Early access isn't free?!

[HighTechGeek]

Here's the deal:
1. We, the gamers, do the work of pushing boundaries, breaking, exploring, testing and reporting bugs.
2. You "pay" us for this service by letting us play a bug-filled experience for free.
3. When all is said and done, and the experience is stable, early access is shut down and we buy the full game upon release.

[Red]

That was never the way any early access game worked. What you describe is a free alpha/beta of a full funded an near to release date game. And the times of cheap ass Early Access Games is over. Especially for well known Names like KSP.

Look at Baldurs Gate 3 and other Games. The devs are not looking for ppl who only buy because they get the cheap deal, instead they look for ppl who rly wanna play and contribute to the development and some funding. Baldurs Gate gets praised for this while ksp gets bashed because ppl think they are entitled to get it cheap.

Most EA Games are more of a crowdfunding thing then paying for alpha and still 80% of them are just cash grab asset copy pasta survival bs that will get abandoned after the first hyp is over. I doubt ksp fits that category.

they should have done a clearer marketing about the state of the game and audience they are looking for for EA. Now they gotta deal with cry baby review bashing expecting cheap price and full feratures

[Telfram]

I always saw reduced pricing on EA titles, going up as it was fleshed out.

[Red]

Originally posted by Telfram:

I always saw reduced pricing on EA titles, going up as it was fleshed out.

yeah thats the way for all those cheap copy pasta survival games and new brands not well known franchises

[Migz - DH]

Is this a serious question? Really??

[Dr.Bourinos]

Welcome to 2023 son.

[oblivion4463]

The game is justified at its current price, they will finish the game.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by HighTechGeek:

Here's the deal:
1. We, the gamers, do the work of pushing boundaries, breaking, exploring, testing and reporting bugs.
2. You "pay" us for this service by letting us play a bug-filled experience for free.
3. When all is said and done, and the experience is stable, early access is shut down and we buy the full game upon release.

I am not sure that'd even be permitted on Steam. It's not what Steam Early Access is and never has been.

[Rovert881]

Early access is almost never free.
They have the game priced too high right now for sure, but it shouldn't be free.
$20 would be better than $50. Then they should increase as updates come. Like a normal early access game.

[suksas]

That would be nice if majority actually bothered to work.
Many just get the game to play early, get bored because they played a lot of it and eventually leave.

The difference between you and the beta testers is that beta testers sign the contract where they actually do work and report bugs.

Now giving game to a few people under beta test agreement would be possible. But why?
Current Steam player policy is to happily pay for beta testing privilege.
This policy isn't going to change after years of success.

[Norseman]

Originally posted by HighTechGeek:

Here's the deal:
1. We, the gamers, do the work of pushing boundaries, breaking, exploring, testing and reporting bugs.
2. You "pay" us for this service by letting us play a bug-filled experience for free.
3. When all is said and done, and the experience is stable, early access is shut down and we buy the full game upon release.

Or you can opt out and wait till it is out of early access.
It is that simple. No one ask you to buy a unfinished game.

[nosh]

Originally posted by oblivion4463:

The game is justified at its current price, they will finish the game.

And what does finishing the game mean in your opinion? Do you know when they'll call it finished? No? So you pay 50 bucks with a vague imagination that's based on some sort of vague roadmap. Nice.

[HighTechGeek]

Originally posted by Red:

That was never the way any early access game worked. What you describe is a free alpha/beta of a full funded an near to release date game. And the times of cheap ass Early Access Games is over. Especially for well known Names like KSP.

Look at Baldurs Gate 3 and other Games. The devs are not looking for ppl who only buy because they get the cheap deal, instead they look for ppl who rly wanna play and contribute to the development and some funding. Baldurs Gate gets praised for this while ksp gets bashed because ppl think they are entitled to get it cheap.

Most EA Games are more of a crowdfunding thing then paying for alpha and still 80% of them are just cash grab asset copy pasta survival bs that will get abandoned after the first hyp is over. I doubt ksp fits that category.

they should have done a clearer marketing about the state of the game and audience they are looking for for EA. Now they gotta deal with cry baby review bashing expecting cheap price and full feratures

I played Microsoft's Age of Empires IV for free as early access (maybe they called it beta? whatever. KSP 2 seems like alpha at this point) and I submitted many, many bug reports. I like trying to break games. And giving the devs feedback seems like the least they could do is give me access at no cost. Hell, they should pay people that report reproducible bugs.

[Hakgova]

I think that Porsche should let me drive their next new car design for free. Then once they get all the bugs rung out of it, I can buy it (if I want to).

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by HighTechGeek:

Originally posted by Red:

That was never the way any early access game worked. What you describe is a free alpha/beta of a full funded an near to release date game. And the times of cheap ass Early Access Games is over. Especially for well known Names like KSP.

Look at Baldurs Gate 3 and other Games. The devs are not looking for ppl who only buy because they get the cheap deal, instead they look for ppl who rly wanna play and contribute to the development and some funding. Baldurs Gate gets praised for this while ksp gets bashed because ppl think they are entitled to get it cheap.

Most EA Games are more of a crowdfunding thing then paying for alpha and still 80% of them are just cash grab asset copy pasta survival bs that will get abandoned after the first hyp is over. I doubt ksp fits that category.

they should have done a clearer marketing about the state of the game and audience they are looking for for EA. Now they gotta deal with cry baby review bashing expecting cheap price and full feratures

I played Microsoft's Age of Empires IV for free as early access (maybe they called it beta? whatever. KSP 2 seems like alpha at this point) and I submitted many, many bug reports. I like trying to break games. And giving the devs feedback seems like the least they could do is give me access at no cost. Hell, they should pay people that report reproducible bugs.

Yeah, that didn't happen as Steam Early Access, or you would permanently own AoE IV. Your concept of 'early access' is literally not how it works, and would probably be a gross violation of Steam's terms.

Now, sure, public or semi-public beta tests are a real thing, at least sometimes, though they're also often a marketing stunt or even a pre-order bonus. They're potentially a good thing. Possibly KSP2 should have had some. But they're not the same thing as Early Access, which is where your thread goes horribly wrong.

[So What]

Originally posted by Hakgova:

I think that Porsche should let me drive their next new car design for free. Then once they get all the bugs rung out of it, I can buy it (if I want to).

No no, I think Porsche should released an unfinished car for near full price and let people drive it. So what if the brakes don't work, the transmission is constantly stuck in second gear and one of the tires may or may not come off during acceleration? It's early access bro.