If you missed our podcast’s epic rant about the problems of early access this week, then strap in because the folks at Extra Credits have an explainer that addresses the problem from another angle. Our podcast question addressed whether the early access hype cycle was bad for the players and the genre, but Extra Credits focuses on the game dev misconceptions, both intentional and unintentional, that lead people to buy into early access in the first place. It’s not just because you’re impatient!
For example, EC differentiates between unfinished and incomplete games – the one you’re getting with early access is incomplete and sometimes not playable outside of a non-representative “vertical slice.” And yet studios are cobbling together trailers to get you to buy buy buy (and test test test!), even when those trailers – and hacked-together tradeshow demos that waste dev time and mislead the press who play them – aren’t really much like the actual game at all.
Take a peek at the whole episode below, and remember – maybe just don’t buy early access.
