Is early access starting to go a bit too far?

[Graal]

I don't think update size is necessarily such a big problem for most people. What is problematic is that a simple box cannot provide all the information necessary to convey exactly what Early Access is and how it works. You're telling people your game is Early Access, but they need to actually go to Steam to see what exactly Early Access entails.

This again takes us back to the uninformed majority/informed minority thing we were discussing in the Watchdogs thread. This is simply taking advantage of gullible people, who are a lot more numerous in the physical retail sector.

Early Access is a blank slate. Steam's terms state that the game can change entirely throughout its development and even that the developers are under no obligation to finish the game. You buy it as-is and that's the end of it. The developers are under no obligation to add anything past your purchase date. Steam won't do anything if these people decide to stop development tomorrow. Are retail customers going to be made fully aware of this when they purchase it?

The box states there will be co-op support, but the game will never have it. What happens now?

Nail on the head.

This is a crummy move by a developer who has already made a series of crummy moves.

[The_Imp_ZA]

Are retail customers going to be made fully aware of this when they purchase it?

According to a post on Rock Paper Shotgun, there is no explanation of Early Access of the back of the box.

"There is no explanation on the back of the box when I checked them in GAME today."

So yeah, these guys are trying to trick gullible consumers into buying their half finished game. If I was a kickstarter backer I would feel pretty crap right now.

[oltman]

Uniformed Customoer:

That is what I would feel like if they try to sell me an Early Access game in a box. A dressed up, uniformed custo-vlieg-in-jou-moer... Well said!

(I know spelling mistakes creep in when we type in rage, but this is the most fitting one yet!)

[The_Imp_ZA]

That is what I would feel like if they try to sell me an Early Access game in a box. A dressed up, uniformed custo-vlieg-in-jou-moer... Well said!

(I know spelling mistakes creep in when we type in rage, but this is the most fitting one yet!)

I did that on purpose.

[Graal]

The problem is that this is taking Early Access that one step too far. They're now being treated the exact same as finished games when they're not. They go on sale with finished games and now they're being sold on shelves next to finished games. And they're not finished games.

Early Access is being abused. We're talking about a game here that was supposed to ship in December 2013 already. A game that received 140% more funds than its original goal in the Kickstarter campaign and which made a small fortune on Steam Early Access. And yet, they apparently still don't have enough money so now they're even pushing it into retail to make more.

[Vixremento]

You know I was looking at H1Z1 and when I saw it was coming to early access pretty soon I figured "awesome". Then I found that it's actually going to be a F2P game HOWEVER they'll charge for early access. Yes I know...you pay for exactly that - early access (and it's not the first one) - however I think it's a bit cheeky to do that especially when they'll be charging for extras later on too (okay I know Path of Exile did this too however with the keys that they were giving away many could get early access for free). It really just feels like they're charging people for the 'privilege' of being beta testers now.

Ultimately yeah it comes down to voting with your wallet, don't like it then don't buy it but I do feel they're pushing things a bit far especially when you read things like this (where the gaming industry is trying to guide devs into doing just this sort of thing):

"I was so fed up of people telling us we should do free-to-fcking-play, in-app-fcking purchases, whatever the fck that is, and that consoles were dead," Devolver's Graeme Struthers told GamesIndustry International. "So fck all of those people and their fcking sh|tty stance. I don't really engage a lot with the industry, but I went to one of these BAFTA things and these people were lecturing the audience about why we should all be going in that direction. I was sat there thinking 'fck you'."

Via this article here Hotline Miami 2 Publisher: F*ck Free-To-Play And Microtransactions