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

[Username Redacted]

Anyways, so as the subject asks, what are people opinions on Early Access for any games? Will you chance it, have you given up hope and will always wait for full release?

At this point I can say with a fair degree of conviction that outside of fighting games [footnote]Which are IMO day 1 buys or don't bother[/footnote] I will never pre-order a game again, never support an early access game and never buy a non GOTY edition of a game or whatever comes closet to that[footnote]Or failing a GOTY edition waiting at least a year after release for any issues with the game to get sorted out[/footnote]. I have exactly zero faith in the games industry to put out an early or initial product that is worth my time and/or money.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I just got into the early access of Besieged and Medieval Engineers, so yes.

 

[kris40k]

Depends on the development studio.

I've Early Accessed a few games due to what I saw while looking into the game, and if the studio was a smaller one but the product looked good and the influx of cash would help production along, sure. Or something that the developer is putting out feelers looking for interest. An example of this would be Shadowrun: Hong Kong. I've beaten Shadowrun Returns, and am in the middle of Dragonfall; I'm loving this series. The developer basically was asking if anyone is interested in another and I was like "Yes, please!" Insta-backing.

Larger studios cranking out their yearly release, or otherwise a game that has virtually no chance of being cancelled, nope, I don't pre-order. I'll wait, thank you very much.

 

[spartandude]

Pre Order... no. Early Access only if they current build im purchasing seems complete enough, if it isnt im not going to fund it just in case it becomes complete later.

 

[Islandbuffilo]

I'd never pay for early access, I've seen too many of those games stuck in development for eons, and I'm just not that patient.
Pre-orders, as long as pre-order bonuses are worthwhile, so far I've only been burnt by a pre-order once, that was a game I pre-ordered accidently.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

If it's a game I'm willing to get on day 1, yes I pre-order.
I've never really bothered with early access alphas or betas, guess I just never found them interesting.

 

[Demagogue]

Well this exploded slightly, teach me to take the weekend off...


@KingsGambit

the game still has many units to be sold. The number of backers was no more than 100k ish (in the basis that the Oatmeal guy's venture broke the record for most backers). As such, even if you double it to say 200k copies going out "free"to backers, it's entirely likely that they'll sell many more units. A good game can sell 750k-1.5m units and this is effectively an indie game produced with a AAA budget. I reckon they've easily got at least 1m unit sales to look forward to easily.

On topic, my issue with alpha/early access games is that I may have my one and only experience with them in that state. For example, a couple of hours exploring the world or gameplay in whatever form it's in, and that's it. It's a shame actually...as a player the only impression I'll ever have of my experience is not what the dev envisioned. Saying that, the dev probably doesn't care since they've made a sale.

Actually the $74M, is based off 767k backers. While I agree their kickstarter was much less, they have much more than the 100k that they got from there. But to use your analogy of 1M units worth of sales, that means they've already got the majority of the money they'll make. (Although if they are at that already, I'd be willing to say they will hit 1.5M sales, so 50% of the money) The point being that it means they are cutting into their after release income. Now I don't know the guy behind developing Star Citizen, I know he was a big name back in the day, but I've never actually played any of his games, or know how he is personally. However, I do know that if you get the bulk, or even half of your money upfront for a project, that you need to be extremely smart with budgeting in order to not stall out, or crash and burn in the end. It's very similar to people who work seasonal work, you have to make enough to get you through the dry spell afterwards. In this scenario his dry spell will probably be right after release, when all the people who wanted the game already have it because of pre-orders, and those who are on the fence are waiting for reviews. Not to mention that those starting sales numbers will be significantly lower than normal for a AAA budget game.


I've seen a bunch of people mention the price point, and I know that is definitely something that irks me and will flat out turn me off a EA or Pre-Order. Actually Planetary Annihilation was one of them, it was an RTS EA that looked pretty pleasing but IIRC when it first showed up on steam they wanted like $60 for it, and that just immediately put it in my NOPE bucket.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

Pre-ordering does have some advantages when pre-ordering from places like Amazon.

For instance I pre-ordered BloodBorn when it first came available and got it for about 10$ less than if I were to pre-order it now.

 

[Demagogue]

Actually that's a good point to bring up as well... the gimmick of "Pre-Order from here for _____ swag".

Personally I think it is a stupid stupid idea, and only hurts game sales. "Oh well if I get this from gamestop I'll get this", but then Walmart has that bonus item.

I mean I don't mind pre-order swag to essentially encourage people to buy it earlier, but it should be the same swag at any of the retailers participating in it.

 

[Strazdas]

No. Never did. If a game looks like something id like to play ill add it to my list of games to look at when it is released. thats as far as it goes for anything in early access for me. My 100+ games backlog can easily occupy me till it gets released. i dont chase fad of the week in gaming anyway. That being said, ill likely buy a game offering something specific to my tastes (but only when its on full release) even if its not liked by others.

 

[DoPo]

Actually that's a good point to bring up as well... the gimmick of "Pre-Order from here for _____ swag".

Here is how I look at it: if the bonus is essentially irrelevant (skins or some small bonus on startup, which doesn't matter greatly in the long run) then why bother getting it? If it's a significant bonus, why bother having it restricted? It's a no-win situation.

Doesn't help that, chances are, the pre-release bonuses would be added as a DLC available for everybody few months down the line which makes them even more pointless.

These things are especially pointless to me since, as I said, I pretty much never pre-order anyway, because I don't really see the point for myself. If I am going to get the game, I am eventually going to get it. And it's probably going to be on sale for a bigger discount than a pre-order, it might even have more stuff.

 

[duwenbasden]

Only if at least 2 big Youtubers endorse it; and that I feel like I will get my money's worth, and finally, it's on sale.
- Prison Architect
- Kerbal
- Project Zomboid
comes to mind.

OR

My friends recommend it.
- Starbound
- Terraria

 

[aaron_mark]

Here's a tip: don't preorder. Most stores will still sell special editions of games after release.

 

[Amaror]

There have been a few games that were dissapointing when i backed them before, but more often then not i got exactly what i wanted out of it and often even more.
For every bad game like Castle Story or Spacebase DF-9, there are a lot very good games, like FTL, Rimworld, Darkest Dungeon, Stonehearth, Endless Space, Endless Legend, Dungeon of the Endless, Door Kickers and many more. All of these have been definetly worth the money i put into them, most of them even more, and some like Darkest Dungeon, Rimworld and Stonehearth aren't even out of Early Access yet. Stonehearth isn't even in Early Access yet, it's mostly for kickstarter backers right now, but allready enough fun to warant my purchase.

Quite frankly a lot of people seem to have been quite reckless with their purchasing decisions on kickstarter and early access and blame the entire business modell when they get burned. I am sorry to say this, but if you back a Molyneux game and seriously expect to get everything he promises you kindof deserve to get burned there.
The most important thing is looking at the developers. If they successfully put out good, community-funded games before you should be good. If they haven't then look at how the developers act and interact with their community. You should be completely sure that you can trust these developers before you back them. You can of course still get burned if developers really enthusastic, but just plain bad at developing content, like with Castle Story. But it's a lot less likely.
If the game's in Early Access it's even easier. If the game, in the state that it is in right NOW, is worth the buying price their asking for it then buy it. If it's not then don't. It's not going to vanish from Early Access, so there's no reason for you to buy it if it's not worth your money yet.

 

[PBMcNair]

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.

Pretty much this. For example, Darkest Dungeon is on my list as there seems to be enough there to get my moneys worth, even if they stopped tomorrow.
After that, price may be a factor eg. I bought Project Zomboid way back when it was only on desura, for about 5 euro. It going for about 14 now on steam.

But those would be the exceptions.

 

[jklinders]

I don't pre-order any more. That was a trap and I am no longer falling into it. I will not purchase a game until I can actually play it that day. There are benefits to waiting. The rest of the player base and the reviewers can beta it for me so that I will know if I am getting a working product.

Is that selfish? Maybe a little but not nearly as selfish as putting a pre-order button on a game's website months before they even know the system reqs. My purchase should not be an early reward for a product not yet completed.

I will never ever pay good money to do a devs job for them by purchasing an early access game. I should be getting paid to beta a game not the other way around. There might be some success stories out there but fuck that noise straight to the cesspool of hell from which it came.

 

[KenAri]

In my experience in these past 2 years, there are just as many broken and unfinished 'complete' launch titles as there are early-access disasters. I've got Rust and I don't regret that. Also have Starbound, and don't regret that either. Inversely, I bought TERA, SWTOR and GW2 at launch and those games were worse, more expensive, and without justification.

Not saying that early-access stuff is good, though. Loads (and I mean loads) of awful purchases to be made out there. Just, it's a lot easier to point at early-access stuff, when really the entirety of the gaming industry is just as poor quality.

 

[Zaeseled]

I have, I would and I will. But I go on a case-by-case basis. Pretty much same rules apply as when I buy complete games, will I have enough fun for this price? If yes, buy. If not, don't buy. If it looks interesting, add it on your Follow list or bookmark it.

 

[Sarge034]

Relatively speaking, I have quite a few early access games in my library (7/15) and I've only been really disappointed with one of them I think. I tend to look for the ones that I would be happy playing the game in it's current state at the current price. Day Z standalone though. Ju... just don't. However I did find 7 Days to Die and I really like that one. I'm looking into Darkest Dungun but I'm not really in a position to be spending a lot of money of frivolous things atm.

So yes I'd still pre-order/ early access a game if it convinced me to, but I'm a tough sell.

 

[Rattja]

No, just no..
Pre-ordering is just pointless in every way, there is absolutly no reason to do it unless you REALLY want whatever extra crap you get with it. Usually these days you just get some sort of skin or a broken set of weapons, nothing really worth it imo.

Alpha testing is even worse though, as you kinda spoil the game for yourself so when it finally comes out you have already basically played it, just a very broken version of it.
I have yet to see a game with a significant ammount of new features once it goes from early access to release, mostly just bug fixes.
It just seems rather pointless and I am just not that impatient, I can wait.

Patience is something people seem to lack these days...

You know what I do want though? Demos! What the hell happened to those? It was the perfect way to check if you would like a game or not. Just fire up a free demo, play around for a while in a limmited section of the game to get a feel and bam, you knew basically what to expect of it.