Hot5pur
Member
I think we've all noticed the sad state games release in these days in terms of performance and optimization. Then over the next few months the game undergoes all sorts of fixes to bring it into a good state.
Games are more complex these days and take time, especially to fix things late in development. Games are also longer and need to be QAed. Regardless, due to investor pressure, studios push out half baked releases only to fix them later, charging full price in the process.
What if instead people embraced the early access (EA) method even for AA/AAA titles, where you release early but at a discount, and have people who just can't wait and don't mind bugs test the game for you (as sad as that sounds). When the game is truly ready, it goes to full price. This is what many indie studios doing EA have started doing.
We are far past the time where the game on disc is playable with how many day 1 patches there are, so why not just take these concepts to their logical conclusion in this modern age of game "development".
Games are more complex these days and take time, especially to fix things late in development. Games are also longer and need to be QAed. Regardless, due to investor pressure, studios push out half baked releases only to fix them later, charging full price in the process.
What if instead people embraced the early access (EA) method even for AA/AAA titles, where you release early but at a discount, and have people who just can't wait and don't mind bugs test the game for you (as sad as that sounds). When the game is truly ready, it goes to full price. This is what many indie studios doing EA have started doing.
We are far past the time where the game on disc is playable with how many day 1 patches there are, so why not just take these concepts to their logical conclusion in this modern age of game "development".