Why is this game still in beta after 3 years?

[Sterben]

I played this game back in 2019 and figured i would take a break until the game was finished. But going on the 4th year and its still in beta? I never imagined a game being in beta for years on end. What gives?

[Suzaku]

Perfection takes time.

[HumanMirthquake]

Because they're still developing it. They can only go so fast.

[XLjedi]

Upon final release, hopefully they'll be able to update the title of the game to "Great". However, I completely agree with the devs on where it stands at the moment.

[Aven]

Because Early Access is not Beta, at least not exclusively. Games release at stages ranging from a pre-alpha tech demo to a public beta simply to squash the final bugs.

[tdogoh9]

lots of big steam games are in "early access" even though they are pretty much a full game. its just how steam is.

[Die Hand Gottes]

Other games are sometimes much longer in development, the difference with Early Access is that you can play it during development.

[Omega420]

For the record, 3 years is nothing when you consider Star Citizen is still in Alpha after 10 years with over 500 million in funding.

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by Omega420:

For the record, 3 years is nothing when you consider Star Citizen is still in Alpha after 10 years with over 500 million in funding.

LOL... by the time Star Citizen is done, it will be a fun historical reference for players as what human existence was like back in the 5th Millennium.

[NZ.Zero]

It's an easy trap to fall into ... more fun to keep adding new features instead of fixing bugs, classic Indy house mistake. Then the whole game stays buggy and unfinished forever. At this point they need to shift their approach to the heavy discipline and boring work of releasing what they have in as bug free way as possible instead of trying to boil the ocean.

They're still doing it with no man's sky after 6 years. It's a stunning game but there are still many basic things left ignored while they add the next unnecessary shiny thing. It's a hard path but fixing bugs and releasing a well polished version of TODAYS game is what both games need to do.

But they might not have the skill. That level of finishing requires a new approach compared to previous stages of dev. Which is why many dev houses get stuck doing what they did in the early stages. Finishing is the hardest part, actually.

[curtyuiop]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Perfection takes time.

yup, this.

[Omega420]

Originally posted by NZ.Zero:

It's an easy trap to fall into ... more fun to keep adding new features instead of fixing bugs, classic Indy house mistake. Then the whole game stays buggy and unfinished forever. At this point they need to shift their approach to the heavy discipline and boring work of releasing what they have in as bug free way as possible instead of trying to boil the ocean.

They're still doing it with no man's sky after 6 years. It's a stunning game but there are still many basic things left ignored while they add the next unnecessary shiny thing. It's a hard path but fixing bugs and releasing a well polished version of TODAYS game is what both games need to do.

But they might not have the skill. That level of finishing requires a new approach compared to previous stages of dev. Which is why many dev houses get stuck doing what they did in the early stages. Finishing is the hardest part, actually.

This is why I've gotten stuck in arguments over adding new things to the game, even more so if its a suggestion that either the devs already said they aren't going to do or for the fact doing so just prolongs the release of the game even longer.

This is the issue with Star Citizen. Instead of them focusing on completing even just one aspect of the game, they keep adding new things because that is what the players want.

The new things keep breaking everything else, so around and around they go without ever finishing a single part of the game. For the recorded I've never played, plenty of up to date YouTube videos that paint the current state of the game clearly.

I instantly don't care for the game because it's obvious they spend more time developing new ships then anything else. 10 years and still no new player guides to help get around but damn look at that new $175 transport ship.... How anyone can say it's not a scam at this point is besides me.

You know, in the beginning. You got the game you got. There was no way to tell 3d Realms what you wanted in Duke3d as they were developing it and if you think iD Software was going to listen to you when making Quake.... HAHAHA and the fun part about it all, you were either happy with it or you weren't period.

I don't understand where this gamer entitlement came from where game studios are expected to bow to the will of the player when it comes to every aspect of the game being developed. I understand giving and taking feedback but more and more players have this tone that since all the players say so you better do it or we won't play.

I've seen many suggestions on here that plainly go against what the dev want for this game and even after the devs explain their position, people still go on about it such as a combat system.

The thinking being if they get enough to agree with them then the devs will do it because they did it before with this other <insert whatever> thing.

The end result is the game never gets finished or it comes out with a billion bugs which only 2% get fixed as the game company has now moved on to its next project.

[NZ.Zero]

@Omega420
Some great points here. I don't think it's entitlement though. I mean sometimes it is, but the way stuff is made has fundamentally changed and games are so complex that devs need to listen to feedback because they'll never plan it all infallibly (and everythings agile anyway now, and evolves over time). Feedback is an essential part of the process.

It's really hard for producers to get it right .. it's a REALLY difficult balancing act, so yeah sometimes they p___ off some of the users, and sometimes it's an unavoidable necessity, but more often they screw up and didn't listen enough. For example, often those who appear entitled have a deeper need that it's worth exploring. It's the game shops job to do this.

I know what you mean about star citizen, the more I find out about it the more of a car crash it looks like. Sounds like their mistake is believing what players say they want unfiltered,

It's not the role of players to understand every nuance, constraint and strategy decision. You could in fact say that it's entitled of game houses who expect detailed feedback from players which incorporates all this. That's not the role or players. Players don't usually have enough information or the time to process it, and it's very seldom where their skills lie anyway.

[DaBa]

It was released in a pretty early state, with a lot of development left. Also I imagine scope creep played a part in it too.

Besides, you must know very little about software development if you think 3 years is a lot when we're talking about making something like this.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Originally posted by Omega420:

For the record, 3 years is nothing when you consider Star Citizen is still in Alpha after 10 years with over 500 million in funding.

LOL... by the time Star Citizen is done, it will be a fun historical reference for players as what human existence was like back in the 5th Millennium.

It will never be "done". They are literally just waiting until the money runs out, then they will release whatever build they are at currently as a finished product, and disappear into oblivion. It's pretty obvious that game is not going anywhere.

[markornikov]

Originally posted by NZ.Zero:

It's an easy trap to fall into ... more fun to keep adding new features instead of fixing bugs, classic Indy house mistake. Then the whole game stays buggy and unfinished forever. At this point they need to shift their approach to the heavy discipline and boring work of releasing what they have in as bug free way as possible instead of trying to boil the ocean.

They're still doing it with no man's sky after 6 years. It's a stunning game but there are still many basic things left ignored while they add the next unnecessary shiny thing. It's a hard path but fixing bugs and releasing a well polished version of TODAYS game is what both games need to do.

But they might not have the skill. That level of finishing requires a new approach compared to previous stages of dev. Which is why many dev houses get stuck doing what they did in the early stages. Finishing is the hardest part, actually.

They recently did shift their approach towards a final release. That's why update 7 is small.
The devs are doing the boring stuff working towards releasing the full game.