AAA publishers ‘abusing’ Early Access are setting unrealistic expectations, say

Big-budget games releasing ain Early Access are making it harder for smaller indie developers to do the same, the leads behind Deadhaus Sonata say.

Deadhaus Sonata is the debut game from Apocalypse Studios, founded by former Silicon Knights co-founder and president Denis Dyack (who directed such titles as Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem).

The game was released in Early Access back in May, and Dyack has previously said the game has a “10-year rollout cycle where we’re believing in the community” to help shape it.

As part of a new group interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Dyack criticised the trend of “giant publishers with insane amounts of money, manpower, and resources” releasing games in Early Access.

According to Dyack, these publishers often release games in Early Access for marketing purposes, rather than what he feels is the real point of it – releasing unfinished games and building them with community feedback.

“They can put up a polished product and rake in cash – it’s a marketing beat for them,” he said. “So, that leaves players often expecting a near-perfect game that, in our opinion, defeats the purpose of Early Access, which is a collaborative development process based on player feedback.

“AAA publishers are abusing Early Access, skewing player expectations in such a way that it heavily disadvantages smaller independent developers.”

Deadhaus Sonata’s creative director Ethan McKinnon added: “Players naturally compare everything in the same marketplace, so smaller teams are being held to a much higher standard than they were in the past.”

The pair warned other developers that if they plan to release a game in Early Access, players are now less willing to accept an unfinished game – even though that may be the point – because they’re being conditioned to believe Early Access is more like a finished product accepting feedback on improvements.

“Developers need to treat Early Access like a real launch, because players do,” McKinnon added.

Elsewhere in the article, other developers praised the Early Access concept, saying their games would never have been the successes they currently are without that process.

“Early Access development was instrumental to the success of the original Hades, inspiring us to make a bigger and better game than we would have otherwise,” Supergiant Games‘ Greg Kasavin said. “So we knew we wanted to reapproach that process with Hades 2.”

Subnautica 2 creative director Anthony Gallegos gave a similar story. “When the first Subnautica entered Early Access, it was a new program for Steam, with no real process or understanding of what did and didn’t work,” he said. “The team viewed it as an opportunity to experiment with content and features alongside players in real time.

Explaining why Early Access was also used for Subnautica 2, he added: “Participating in Early Access means we can still pivot and change the game in meaningful ways that simply launching a complete experience and hoping we got it right wouldn’t allow. It’s core to our DNA now.”

Dyack, however cited the Krafton-funded Subnautica 2 – as well as the Tencent-funded Path of Exile 2 – as examples of Early Access games that are “drastically changing the landscape and players’ expectations”.