Indie game studios with big ambitions but small budgets usually release their games in the early access. That way they can get the necessary funds to continue improving and see if the game is worth investing more time into (do people even like it).
As for gamers, they get access to new games that otherwise wouldn’t be released, and they also get to contribute to future development processes in terms of what is good and what needs to be removed/changed.
I’ve been a gamer a good portion of my life and not to sound like I’m bragging but I spend a good amount of money supporting such games. I do believe that they deserve my support and a chance to create something that they’re proud of. But, mainly I do it because I love the process of playing the game early and seeing how it changes along the way as well as the final finished project.
Granted, there were cases where the game never came out of that early access phase but I never held it against the developers or even thought “oh this is awful, I’m never going to buy any other early access game”. That’s how it goes, you win some and some get completely forgotten.
The common theme that these early access games have is that they are more affordable than any other game created by big studios. In most cases you can get 3 early access games for the price of one AAA game. Yes, one is finished and the other not but in my personal experience it was never a deal breaker to having fun in them. I would even argue that sometimes a hidden gem comes along that is 10x more fun than any of high budget projects.
To get to the point, those games are cheap in early access. However, once the game is finally released, should they stay cheap or should the price increase? Is it fair for people who bought it early? There are cases where they even have a discount for 1.0, is that even more preposterous? Does it feel like a slap in the face to players who bought it for a full price when there wasn’t as much content?
Answers to all of these questions are personal and can vary from gamer to gamer. If you’re here reading this then you probably wonder what I think about it.
Like I’ve said above, I have zero regrets when it comes to playing or buying early access games. Now as for what I think should be fair, that is the other thing.
Firstly, if you have an early access game and you invest potentially hundreds of thousands/ millions dollars, invested months into new content, and have fans that were there from day one, having a 10,20,30 percent discount when you release 1.0, that seems sorta desperate and disrespectful for OG players who bought it for a full price. That’s just my humble opinion, don’t get immediately offended.
As for keeping prices the same or increasing them, that totally depends on the developers. If they think that they’ve invested so much time/resources and the content of the game expanded/improved exponentially, the price increase is justifiable. In most cases, over 48% of developers decide to keep their prices the same. Which is their prerogative.
I’m fine with whatever, I’m a pretty mellow guy but after doing extensive research, I found that people are also pretty chill with the prices staying the same or increasing. The only times that everybody had an issue is:
- when developers decided to increase prices without making any significant improvements
- developers never announced a price increase beforehand
- the game remains unfinished yet becomes more expensive
- multiple price increases happen during early access.
In these cases, I completely agree with them. Luckily those sorts of gaming companies don’t have a very successful career and usually are the ones with the most negative reviews on Steam.
Final words of wisdom
I went on a little rant there but I feel all better now. As for whether the game should be more expensive or stay the same? I would say that it depends on the game. If you really want to make it absolutely fair to everybody, I say when you launch the game in early access, put a 20% discount on the first month as sort of a thank you for people who were there on day one. And after that do whatever you feel fits the best.
What are your thoughts on this? Should the prices of early access games stay the same? Let me know in comments
