Early Access, a program that Valve introduced in 2013 as a way of allowing games to be played as they “progress towards a full release” on its immensely popular Steam platform, has received a new feature that gives customers a better idea of whether an Early Access game has been abandoned by its developers or not, according to the listings of various Early Access games that now include a message warning the player if they haven’t been updated in months.
“Note: The last update made by the developers was over [X] months ago,” a sample of the message reads. “The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date.”
This message has been applied to several Early Access games that have seemingly been abandoned, including Heartbound, Realm Royale Reforged, Jumplight Odyssey, and ATLAS, a game from the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved that describes itself as being the ultimate pirate experience.
“Set sail for the ultimate pirate experience! Embark on a grand adventure alongside thousands of other players in one of the largest game worlds ever built (and even claim a piece of it to call your own). Build your ship, assemble your crew, sail the high seas, and become a pirate legend!” a description for the game reads.
“Note: The last update made by the developers was over 20 months ago. The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date,” reads a warning from Steam.
“Could have been an amazing game, played the hell out of it at and around release. shame it was abandoned and its pretty much dead,” reads a negative review of ATLAS, which launched in December 2018.
Discussion (11 replies)
Join Discussion →Not sure if this is a a great new feature to be lauded, or an indictment of the Early Access program in the first place.
Well to be fair of the Early Access program, Factorio was in Early Access for a very long time, several years. I think that was a great example of how the Early Access program was supposed to work.
Abandoned early access titles litter digital storefronts and need to be delisted until they're provided a substantial update. In this sense, "abandoned" could be defined as an extended period of developer inactivity.
Early Access should never have been a thing in the first place... SMDH..
I have no issue with early access, you just need to understand that you are paying for the product as is. That's why it is cheaper than the final release version.
It might be a good idea though to automatically delist ones that haven't been updated in 6 months, so there is no unsupported abandonware clogging up the marketplace.
I don't pay money for incomplete, unfinished games that are still in alpha or beta builds. Release your game to retail, then I'll pay for it.
Yeah, I can understand the point of Early Access. For small developers it's pretty clutch. The problem is, the rules are so lax it's easy to abuse, and it gets totally abused.
I won't pay for early access stuff since there's no rules regarding their completion, or state of being but I think free access is a great way to get exposure. There's definitely pros and cons to either side though and I absolutely believe there should be some kind of followup if no updates or progress is reported on.
I've learned to ignore the Early Access flag
If a game is fun and not a total hot buggy mess, I'll buy it. I don't care if it's early access or not.
I've dumped hundreds of hours into Factorio before it finally left early access and it's one of my all time favorites. Same thing for Satisfactory.
And there are titles that aren't Early Access that "release" in a hot buggy mess. So I don't think the flag really means much to me. I do admit if the title is flagged early access I do scrutinize it a bit more - those aren't generally impulse buys for me, and I take whatever road map they post with a grain of salt - the game has to be fun in it's current state for me to buy it, and if they continue to make it better, all the better.
Too true and fair points on both fronts.
Yes, this is what I meant, you are paying for the at purchase state of the game, everything that comes later is a bonus.