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Many promising titles come out of Steam's Early Access program, but how many actually make it to the finish line? Unfortunately, some games never leave Early Access, while others leave it in a sorry or unfinished state, but these botched releases usually don't draw as much attention as the original pitches. The Guardian took a look at the original 12 games selected to launch Steam's Early Access program, and found that only 9, including Kenshi, Kerbal Space Program, ARMA 3, Prison Architect, Drunken Robot Pornography, Gnomoria , Gear Up, and Kinetic Void, were ultimately "finished". Under the Ocean's and Pattern's development failed, while Kick It was seemingly abandoned by its developers over the course of a few years, even though it's still up for sale. The Guardian made an effort to reach out to some of the developers, and their responses were interesting.
When customers are paying for an unfinished product, expectations are high. Hunt believes one of the reasons Kenshi has maintained its development for so long is through constant communication and regular updates. "If we did an update every four months, then everyone would get angry and during that gap would be saying, 'The game's abandoned!"' he says. "But if we did the same amount of work, but broke it up into an update every day, people felt it was really well maintained.'" But supporting an unfinished game's development with its sales over several years is not easy. "There was one point in development where I handed everyone their notices," Hunt says. "We were completely running out of money." Hunt planned to continue working on the game alone, reducing its overall scope. Then sales suddenly picked up, and it was back to business as usual.
Personally, I find The Guardian's definition of "finished" questionable. ARMA 3, Prison Architect, and KSP have undoubtedly done well, but I backed Starforge myself, and it was in such a sorry, unfinished state upon "release" that it got pulled from the Steam store. A brief glance on the Store shows that Kinetic Void appears to be relatively incomplete too.
When customers are paying for an unfinished product, expectations are high. Hunt believes one of the reasons Kenshi has maintained its development for so long is through constant communication and regular updates. "If we did an update every four months, then everyone would get angry and during that gap would be saying, 'The game's abandoned!"' he says. "But if we did the same amount of work, but broke it up into an update every day, people felt it was really well maintained.'" But supporting an unfinished game's development with its sales over several years is not easy. "There was one point in development where I handed everyone their notices," Hunt says. "We were completely running out of money." Hunt planned to continue working on the game alone, reducing its overall scope. Then sales suddenly picked up, and it was back to business as usual.
Personally, I find The Guardian's definition of "finished" questionable. ARMA 3, Prison Architect, and KSP have undoubtedly done well, but I backed Starforge myself, and it was in such a sorry, unfinished state upon "release" that it got pulled from the Steam store. A brief glance on the Store shows that Kinetic Void appears to be relatively incomplete too.