How “Early Access" Lost Its Meaning

[@TheKingerd]

Join the Kingerd Crew by becoming a channel member!: kzbin.info/door/GjZlxsCYIkbpg4m3P3nhGgjoin I use "beta" and "early access" interchangeably for the sake of brevity, but here's our video on the misuse and de-evolution of the "Early Access" label. When do you think it's appropriate for a game to be called a "beta" or "early access"? How would you define it? Thank you for watching, you've all been very good to me and I hope to keep getting better with videos as we go!

[@HeavyDevy89]

For me, the breakdown is like this: BETA = A *feature* complete piece of software with ALL constituent components proven functional. The key word here is *functional,* as a bare minimum proven-to-work function of the promised features needs to be established. If something is on the list of features in the "complete" game but not present in the BETA, then it's not a BETA. Early Access = Anything that doesn't qualify as release or BETA. The end. Full stop. If there's something missing, not finished, or not functioning, it's Early Access. The key difference is the *existence* of features. I'll use Star Citizen as an example - it's Early access because giant parts of the promised thing is missing.

[@5150Failure]

We need to speak with our wallets. dont pay for betas. paying for early access is a grey area imo. like if its you get game a week early and its from a team that you know the game should be 99% there sure fine. but remember every team thats attached, ive sworn off from prepaying anything that EA is even withing 100 miles of. like yeah the team that is building the game may love it but if the person paying you(or more likely paying your big boss to pay you) says it needs to release on x date youll release it on x date due to you could be fired for delaying it. EA are horrid after they learned what they could get away with they just keep pushing. when they hit that line *cough battle front 2* they back pedal. all the teams will find their personal lines if we arnt careful. PAY WITH YOUR WALLET what ever you pay is what they think we are okay with. In my opinion early access (ie what battlefield 2042 was) is ment to more or less test the servers and how it can handle the playerbase. beta is a 70-90% finished game to have the player base give back feedback on bugs that the internal team may have not found, example the plane trick shot like they may not thing eject out of play shoot other plan get back in plane. but the general player base will do dumb silly things that can bring up bugs. the way publishers have been using the terms is on the level of false advertising at this point. there should be a legal limit of how long it can be in beta or early access. some games like 7 days, minecraft, day z and the other big ones that have been in earlyaccess/beta for way too long kinda get away with it due too at this point those games are functionally fine they just may not have what the devs think is going to be all the content they want. which imo is fine. some may have the dev team essentially forget its tagged as one. im at the point where i dont preorder any games. i dont even try to get hyped on new releases. halo infinant was the last one. i liked the game but even then i didnt preorder it. im sad there are things even 343 and microsoft promised and still have yet to add. gaming has become so depressing in recent years. im over battle royals im over multiplayer only games. like i want a good co-op story based game. that has replayability. like think about games like halo 2 and 3. even companies like nintendo have been lacking. the world is changing in many fields and im sad about it. like i love cars, computers, and games. but gaming as youve talked about has become toxit to the user. computers have gotten so expensive. cars are loosing their heart. talk to any car guy near you (real car guy not a instagram or take over kid) and they will say yeah new cars are insanly fast but they have no heart. they all feel the same. manuals are dieing hell even the beating heart of most are going away.

[@guardtheyorkie]

Def:Before a coherent story or sandbox experience is created There are some good early access like vr titles:blade and sorcery, and iorn rebellion

[@ryuno2097]

I remember "Closed Beta" and "Open Beta" being used mainly in the mmorpg genre. Back then you know a "closed beta" meant that you're just there to test features of the game and not expect it to be the final release. "Open beta" back then meant that everyone / some regions get to test out the game and once the game is released , your progress will be carried forward (sometimes). Nowadays closed/open beta don't mean shit. Most company just use it for marketing purposes.

[@twofifty7704]

This whole year just felt like an early access to what's worse to come next year

[@TheKingerd]

Here’s to hoping we see a Renaissance of good games but if not, at least we can say we saw it coming

[@buckrodgers1162]

But it was/is. It was/is the 'Early Access' to WWIII.

[@big_yeeter2097]

Brother have you played remnant 2 would highly recommend it if you haven't it's a great release

[@big_yeeter2097]

7 days isn't a fair comparison cause the dev team is like 6 people and they have a huge vision also the game is super cheap

[@Blvckguy]

Dude is so thoughtful breaking down philosophy, meaning and implementation of all gaming concepts .

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! 🤟

[@toastasaur]

At this point beta / early access is a copout of finishing the game instead its “Trust us the game will be good but we couldn’t be bothered finishing it instead were just gonna bloat it with features or just abandon it entirely.”

[@TheKingerd]

It’s a shame too, because I think there’s small dev teams that really do make the best and most honest use of it but the concept of early access has become so tarnished

[@julesvonlipwig5209]

Thankfully, I haven’t experienced all these kinds of pains myself, I tend to gravitate towards indie games (not that those don’t have problems, as you said, but I’ve been spared lmao), and in my mind it’s like: either the game is out and finished, or it isn’t and I’ll wait for the finished product. Been loving your videos, dude, can’t wait for more!

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! I do feel for the indie devs who plan to be honest with their use of early access, but man players just shouldn't have to ever be in the position of "maybe i'll get what I paid for or maybe I won't"

[@porterwake3898]

Indie games are actually the main culprit of Early Access abuse.

[@mk27l5s]

Halo Infinite released as a “Beta” in November a couple years back. It had barely any content, no dedicated Slayer mode, terrible glitches. People online claimed that the game would be fixed when it left beta. When the “full game was released” the only major difference was that the campaign was released, the multiplayer was basically untouched. A lot of people actually thought that Infinite was still in beta even months after it was fully launched.

[@TheKingerd]

Haha yes, I remember the copium. It’ll be better out of beta! Shoot it took two years to finally see positive word of mouth online

[@Anijah2001]

If a game is not out of early access in less than an year. it might as well be the full release unfinished.

[@TheKingerd]

Bold strategy Cotton! lol but really I do think there should be a generally accepted time limit, otherwise that’s how we end up with games being out for several console generations that fans still accept and defend as “early access” whether it deserves that moniker or not

[@RazorTreewise]

Your Editing is really good! I think Baldurs Gate 3 had the best handling of a Beta I´ve experienced so far. A lot of hotfixes, A LOT of communication with the players, actively listening to player feedback, no microtransactions,

[@mudkip737]

Pretty new to your content and it’s been an absolute delight! Great takes and your little goat image with the “BEEYYYTAAA” sound is a good gut tickler!

[@TheKingerd]

Welcome! And thanks, that goat sees through the lies of the beta

[@mr_dub]

Great video my man, a pleasure to watch as always

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! Glad to have you along for the ride!

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

The cleanest, best pleasure!

[@bopsie55]

My opinion on early access changes based on many factors. If it was made by a multi million dollar AAA developer it never is early access. When they use it as a pre order bonus they mean you are litterally getting early access not the game is early access. If its a company with a good track record making a AAA game without the necessary funding for it is the only exception to that rule. The second factor is price for early access if you are charging full price £60-90 then it should not be treated as early access. Especially if they have microtransactions. If your game is budget (roughly £25 or bellow) then i am willing to let them keep microtransactions again only if its a small to mid sized developer without a publisher. Finally its how feature complete or close to launch it is. Again AAA "betas" and "early access" are just litteral early access. If you make an early access game early in its development and have a transparent dialogue with your community and fix the issues. That was an early access. If I can play the full game beginning to end a month or so before launch and its buggy as hell and missing fetures that isnt early access thats just a bad game

[@TheKingerd]

Great take and very thorough 👍🏻🤝

[@TruthParadox]

Wake up, new Kingerd video dropped

[@TheKingerd]

👀👀 thx

[@rattlesnaik]

Love your channel, man. Excited for your growth spurt.

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you for the encouragement! Glad you’re here to take the journey with me 🤝

[@PikaLink91]

Never heard the word "beta" used about a guy being rejected over text. My world just got bigger.

[@spectre8701]

i have played quite a few games in early access (especially as its becoming increasingly popular to release a game in this state) and my god, some of the indie devs make great use out of it, bounty of one, brotato, grounded, the list does go on but its quite big, but also some devs just release a game into "early access" so they can get money and never finish it, which sucks, you never really know which of the 2 youre about to buy

[@TheKingerd]

Early access is a system that started with the best intentions. Leave it to the clowns and bad apples to take advantage of it for profit. There’s still legitimate use of it though and those projects ought to be praised, but I agree it can be hard to tell now which you’re signing up for

[@jotaiyokai]

You have such a fun editing style I love your videos

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you, thanks for hangin! 🤟

[@cakes1831]

I miss the days of renting games because the game had to be good enough for you to want to keep renting or buy

[@IDoWhatIfs]

Watching this at 2am, should prob be asleep

[@TheKingerd]

Sleep is for the weak says I

[@mprGG]

I played Fuzion Frenzy with my very old elementary school friends every weekend for years back then, it was awesome.

[@TheKingerd]

Fuzion Frenzy was a staple of the Kingerd Friday game night

[@ethsailliamswa]

I remember hearing that the reason that fortnite was able to maintain its crazy content release schedules was the fact that it was Early access. Particularly on the PS4, devs have to pay extra fees every time they want to update their game, UNLESS you are in early access, in which case you can update your game as often as you like without the added fees. Fortnite basically Pioneered the practice, or is atleast the most culturally significant example of it. Idk if the game every did go full release, havent played fortnite in a few years.

[@TheKingerd]

It eventually did, and that makes a lot of sense. Fortnite pioneered a LOT of things, i blame it for why every cosmetic is $20+ now

[@leaks1155]

Great Vid man :D

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! 🤙🏻

[@MrGrokthis]

Dude, I’ve watched all your videos twice. Can’t wait to see more. I’m old and grumpy, so bravo. If you are the kind of content creator that only focuses when it gets negative, then maybe you should have a bigger dog. That’s the best I can come up with even though that dog is awesome.

[@lavarsch]

There should be a new law that the game trailers have to show only what is in game or it counts as false advertisement (not counting cinematic ones). But unfortunate the Consumer protection only cares what's on the Box/Steam page (enter equivalent). I think Baldurs Gate 3 did it very well, even though i kind of ignored the game before it's release because these games are normally not my kind of games, i think seeing the game and it isn't breaking every ten minutes AND it's fun was a really nice thing. @edit: Your editing is really well done, i like the humor and the super tight clips, they feel well in place. Much respect!

[@TheKingerd]

Honestly I agree, or make it a disclaimer at the beginning that explicitly states “this is not in-game footage” or something. And thank you! 🤝🤙🏻

[@MichaMundy]

​@TheKingerd the thing is putting the "this is not gameplay footage." Still, don't stop mindless consumers from buying it. I mean look at cyberpunk first "gameplay" trailer where it's showed night city crowded with people, it has the smartly hidden visible "not gameplay" line on top of it but people either don't notice it or don't care about it and then they pre order the game. And you know what happened next

[@lavarsch]

​@@MichaMundy i think even worse are mobile games. we got SOME justive by law. but it is still not enough

[@sonofiver7415]

I got an add for an early access before watching this video I kid you not.

[@asufan10101010]

Another Kingerd W! Great content per usual.

[@TheKingerd]

Thanks friend!

[@anytimeanywhere7859]

The problem is the consumers. If they didn't let the companies get away with this, we wouldn't have the problem. Unfortunately, marketing to the stupid is always the most profitable.

[@TheKingerd]

I agree, consumers hold all the power. Hopefully as more people get more fed up with the nonsense in the industry we'll get less of people arguing in the comments over blind loyalty to CoD games and more of people expecting studios to actually try to impress them

[@LazyTallGuy]

I'm not just saying this because I may or may not have a crush on you but the editing that you did on this must be acknowledged, I couldn't just listen I had to watch the whole thing. It is really sad to see all of the bad gaming habits that have come up in compared to the 'good ol days'. Fusion Frenzy was my jam!

[@TheKingerd]

Thanks! Fusion Frenzy is an S Tier product and I was so hype to get the full game after putting hours into that demo

[@alyasVictorio]

Edit: Welp, I'm just an average viewer so I found out what's happening here, and my previous reply didn't age well tho. My bad

[@JustHereForTheDialogue]

You know how steam could easily fix this? If your game is marked early access than is has to be free. No more marketing a unfinished product unless you wanna use a crowdfunding platform.

[@TheKingerd]

Love the idea but no way valve foregoes profit for the sake of being fair to players

[@buckrodgers1162]

By the midpoint of Dead Space, I was just sitting there mocking the lack of ingenuity. Every time seeing a vent or "dead" necromorph lying on the ground, just saying: "Get some new tricks! After the first 50 times, it gets old and predictable." But that 'release now, finish later', became real tiresome when the game companies started silencing people for criticizing them, for the use of it. Example: Cyberpunk 2077. Lot's of people got permanently banned on the Steam hub for simply speaking out against it's broken buggy launch.

[@TheKingerd]

True. Necros on the ground ain’t fooling anyone. I liked how the remake actually had some sneak up on you instead of screaming like a banshee as soon as they entered the arena every time And I didn’t know that about about the steam hub. What a joke

[@buckrodgers1162]

@@TheKingerd, Yeah, I was hit with one right off the bat. So no screenshots, no comments, no nothing. The over reach of those bans, plus the abusive use of them, really makes for a "fun" time. It's basically why I fully boycott games after getting hit like that; What's the point of playing it if you can't even take pictures? It's like taking a vacation, and having a camera that don't work, with no place to buy one.

[@ukasz4684]

Just found your channel and I love the quality of both your analysis and your editing. Keep up the good work!

[@lordfickle8900]

"Early to what, the Rapture?" Nearly woke up everybody with laughter because of this. 😂

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you, thank you 😂

[@Elcomedordepan]

nothing is better than couch co op.

[@dannilundgren]

Great video as always. 👍

[@TheKingerd]

Thanks you brethren 🤝

[@saliso470]

Satisfactory has been in early access since a few years as well now but the difference between Update 1 and 8 is huge. And excluding a few bugs and rough edges it's already a really good game just without a story.

[@Blvckguy]

Natural selection trends is insane 🤣 7:32 cuz people really fell for it

[@TheKingerd]

The 2010s made me question humanity’s survival thus far

[@VarenvelDarakus]

gaming magazines mostly died out when demos were not a thing and youtubers began to mass rewiewing games. , getting full version of good games was so great , sometimes you got really really good not so old games. or cult clasics who otherwise still cost a lot.

[@TheKingerd]

It’s a shame so many KZbin reviews are sponsored nowadays, but I suppose that’s what happened to IGN back in the mid 2000s too

[@VarenvelDarakus]

@@TheKingerd I had like 1m 30cm pile of gaming magazines , sadly when our house got flooded had to throw them away:( , I still miss that aspect , reading proper reviews , getting demos , programs as well full versions. Current early access bonanza pains me. , I still got all CDs tho or most of them from magazines

[@pickeljarsforhillary102]

I am waiting for beta access cars. *Tires to be added later

[@TheKingerd]

Sorry about those brakes not working we’ll send out a patch next season

[@PikaLink91]

5:00 How did you do that effect with the Like button??

[@Neros_light]

One of the few "early access" games I've played in recent memory that feels like an early access title is The Outlast Trials.

[@nevertrumpfromthejump]

Now, I try not to comment before at least halfway into a video but that "beta is a guy who asks a girl out by text" part cracked me up and then I thought, "well, he just insulted a sizable portion of his audience, I'm sure." Here, take my one thumbs up, just to counteract the many thumbs downs that will probably net you lol

[@TheKingerd]

Hahahaha thank you 🤣🤝

[@pedrofraga4366]

When you mentioned “couch co-op” it gave me the idea to suggest you to make a video exclusively about it!

[@MyUsersDark]

Payday 3 had two early access betas. Both were free, but they both got a lot of people to the game. They had a lot of issues, but people said "It's a build from April, they've probably sorted everything out by now." When the game dropped the only difference was the rest of the content, and some UI changes. It was the same game with the same issues. The in-game HUD even got downgraded somehow.

[@zigaudrey]

For me: *Demo* : Sample of a full game *Early Access* : A full product released earlier than the intended publish date *Open Beta* : An work-in-progress product open to the public 4:35 Read Title. Accurate 8:26 This is evil!

[@festeringfingerprintvicodin]

love ur references.❤

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! 🤝

[@ItsBoyRed]

Its odd how backwards reality really is when you think about it. The content you play in beta's should be a good look at how the game currently works & plays, but bugs & less then optimal performance should be expected. For Demos you should actually see the MOST polished & interesting part of the game, to hook you into buying it - its basically the best way to advertise, let the customers try a tiny bit of your service, and then charge for the rest, once customers have seen what they are missing they are more likely to invest. Early access is now a slang term for a poorly timed beta. You would expect a title in "Early Access" to be nearly complete, sure a few compatibility bugs, maybe not ALL of the content, some progression locks in multiplayer to keep the playing-field somewhat even once it releases. But the general game is somewhat considered done and as-is its release state. But currently early access is just a band-aid and a mask to hell half baked projects without any responsibility.

[@TheKingerd]

Leave it up to the market to take a concept of good intentions and twist it into a marketing scheme

[@svartorivigt5016]

"Pre-Order and get early access to become our unpaid tester"

[@Mechonyo]

V Rising is a very good example, how a EA should be treated: You can play the game, from start to finsih. Nearly 30-40 Hours content or even more. 2 Year plan, of release this game to the full 1.0 The updates are slow for sure, but Dev updates with features, that came into the game and will be added to the 1.0 release. Functionial Co-op/Multiplayer. NO Mircotransactions! Community Ideas shaping the game in a good way. 20€ that even goes on on sale most of the time. (Less than most AAA titles selling their beta for 70€ haha) No Bugs in 200+ hours of playtime. (Exept two minor graphical glitches.) But, it has it bad sides too. (Still better than most EA titles these day...) Slow updates. 3 DLC, from which 1 cost more than the game! (Cosmetic yes, but still bullshit.) Merch. before the 1.0 release. Overall: Should they not raise the price and bring the promised content, with the 1.0 release, I think it should be good to go as a game. And Steam should change the EA system...

[@TheKingerd]

Good example! I hadn’t even heard of this one but I looked it up after reading your comment

[@OffShotGaming]

Thank you for another interesting video :)

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you for watching! 🤙🏻

[@Bro-OpBytes]

What a video! Great research work, my dude!

[@yogioto]

Wow, 7k views after 2 weeks. You really seem to understand layout psychology

[@TheKingerd]

Can’t tell if sarcasm or not tbh 😅

[@crownlessking6628]

What is the book, please tell me

[@solomaxlevelplayer5582]

4:59 for a magic to happen

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

Not a new thing. I remember going into Radio Shack and seeing a $5 copy of Deus Ex on the rack, only to discover I'd paid for a demo, which only mentioned that fact in tiny letters in the small print.

[@TheKingerd]

Only five bucks but id still be ticked

[@timpize8733]

I've never thought of it that way but you make pretty valid points. 😆 Actually "early access" would make sense if it was the opposite of what's stated in the Steam policies, and was a way to finance a game's development. That's how I've always seen it, and some smaller games did occasionally benefit from it while turning out great. Crowdfundings aren't always the most appropriate way to get funding. As long as people know what they're getting into I don't have a real issue with it. You're not always sure you'll get the final product when it comes to Kickstarter or Indiegogo either. And at least with early access you can keep an eye on the the potential scam I guess, while trying not to exceed the play time granting a refund.

[@MarioStoilov93]

Long post incoming: I am not aware if there is a clear definition (or if there is some authority that controls these definitions), but the general understanding for the industry is (or at least it used to be) is: Alpha: You have decided on what game you want to make, but you have not decided on the game mechanics/technologies yet. So you build a game, that has missing textures, janky animations, low-poly models and start experimenting or even just place holders everywhere. Some things might be cut, some things might undergo significant change and some things might be added. This is the time where you decide what's going in the game and what not. Doing this in a later stage means delays, wasted time on cut features and potentially untested new features that are unknown how will effect gameplay, stability and etc. Is usually not enjoyable to play and is usually restricted to dev staff and maybe some press or close "friends". Beta: You've decided on the core mechanincs of the game. You've decided what's getting released and what not. It is not polished - you still have bugs, glitches and not so good performance, but from a feature point of view it's there. You want to test how the game performs on a big number of sytems and with big number of players. After this stage is over, you have a list of bugs that you need to fix or polish out. There was no early access. Keep in mind these separate stages could have their separate several iteration - first Alpha, second Alpha, Beta, second Beta, etc. And some things (as with any plan) could have been tested, implemented in the wrong stage. However, those were excpetions, not business as usual as it is today.

[@TheKingerd]

Very thorough, thank you!

[@schorsch5677]

Saved the link for the next time i see a "don´t you know it´s EA" response on steam.

[@Ballistics5X]

The worst part of Early Access titles is if a player decides to purchase the product in the state it's in and not enjoy it, there is very little hope that player will ever return. I'm glad you brought the "Early Access" excuse into real life application because it shows how ridiculous it is. "Oh! You don't like our cake on this cake show, well, hate to tell you judges, it's an early development of the cake, give us just a little more time regardless of the time WE established to have shown you". I'd think many who were clowning on GTA 6 leaks initially thought that whatever was being shown was the only progress made, they were not upset necessarily about the fact the game was being made, but just because that's it for HOW LONG the game is in the oven for, it's good that wasn't the case. Even worse is when a game enters Early Access and there is a clear competitor in ALPHA and is better in every way: Bodycam (Steam) vs Hellmet (ROBLOX) Probably the worst example of Early Access releases was Sons of The Forest, a lot of content was shown and everyone was pumped, then come release and it's a blank, resource heavy mess. Solar Panels are absent for updates after updates, and the ending in the Early Access state was barely an ending. A lot of KZbinrs- even FARKET (Forest King) felt terrible about the state of SOTF. It's a full release now, but there are still people who prefer the first.

[@TheKingerd]

I’m one of those people for sure. Me and the boys hopped on week 1 for SOTF and were like… wait this is it

[@TheFlual22]

In the late 90s and early 2000s it was really mandatory to have a cool Demo. I bought 80% of my games based on their demos. It was like taking a short spin In a car you want to buy. Now it's like buying a sports car and getting a rust bucket for the price of the promised car instead. But as long gamers keep pumping money into this greedy corporations they won't stop. This philosophy of "Fixing it later" is a plague. In the 90s and early to mid 2000s you got around 2 updates per game on a disc that was included in game magazines that was it. A game released with game breaking bugs would be endangering any game studio. Now that's common practice.

[@nervsouly]

Damn, that 7 days to die timeline was totally killing it! I upvoted the video just for that.

[@TheKingerd]

Thanks, amateur editing I know but it still took me a thick minute to finish that 😂

[@markusmitchell8585]

7 Days to Die kept coming to mind through the hole video

[@tymondabrowski12]

Early Access 3 weeks before release makes sense in a way, even though probably all of the content is in already. In Krita we release a beta version always a month before the final release and it's a good practice, some people are always a bit more eager to try it out and have a higher bugs/crashes tolerance, so a beta release catches all the issues with unusual hardware, or bugs that it just weren't tested for. The beta is usually already stable so it's just a failsafe. But then, Krita is free. But if Early Access is a bit cheaper than full release, I think it's fair.

[@richard343s]

A lot of games that are really popular when they are in early access are pretty much forgotten when they release. By the time the game is done most of the player base has already moved on to the next early access game. If it's a single player game this is not a big deal. But if it's multiplayer, have fun playing in empty servers.

[@TheKingerd]

Good point. Sure all the features are there but it’s been played to death throughout production so who’s gonna keep playing when they know no more new content is coming

[@timliu6870]

In my book, there is no such thing as early access. A game is either finished or not finished and I'm not interested in unfinished games, at all. I don't even want to hear about it. To me the definition of a "finished game" is "no work needs to be done to fix it+ no new content + good review". I'll only pay for stuff like this. Nothing else.

[@retro_451]

Nailed it.

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you!

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

I have a rule personally to never buy early access games unless I like what I see of the game online through streams/etc so much I'm willing to actually take the risk. One game made that requirement: Songs of conquest, a turn based strategy game that is very similar in style to an old series of games I enjoy, heroes of might and magic. The company behind it is a small indie company and the game genre itself is very niche these days. Even then it took over a year before I decided to take the plunge. That game had a 1.0 release this year and I did enjoy it, and I'm glad I actually got an early access game that "paid off". It's not very likely that I will buy another early access game anytime soon again, although palworld was pretty tempting but I decided against it after seeing footage of the game.

[@sidguernsey1393]

Good video, this shit gets on my tits no end!

[@TheKingerd]

Is that a good thing? 😂 if so thank you 🤝🤣

[@clavet9727]

I still would say 7 days to die could easily be released as a full game out of early access but they still want to do more with it

[@larrylindgren9484]

10 years? You want to play to beta a game they can't finish in 10 years. Wow. People like you are the problem. Put up money for things that will probably never be finished.

[@Artemisthemp]

It's hard to define Early Access as Baldur Gate 3 was in Early access for 2 years? Which upon release confused me, as certain section from early access wasn't there anymore (improvement). So maybe best define as early purchase with Beta access. Yet we have stuff like World of Warcraft: War Within, which most expensive edition grant access to Beta, 3 days early access to finish game. I miss the days when Demo's was most people experince and beta was something mysterious for the common folk.

[@PanPeter-i5k]

👍👍👍

[@Cpt_DoDo]

just look at world of tanks 12s in beta

[@JoshValdez1996]

Multiversus is funny cause it was one of those Beta in Name Only games until it wasn’t. Like it had two full season passes, a paid item shop, and several seasonal holiday events but it was just so damn broken they made their fake “beta” real and actually took the game back offline and went back into development mode. It’s bizarre cause it clearly was a BINO, and they were definitely abusing the beta term to excuse broken and missing features until one day they realized there was just so much wrong with it the best choice was to fall back on the beta tag and go offline and come back with the “full release”. Lol. I remember when the news came out that it was going offline that most people were just surprised to find out it had been in beta the whole time. Lol

[@TheKingerd]

That is a perfect example of a BINO. I should’ve tossed that one in the video. It’s a beta til it isn’t lol

[@Nero-Caesar]

You probably won't see this but could you talk about how some games in early access are starting to lock updates behind a paywall with the cheap explanation of "wanting the Steam build to be the most stable version". I know I'll get hate for this but the biggest offender I know who does this is/was Ready or not before it hit 1.0. I'd love your opinion on this is a new and up-and-coming issue that we as gamers should get in front of before it becomes a standard.

[@snowmanthe-jimmy2731]

Sadly you are mostly right, but then we have a masterpiece like BG3 that wouldn't exist (or be that good) without it's extended early access period. The tool can be used to benefit the players, but like any tool, what really matters is the intent of the entity using that tool.

[@TheKingerd]

For sure. BG3 is probably the golden example of early access (and pre order bonuses if I’m being honest) done right

[@7Write4This9Heart7]

Completely agree with you! Once the game is out and costs ANY kind of money, it's not early access/beta anymore. Companies need to be honest and FINISH FUCKING GAMES or STFU. This is why I don't play Fortnite or any AAA games. LMAO! Very sad!

[@snil4]

I know I'm extremely late but remember when pubg got a physical release while it was still in "early access" with microtransactions and everything and people didn't care after a day? look at us now....

[@WernherVonKerman.]

ksp2 be like:

[@Average_Communist]

A very entertaining video.

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! 🤝

[@JimPanC]

I love your videos and you honestly deserver 100x more subs and views please keep doing these videos. dont know if you care for these comments but if you want an idea for a video make one about governments funding big studios like ubisoft for example. the only reason ubisoft releases skull and bones is because the singapore government wanted to sue ubisoft for getting funds with a never ending project. last year ubisoft got 2 million € from the german government and if you wonder what game they had to make for it, they ported anno 1800 to consoles. ubisoft has 20k employees and is worth over 7 billion $ yet they siphon money from all over the world and still pack their games with micro transactions and all the usual crap. meanwhile actual indie devs need money for their dream project without relying on early access, kickstarter etc. and might not get it because of the millions wasted on AAA

[@taxisalad]

Counterpoint: New Blood Interactive ... that's it, everything else you said was pretty on-point

[@dhruvhegde7096]

Omg u got like 19,00 subs in 3 months

[@TheKingerd]

It's pretty wild. KZbin's algorithm is a weird thing, I honestly think the don't pre order vids were a bit of a fluke (I was shocked when youtube picked it up so heavily, it was meant to be sort of a tech demo for myself) but hopefully the content will only improve from here so you guys can stay invested as we keep truckin on :)

[@guardtheyorkie]

There are some good one like blade and sorcery

[@PinkLemnade]

Should do a video about sequel games like Call of Duty and the differences between MW2 and MW3, like how MW3 advertises Classic MW2 maps that.... shouldve been in MW2.... and instead of just fixing the game they simply released another. Scope glints in MW2 have been buggy and worked like 20% of the time since release and not a single time has it been fixed, they dont care because they already have our money.

[@TheKingerd]

Agreed. I almost feel like the CoD series has enough instances it could have its own do not pre order video focused on that series alone

[@kosmas173]

Finally someone is talking about the history of the decline of video games and how each year it has gotten worse and worse.

[@TheKingerd]

Sadly. But only because I want to see it improve, and that starts with people recognizing how much the score has changed over time (cue GI Joe “knowing is half the battle”). Thanks for watching, glad to have you here!

[@Blvckguy]

Enlisted is another good example of this bad practice

[@slicedtopieces]

I don't buy games that are early access... like ever. Buuut the games industry would collapse overnight to 0.2% of it's size if more customers were like me. I don't buy new or full priced either. 😅

[@simplysmiley4670]

Same, I refuse to touch triple A titles because, let's be honest, a good AAA game is a once in a blue moon occurance nowadays, they are mostly garbage meant to milk cash ouy of you. And anything else? I wait for reviews from sources I _trust_ first, before considering the purchase.

[@TheKingerd]

Tbh I don’t think less games of higher quality would be a terrible thing. I’d still like to see indie devs doing their thing but when it comes to the AAA studios duking it out over who has the best battle pass I wouldn’t mind seeing less of them

[@Corrector1]

Early access? I'd rather have an early ass cyst.

[@TheKingerd]

😂😂😂

[@JagoKestis]

This comment is in Early Access. Don’t worry though, read long enough and it will be good eventually.

[@TheKingerd]

This comment is the quality entertainment the internet was built for

[@Kaynadian1337]

Based video that almost every video game fan should see

[@MoviePerson280]

Great video for a small KZbinr

[@TheKingerd]

Thank you! 🤓

[@BowtieJDP]

With how massive my backlog is I don’t need to pay full price for the worst version of the game. If just a beta means it’s hot garbage for 90USD I’ll wait. I dont have the time nor the money for the current state of gaming. Live service = no buy.

[@hannibalwrecktor5506]

Very well done. Now I have a link I can send to all the young kids that give me shit for criticizing Escape from Tarkovs state of bugginess, instead of trying to explain to them they are just parroting the exec & management/marketing teams BS talking points to make the PR look better for it.

[@TheKingerd]

What better way for a studio to defend its game than by having fans do it for them? Consumers hold more power than they think

[@Banned_and_Redacted]

minecraft a passion project? ok as someone who bought it back in 09/10 let me just tell you that man had NO passion at all for that game when he quit his job and announced on his blog he was gonna go full time on minecraft he started taking month long vacations and you were lucky if you got an update per month the update being like a compass or something stupid

[@BDozer666]

All games with content updates/Games as a service are early access games Change my mind

[@TheKingerd]

We must protect this man at all costs

[@Fatt_Tony]

I paid for early access to forza motorsport, I can't say I'm disappointed, but im a huge racing Sim fan so I kinda knew what I was getting. The hate boner (the actman term) for it is yuuuuge!

[@porterwake3898]

If you do "Early Access" it should be MANDATORY to set within the year, a hard date for 1.0 release. A complete game. If you do NOT meet that date, you owe the money back. I'm so sick and fucking tired of early access.

[@TheKingerd]

I like the idea of timed early access

[@porterwake3898]

@@TheKingerd you can never get a full complete out of the box experience anymore. What in the world? Release the game little by little over the course of several years? Is this what gamers actually want???

[@os_r1ck]

How multiversus (smash clone) charged for MTX and then pulled the game so you can't play online anymore.

[@cinderefell1399]

Early access means never finishing the game.

[@unironicallydel7527]

early access is far too heavily relied on. Every indie nowadays is an early access release. The only full releases you'll find are AAA games and most of those are shit now.

[@larrylindgren9484]

Playing a company to beta test? That's what early access is. I don't pay to beta test. Worse some of these games spend years in early access and other never get finished. Trouble now most game even if they are released as so called finished might as well be early access. Bug fill and they barely run. I now never touch a new game for a year. Then I go back and see did they actually finish it? Is it still a bug filled mess. Was it actually good which in this day and age is raw. Cities Skylines 2 is a horrible mess. If was not finished. It was more a very early beta build when they released it as a finished game. How about just finish the game before you release it. There's a thought. Instead of grabbing the money and more times than not never finishing the game.

[@phoxpharms]

Games like 7DTD that have been in Alpha for 10+ yrs is not Alpha, nor early access...it is a scam. KSP2 releasing in "early access" at full game price, in less then a demo mode of playablity is a scam. If it is Early Access from a AAA dev, it is a scam. Alpha should be what you work on in development, Beta can be released to a test sample of players for working out final bugs, and then you release the game. After you can add updates to the game. These days Early Access is a coin flip on scam vs potential awesome product. But there is a higher chance I will not buy, or wait to buy your game if marked ealy access, unless it has shown major updates and progress towards releasing a full product. 7DTD is one of my all time favorite survival games, but after 10yrs of promises falling short, and the game still not releasing to Beta, I have long stopped playing it. Gamers are unfortunately the most gullable group and the biggest capitalistic simps as we are the only industry that happily pays for unfinished and broken products. These practices would not be accepted in any other industry. Those of us smart enough to not be scammed are among the minority hence why it is common practice and will not change until gamers grow a pair.