Early Access Abandonware

[phoneticdecay]

Some truly amazing games have been introduced to the world through "Early Access" launch platform. Those games which utilize the community feedback resource and maintain clear communications with the user base are often fun to watch develop.

Another side of this results in some turbulent situations. Some games go to crap right off the rip and refuse to parse valuable feedback but salvage the situation somewhere in the 9th inning.

Some make use of Early Access as an ongoing protracted Beta Test that takes many years to reach 1.0

For all the success stories of Early Access, there are many failures. Games that push a 1.0 well before they are ready. Developers that post a final tear felt farewell before apologizing. A couple games dropped to 1.0 as Free to Play hoping the renewed interest sparked would fuel the modding scene.

These failures are not the focus of my Ire. I understand that some games fail.. that I am paying for hope and potential. I do not really worry about the game state as much as I worry about how the developers will use Early Access.

I am pissed at those games that keep the early access flag and ghost. Vanish without a trace and never say farewell, all the while Steam continues to sell ta product under the pretense of development. If a game has not produced an update in over 2-YEARS ... its no longer in development. Especially if there has not been any communication explaining the situation.


If you find any truly abandoned games on Steam that still sport the Early Access tag, please report it as potential fraud. Send a customer complaint of some type detailing the fact that "it has escaped steams' attention that this [developer] has abandoned the Early Access" program without following procedure

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess#5

Very Last FAQ covers how to handle a game that does not survive the EA experience. Please add any titles you find that are abandoned in the comments below.

Interastera - Only launched 2 updates total and nothing since August of 2022 (Still Early Access)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1419980/INTERASTRA_Planet_Survival/

[davidb11]

LOL wut, sorry, OP, but no one can claim anything related to Fraud with Early Access.

YOU ARE LITERALLY BUYING SOMETHING THAT MAY NEVER BE COMPLETED.
You signed a CONTRACT the second you bought the game.
Rendering any complaint about Fraud NULL AND VOID.
In a court of law.

Good grief.
A contract makes it clear exactly what Early Access is.
Games don't have to get removed from Early Access because they stopped being worked on.
No one can claim otherwise.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Sadly, many things can happen. For example, a war in real life can cause a game's development to stop. This happened to a EA game i bought that was located in UKRAINE. From what i read, the game developers had to abadon their game studio in their building as it was bombes and blew up all their game backups and gaming assests. It happens. The game that stopped development was Undungeon.

Although alot of people also abuse the EA stuff. Look at stomping grounds. The developer just took the money and ran. I found several games that also have done this. If the developer does not work on a game 2 years after it is released and it is still in EA, you can consider it abadoned. Stomping Lands is a good example of this.

There are exceptions. For example. Fugl is like 7 years old and still in EA as far as i know, and is still being worked on. Probably one person is working on it in their spare time or something.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/643810/Fugl/

Ill probably buy it once it is out of EA.

Still, since i been burned already, i refuse to buy any games in early development anymore.

Also, one more advice OP. If the developer is a indie developer and makes a roadmap for things to make in one year, they won't do it. Usually that is a lie. If it shows multiple years, it is more believable, but be careful, this also could be a false trick. Even triple A studios have tried this trick.

[Tolkien Book Fan]

Corporate staff don't shut their companies down and turn themselves over to the police just because people rant "you're all breaking the law!!!" on their forums. If you think Valve and multiple companies are committing fraud, go to the police or a lawyer or some similar authority and report it.

[crunchyfrog]

Oh we haven't haven't had this post for at least a few months now.

Please use the search funtction and you'll see how many posts people have done saying the same thing for years.

The error you've made though is thinking that when you buy Early Acess you're buying a finished game or the eventual finished game. YOU ARE NOT.

As the big blue box explains, you're buying in to helping an experience, and the CHANCE that a full game might be made.

How you should treat these games is very simple - jump in when and only when it's at a state where it already does what you want out of it.

Or stay clear.


Oh and no, it most definitely is NOT fraud. That's not what fraud is at all. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[Chika Ogiue]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

Interastera - Only launched 2 updates total and nothing since August of 2022 (Still Early Access)

Valve do not impose a time limit on length of time between updates, nor do they specify how many updates a game must have. There are several Early Access games that have gone a year+ between patches, that does not make them fraudulent.

[Mr. Mutilation]

Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me. Is it fraud, nah. Did you get burn't, absolutely. Live and learn, buy in at 1.0 (release). Be well