Steam 'Early Access' lets you buy unfinished games
With games continuously evolving after release, gamers have become accustomed to frequent title updates and patches. But, what if you could see a game evolve before it's ever officially "released"? That's what Steam plans on offering through its new "Early Access" library of games.
With games continuously evolving after release, gamers have become accustomed to frequent title updates and patches. But, what if you could see a game evolve before it's ever officially "released"? That's what Steam plans on offering through its new "Early Access" library of games.
Through the new initiative, you'll be able to buy beta versions of games through Steam. Because the games are incomplete, you'll have the privilege of not only playing the games early, but you'll also "help test and report bugs." You may even have to pay extra to get said right.
Valve is spinning the effort as a way to players to offer feedback as games "grow and evolve with the involvement of customers and the community," adding "this is the way games should be made."
Kickstarter has popularized the notion of pre-purchasing a game that may be nothing more than an idea. "Early Access" on Steam, at the very least, gives players a chance to pay for something far more substantial. By marking games as in-development, Valve can avoid a repeat of The War Z--a game that was "released" on Steam without many of the features it would eventually sport. The confusion caused the title to get pulled, with executive producer Sergey Titov saying "online games are [a] living breathing GAME SERVICE. This is not a boxed product that you buy one time. It's evolving product that will have more and more features and content coming it."
Some of the games participating in Steam's "Early Access" program include Arma 3 ($33, pictured above), StarForge ($20), and 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby ($10).
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Steam 'Early Access' lets you buy unfinished games.
With games continuously evolving after release, gamers have become accustomed to frequent title updates and patches. But, what if you could see a game evolve before it's ever officially "released"? That's what Steam plans on offering through its new "Early Access" library of games.-
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Basically a way for games like MWO to get into Steam.
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seems odd from a normal media perspective. for games it makes sense and has been done successfully many times, since it helps weed out huge ass technical probs and so forth
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yep, Steam doesn't want to lose the market of indies and kickstarter style development where $5-10 gets you early access to provide ongoing feedback and testing
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I can see that working for other sandbox type games like Minecraft but for single player games with linear progression and arching stories? I don't see those selling millions of copies before release.
That said I remember before Half Life 2 launched I would have paid some $$$ just to play the HL2 tech demo that was at the 2003 E3 show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5qAl9lgyJE
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I wonder how much Valve could get people to pay for HL-3 alpha code on this service.
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You know what this means? We'll never have to put up with the Kerbal Space Program update servers again! Hooray!
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^^ this!
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So... wait, this is just a new branding of something they've been doing for ages, right? I mean, I bought 123 KICK IT! from Steam back in early 2011, according to my receipts.
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so i guess we will be seeing simcity up here shortly? lmao get #torched nerds
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Guess that explains the "Early Access" in MWO's mined listing : http://steamdb.info/sub/26169/
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I am conflicted on this for a couple reasons such as the inevitable consumer confusion between the different releases and expectations that go with each. It is sometimes nice to play a game early and see progression and help work lose some of the major bugs. The problem I have with paying for beta access is the player is in essence is crowdsourcing something that these companies normally pay people do internally.
Most betas that aren't closed or private are little more than early marketing or a timed demo. Certainly there are exceptions to this being minecraft and post launch betas but it mostly holds true for AAA games. I feel the price should reflect the unfinished state and not paying a premium to access content early. -
Paying for Alpha's, I'm ok with this. Bought ArmA, it is a fraction of the game but also a fraction of the price.
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Oh...boy?
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Sounds like the current practice of offering beta access to those that prepurchase your game. I generally don't go for that, but I'm sure that some people appreciate having the option.
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This lets Steam pursue the Minecraft-like alpha funding model. Other platforms like Desura are already doing tihs. ArmA 3 is a a good first example of this in action on Steam; you can buy the full game for half the price while it is still in alpha. This is a great thing for indie developers, that's for sure.
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Sim City coming to steam then?
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Sim city for steam then?
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Nuke please
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I'm glad they did this, Introversion released alpha 8 of Prison Architect via steam yesterday and it's nice to just get automatic updates now for what will someday be a pretty fun little game.
I still like to build prisons even in alpha, but the actual gameplay is somewhat lacking at this point. -
Desura had been doing this for quite a while.
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