither do the horde's of Eastern European and Chinese 'well totally finish this game one day' projects on Steam. It all boils down to whether you're willing to bet your money on a product that isn't real yet, I am, but I do a lot of reading before hand.
 

Squilookle

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Nov 6, 2008
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Considering I would never pre-order or early access games in the first place, my answer is still no, and always will be.

nesbitto said:
Straight up no.

I'm not paying to help you fix your game. That's what betas are for. UNPAID BETAS. Why are gamers willing to put up with purchasing unfinished products? If you're happy spending X amount of money on Y amount of game, fair enough, but spending X amount of money on Y amount of game hoping that it multiples into 2Y games is a gamblers fallacy.
Pretty much this. I would be happy to sink time into an unfinished game and help it become the best it can be, but to expect ME to pay money so that I can use MY time to help YOU? Unbelievable. Any game designer that tries to pull that stunt is as good as extorting you, so why even give them the time of day. A disgusting phenomenon, and even worse to see so many jumping blindly onboard.
 

Auberon

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Aug 29, 2012
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I didi pre-order Wild Hunt, because CDPR is one of the few companies that actually cares about its customers. Probably not from any else, at least among big names.
 

JemothSkarii

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Nov 9, 2010
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I will, but I have a very niche taste.

Only game I bought Early Access was Dungeon of the Endless and that came out of it a week later. It's pretty good. Multiplayer is a bit buggy though.

My only problem is NISA. Don't know Japanese so I'll have to import. Love the Disgaea games and I'm looking forward to the Awakened Fate Ultimatum so if I want them currently. Hopefully I can learn Japanese enough in a year.

I can kinda deal with shitty localisation and shit jokes just thrown in. But the bugs (some of which can brick your console) that never get fixed are just nuts. From a translation. Not to mention their schizophrenic censorship.

Dammit NISA.
 

Bizzaro Stormy

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Oct 19, 2011
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The last game I was excited enough to consider pre-ordering was Mi No Kuni. I picked it up on sale a year after its release. Preorders are only worth it if you REALLY want the game, can't wait to play it, and are relatively certain that you're buying a complete game and not DLC bait. I've only ever preordered a few games. They were all worth it but in one or two cases I wish I'd waited.
 

Tsun Tzu

Feuer! Sperrfeuer! Los!
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Jul 19, 2010
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I've been burned on Early Access tripe before. Not doing it again.

And pre-ordering...I just keep getting screwed there. Been trying to avoid doing it much, rather than not at all, for a very small number of specific titles I assumed would be fine due to the studios producing them, but even THOSE have been fuckin' me left, right, and center.

Looking at you Inquisition's shitty PC port.

I think I may be done.

[small]I say that, but some of those pre-order bonuses are so god damned tempting for me. I thriiiiiive on neat cosmetic crap.[/small]
 

dragoongfa

It's the Krossopolypse
Apr 21, 2009
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No pre-orders and no early access for me.

I admit that I have been guilty of buying into the fad early on and for the sole reason of having a very tight budget I haven't been burned yet. Still far too many people got burned with Pre-Orders and Early Access scams (because that's what they are) that I am staying well away from anything and anyone that follows that route, no matter the name behind the game.

The funny thing is that done right Early Access and Pre-orders can be beneficial to the consumers, Early Access in order to properly iron out the gameplay and pre-orders in order to properly gauge the interest of a particular game before committing to expansion. However the industry needs to mature a lot before such tactics become self sustaining and not parasitical.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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No. I refuse to touch Early Access or pre-order games. I refuse to pay for an unfinished game on the off chance that it might be finished at some point. I'm not going to pay to essentially beta test their game, if I'm going to beta test it they'd better fucking well be paying ME. Also I'm not going to encourage the culture of pre-ordering shit, I don't care who the developer is.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
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Well if SSB Brawl didn't completely kill my confidence and they still made games like they used to, probably. You know when you're innocent?

However, it's impossible for me now. So many failings, so many bad business practices, as well I don't believe there are any real quality titles anymore, plus the fact so many games come out with so many damn bugs these days like we have to test it for them. It's fucking impossible!
 

tilmoph

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Jun 11, 2013
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I've never pre-ordered. The only early access games I have is Kerbal Space Program, and that's because it basically is a complete game at this point, and I've seen a lot of youtube channels playing it to the point I knew what it was. Otherwise, I just don't trust anything that isn't done.
 

NerAnima

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Jun 29, 2013
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I have only pre-ordered a game or jumped into Early Access for two games so far; Darkest Dungeon and Omega Ruby.

The former I had seen gameplay footage of it from both TB and JesseCox, both of whom I knew I could trust, and the game has yet to disappoint me (except for that hag, who can burn in her own gods-damned pot, for all I care).

And for Omega Ruby, I knew full well what I was getting, I knew that I would be basically replaying Pokemon Ruby, I didn't, and still don't, care; it was a new adventure, and it was legitimately from Nintendo, I had to get it.
Especially since it was in my favourite Pokemon region.

I'd have to know exactly what I'm getting into, and I'd need to hear good things about it from someone I can trust (TB, Jesse, Joe, etc.) before I consider putting money down on such an unstable idea.
 

Halfie2

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Jan 28, 2013
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The only thing I've preordered in these last 5 years is Witcher 3 and that's only because I want to believe in humanity.
Depending on the results I may end up as a pure sale shopper.
Also haven't bought a single full price game after skyrim if I remember correctly.
 

zumbledum

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Nov 13, 2011
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if the games a certain buy ill go for early access if its not too expensive, planetary annihilation for example have bought and enjoyed the entire series since the total annihilation days , was waiting for release while early access was £90 but one weekend it was on sale (early access on sale....) only £10 so sure i went for that.

Pre orders - yeah if its a game i trust and its enough of a discount like 25%+ , but i need the heavy discount im not going to pre order for teh sake of it its not like digital games run out of copies is it
 

The Lunatic

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Jun 3, 2010
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Nope!

The only exception is if a game is in early access but already has enough content that I know I'll get my money's worth.

This basically leaves a very small list of games I'm interested in funding on early access. It also have to be very cheap. Usually less than £10.
 

RobXSIQ

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Feb 22, 2015
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I bought minecraft in its very early days...what a fun ride it was to watch it develop over time.
 

Prince of Ales

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Nov 5, 2014
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Early access, sure. If the price is right, of course. Bought Starbound around December 2013; think it cost about £10. Played around 50 hours through January, which was well worth the money by itself, then forgot about it while I moved onto something else. Skip to a year later, big patch, and I got another 50 hours out of it without spending a penny. I can't call that a bad deal in any way. I think some people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to little indie games like that.

Pre-order... well that's slightly different. If you're not getting anything out of it, then it's not something you should be doing. That's not to say I agree with pre-order bonuses, because these are things that should be coming with the retail version of the game anyway. A discount, ok that's fair enough. But you've got to have the right information out there. If there's been a lot of beta coverage and you can make a judgement of a games quality then that's ok. If there's no proper independent coverage, you're playing with fire.
 

Wintermute_v1legacy

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Mar 16, 2012
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I never pre-ordered a game. Quite the contrary, I'll just wait until it's 75% off.

I did purchase one Early Access game, though. At the time I didn't really know what it meant, I just assumed the proper game would be released in a few weeks. I think I bought it like... 6 months ago, and it's still in early access. So nope, never buying early access again.
 

kasperbbs

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Dec 27, 2009
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No, i don't want to get bored of the game before it's even finished and i might not like how it turns out in the end, if it gets finished at all.
 

DarkhoIlow

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Dec 31, 2009
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I've never bought an Early Access game, but in all things there are exceptions..like Darkest Dungeon.
 

Robert Marrs

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Mar 26, 2013
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It depends. Early Access I don't mind at all because people have played it and I can decide whether or not I want it based on that. Pre-order it has to be something I am familiar with like a sequel or a dev company that I always pick up games from.