Steam Early Access FAQ Updated

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Valve has updated the Steam Early Access FAQ with a warning to users that some developers might not be able to finish their games.

You should be aware that some teams will be unable to 'finish' their game. So you should only buy an Early Access game if you are excited about playing it in its current state.
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Same as with buying a book, you don't know when or if ever the next book in a series will be out.
 
I have only done 1 Early access game and that is StarForge.
Years later it is still an unfinished crappy game.
Lots of people are pissed off about this one. Game had huge promise and huge potential and the devs are dragging their feet. And why not? There was no contract of anything legally binding on them. You are "buying in" to vaporware and relying on a group of people you don't know to fulfill a promise to make something.
 
i bought the alpha for cubeworld....been a year since we had an update.

oh well...
 
I only buy most games after they've been out for a while, are on sale, and the ragequitters have already done the beta testing for me.
 
i am getting tired of this "trend" of when i am searching for a new game on steam, most now seem to be "early access" titles I dont want to pay to alpha/beta test your game.. I work for a living.

the ONLY one I have gone down that road on is galactic civ 3, as I have enjoyed the other 2, and it is an established company.
 
How about Vale with Steam do the right thing and get rid of Early Access altogether? It's practically a scam at this point with many developers abusing the system by releasing shit, or games that are Alpha or worse.

Who in there right mind would "sell" early access that is nowhere near even a beta most of the time? So people can save $10 and come back 1-2 years later and finally play a semi-finished game? Get out of here.
 
Steam has gone to crap. Too many cookie cutter copy paste games. I used to recommend them to friends that were console only but now it's embarrassing. I do think they're being more innovative with things like stream gaming though. But they should at least add another section for the crappy unfinished games and another for the legit released games, and another for the indie games.
 
How can you claim that Steam is "crap", hdgamer? It's just a DD platform. I can see if they were developing and publishing everything that's in their store, but I think it's awesome they are agnostic so to speak with what they put on their market. It makes it more appealing to everyone.
 
Cmustang87 said:
How can you claim that Steam is "crap", hdgamer? It's just a DD platform. I can see if they were developing and publishing everything that's in their store, but I think it's awesome they are agnostic so to speak with what they put on their market. It makes it more appealing to everyone.
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Steam is responsible for the guidelines and terms for which the games are released. Alas, the entire point of this thread...
 
Correct, but they shouldn't be held responsible to the "enjoyability" or "originality" of them per hdgamer's post.
 
hdgamer said:
(snip) they should at least add another section for the crappy unfinished games and another for the legit released games, and another for the indie games.
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Liger88 said:
How about Vale with Steam do the right thing and get rid of Early Access altogether? It's practically a scam at this point with many developers abusing the system by releasing shit, or games that are Alpha or worse.

Who in there right mind would "sell" early access that is nowhere near even a beta most of the time? So people can save $10 and come back 1-2 years later and finally play a semi-finished game? Get out of here.
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How about we hold buyers accountable for their own decisions ... purchasing Early Access is optional, not mandatory ... if someone is willing to take the risk to make an Early Access purchase that should be THEIR choice ... I see nothing wrong with Early Access as long as it remains voluntary ... I have purchased a few fully released games that were crap and never patched to reach their full potential ... as long as the choice of purchasing a title remains with the user of the account I have no problem with as many buying options as possible being made available ;)
 
kattana said:
i am getting tired of this "trend" of when i am searching for a new game on steam, most now seem to be "early access" titles I dont want to pay to alpha/beta test your game.. I work for a living.
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+1

Advertising of what's on sale/new/etc needs to be separated. Maybe a "coming soon" section (with words that say definition of "soon" depends upon what type of time period we're comparing to.

"Oh hey Kerbal Space Program looks like a neat little game... oh wait still early access/on sale, fine I'll look to the next game, oooh Prison Architect is 66% off and sounds like a... shit another Early Access game in the fucking sale section..."
 
I agree sfsuphysics, the early access stuff going onto the sale page is a terrible decision!
 
kbrickley said:
How about we hold buyers accountable for their own decisions ... purchasing Early Access is optional, not mandatory ... if someone is willing to take the risk to make an Early Access purchase that should be THEIR choice ... I see nothing wrong with Early Access as long as it remains voluntary ... I have purchased a few fully released games that were crap and never patched to reach their full potential ... as long as the choice of purchasing a title remains with the user of the account I have no problem with as many buying options as possible being made available ;)
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I would agree with that whole heartily if Steam went about it differently. Right now I see a bunch of "Early Access" titles plastered on the front pages in your face even though A LOT of people don't really understand what that means. Valve is going to do what they do and sell things, so hell yeah they're going to push incomplete games to the audience.

On the other hand how many Early Access developers have completely abused the system and utterly failed to deliver on promises? It's a system that wasn't needed that was just conjured up into existence. The blame lies with 3 parties: Users, Valve, and Developers.

We've had Beta's and Demo's for awhile and they worked just fine, why release Alpha or pre-alpha games and make people pay for it? That's just stupid. Never paid for a Demo or Beta in my life unless you consider buying a game that you'd normally buy and getting Beta access paying.

If Steam put them in some back corner and didn't advertise them then I probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with them. I find the fact they are charging users to be the most appalling though. Saving $10 to wait for 1-2 years (if you're lucky) for the game to be finished doesn't sound like a good deal.
 
Liger88 said:
I would agree with that whole heartily if Steam went about it differently. Right now I see a bunch of "Early Access" titles plastered on the front pages in your face even though A LOT of people don't really understand what that means. Valve is going to do what they do and sell things, so hell yeah they're going to push incomplete games to the audience.

On the other hand how many Early Access developers have completely abused the system and utterly failed to deliver on promises? It's a system that wasn't needed that was just conjured up into existence. The blame lies with 3 parties: Users, Valve, and Developers.

We've had Beta's and Demo's for awhile and they worked just fine, why release Alpha or pre-alpha games and make people pay for it? That's just stupid. Never paid for a Demo or Beta in my life unless you consider buying a game that you'd normally buy and getting Beta access paying.

If Steam put them in some back corner and didn't advertise them then I probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with them. I find the fact they are charging users to be the most appalling though. Saving $10 to wait for 1-2 years (if you're lucky) for the game to be finished doesn't sound like a good deal.
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Different Strokes for Different Folks ... I would agree that Steam should do a better job identifying Early Access titles for the less observant consumers (if only to protect their own brand) ... but I don't have a problem supporting certain titles early, especially since if you support the right titles it gives you a better chance they will be made ... I have supported three games (through Kickstarter) at levels that will give me early access:

Grim Dawn - although this game is well beyond their original schedule (due to the fact that they are a small development team) they are consistently developing their product and I have enjoyed the early access for more than a year ... without the KS or early access (they were later added to that program on Steam) this game would never have been made

Pillars of Eternity (Project Eternity) - the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale style game from Obsidian Software ... they will probably launch their alpha late this year and this is another title that likely would not have been made (or drastically reduced in scope and scale) without the KS funding

Torment - the spiritual successor to Planescape Torment ... another title that would have been difficult to make without the KS funding model

We are in a transition time where the power of the big publishers is starting to diminish because of tools (like KS and Steam Early Access) that give the developers the ability to self fund through direct interaction with their customer base ... I consider this a good transition that gives the consumer more power (not less) to manage the types and quality of games on the market ... of course, as Spiderman once noted, "With great power comes great responsibility" ... I think that is where we are experiencing the growing pains right now as the buyers learn to be responsible :cool:
 
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