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/

[Crazy Tiger]

It would be nice if people learn that the word "fraud" has actual meaning and that it certainly doesn't apply to Early Access games. After all, they're advertised as unfinished games that may or may not get finished. It's not fraud when you get exactly what you're purchasing.

[J4MESOX4D]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

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

How is that fraud exactly? Games being abandoned is part of the industry - how can something be developed if it has ran out of money and not sustainable? Some titles have had their development suspended because a war has broken out in their country and they cannot proceed. Is that fraud too? Also Steam doesn't pay attention to abandoned games and they are not obliged to either - maybe users should pay attention to the early access warning notice in blue which is on every store page. People buying into worthless dishonest tripe is why many credible projects get tarnished with the same brush.

It's not difficult for users to leave negative reviews on projects deemed abandoned or for users to ignore these games. It's certainly not a violation of Valve's SteamWorks policy and not every title that has gone this way has done so for fraudulent means.

[Brian9824]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crazy Tiger:

It would be nice if people learn that the word "fraud" has actual meaning and that it certainly doesn't apply to Early Access games. After all, they're advertised as unfinished games that may or may not get finished. It's not fraud when you get exactly what you're purchasing.

This, i mean most new businesses don't succeed. Its not fraud when that happens especially when you are explicitly made aware of it.

[phoneticdecay]

Q: What happens if I don't complete my Early Access game?
A: Sometimes things don't work out as you planned, and you may need to discontinue development of your Early Access game before you are ready for a V1.0 release. If this happens, you can contact Valve to figure out the next steps. There are two options:

If your Early Access game is playable and well received, but you're unable to develop it to the point where you feel it warrants a full V1.0 release, then we can keep your game on the Store, but otherwise remove it from Early Access. This will remove the Early Access tag and Early Access Q&A displayed on your game’s Store Page, but not start the launch visibility that comes with definitively releasing your game out of Early Access. This would be a permanent change; we aren’t able to reenable Early Access again later, so please consider this option carefully before contacting us with the details. In this case, you should let your community know about your decision to leave Early Access via a forum post or news event.

Alternatively, we can remove your Early Access game from Steam. Before reaching out, you should read about the process of removing a game from Steam and take a moment to carefully consider whether or not pulling your game down is actually the right choice. Are you acting based on an emotional response to negative feedback, or is retiring your game the appropriate next step? We take our relationship with customers seriously, so if you choose to cancel development of a game and retire it from the store, we will not republish it again later and we may offer refunds to any users who purchased it. Treating customers fairly is the most important thing to us.


The game is dead and continued to be sold under the pretense of active development. That is deceitful intent for the purpose of profit.

[phoneticdecay]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crazy Tiger:

It would be nice if people learn that the word "fraud" has actual meaning and that it certainly doesn't apply to Early Access games. After all, they're advertised as unfinished games that may or may not get finished. It's not fraud when you get exactly what you're purchasing.

fraud
[frôd]
noun
**wrongful** OR criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain:

Like selling something under the promise it "might" one day see completion when clearly it never will?

[Brian9824]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

The game is dead and continued to be sold under the pretense of active development. That is deceitful intent for the purpose of profit.

Except its not. It literally tells you that it might never update on the store page. That is the exact opposite of the pretense of active development.

Simple solution though, go into your store preferences and disable seeing EA games.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crazy Tiger:

It would be nice if people learn that the word "fraud" has actual meaning and that it certainly doesn't apply to Early Access games. After all, they're advertised as unfinished games that may or may not get finished. It's not fraud when you get exactly what you're purchasing.

fraud
[frôd]
noun
**wrongful** OR criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain:

Like selling something under the promise it "might" one day see completion when clearly it never will?

If that was the case then there wouldn't be a clear warning TELLING you that it might never get updated and to not buy it unless you were happy with it as is...

[phoneticdecay]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Brian9824:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

The game is dead and continued to be sold under the pretense of active development. That is deceitful intent for the purpose of profit.

Except its not. It literally tells you that it might never update on the store page. That is the exact opposite of the pretense of active development.

Simple solution though, go into your store preferences and disable seeing EA games.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

fraud
[frôd]
noun
**wrongful** OR criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain:

Like selling something under the promise it "might" one day see completion when clearly it never will?

If that was the case then there wouldn't be a clear warning TELLING you that it might never get updated and to not buy it unless you were happy with it as is...

Defending steam on principle alone? This is what Early Access is when it is launched.. while it is ACTIVE.

Do you not grasp the concept that a game no longer being developed is not active and therefore needs to have the Early Access tag remove. Hence the text i posted directly from the Steam Works FAQ on what a developer should do "if their EA does not work out"

Failing to follow through with that final close out process with they QUIT working on the game, is merely to draw revenue in perpetuity based on a fallacy.

At the very least there should be a steam ticket to prompt evaluation on whether or not it is still actively in EA.

Trying to claim that early access applies years after development shut down is asinine.

Do you believe everything with a "on sale" or "organic" sticker is truly so?

Truly Organic tried the same thing. "IT IS organic, it came from the earth and has carbon"

[J4MESOX4D]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Brian9824:

Except its not. It literally tells you that it might never update on the store page. That is the exact opposite of the pretense of active development.

Simple solution though, go into your store preferences and disable seeing EA games.



If that was the case then there wouldn't be a clear warning TELLING you that it might never get updated and to not buy it unless you were happy with it as is...

At the very least there should be a steam ticket to prompt evaluation on whether or not it is still actively in EA

Valve will contact the devs and all they have to say is yes. Case closed. Unless Valve can prove that the game's development has been permanently suspended then developers can easily fob them off.

[Brian9824]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

Do you not grasp the concept that a game no longer being developed is not active and therefore needs to have the Early Access tag remove

I mean do you not grasp that doing what you suggest would be more harmful as people would think the game was finished and not realize its incomplete when they buy it?

[ShelLuser]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

I am pissed at those games that keep the early access flag and ghost.

You should be pissed at yourself for not having done your homework by properly looking into the game before buying.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

If you find any truly abandoned games on Steam that still sport the Early Access tag, please report it as potential fraud.

I'm actually seriously considering if I shouldn't report this post instead, because you're now potentially misleading Steamers and trying to persuade them to mis/ab -use the reporting system. You report something when it violates the Steam TOS and/or general rules. Developers which no longer work on a game don't do that.

Not to mention that this is a pretty dumb comment in itself because.... when is a game "abandoned"? That's something only the developer would know. Some developers, especially indie studios, need time to get things done. And sometimes updates may even take one or two years.

Then what?

And the absurd misuse of the word fraud is just... stupid. People like you only make it more difficult for those who actually have or had to deal with fraud, because the misuse of the word risks devaluating the actual real problems. Pretty scummy thing to do IMO, though it's probably just another classic example of not having thought this thing through.

[phoneticdecay]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Brian9824:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

Do you not grasp the concept that a game no longer being developed is not active and therefore needs to have the Early Access tag remove

I mean do you not grasp that doing what you suggest would be more harmful as people would think the game was finished and not realize its incomplete when they buy it?

Just read the Steam Works agreement before you keep commenting. It is pretty simple to understand language, and Im sure there are localization for all different languages.

To keep the game under an early access tag when there is no active development for years...is exactly what you should not do in Early Access.

I can keep pasting portions of the Document show violations of best practices, steam works policy, and whatever else.

There will always be those who love to argue, align with the predatory corpo mentality, see nothing wrong with deceit, or just love defending the people that practice deceit for gain.


PS
Games that will never finish and are broken... get removed entirely. Read the FAQ

[phoneticdecay]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ShelLuser:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

I am pissed at those games that keep the early access flag and ghost.

You should be pissed at yourself for not having done your homework by properly looking into the game before buying.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

If you find any truly abandoned games on Steam that still sport the Early Access tag, please report it as potential fraud.

I'm actually seriously considering if I shouldn't report this post instead, because you're now potentially misleading Steamers and trying to persuade them to mis/ab -use the reporting system. You report something when it violates the Steam TOS and/or general rules. Developers which no longer work on a game don't do that.

Not to mention that this is a pretty dumb comment in itself because.... when is a game "abandoned"? That's something only the developer would know. Some developers, especially indie studios, need time to get things done. And sometimes updates may even take one or two years.

Then what?

And the absurd misuse of the word fraud is just... stupid. People like you only make it more difficult for those who actually have or had to deal with fraud, because the misuse of the word risks devaluating the actual real problems. Pretty scummy thing to do IMO, though it's probably just another classic example of not having thought this thing through.

I never bought theres games, are you just some shill for steam? or maybe the devs. Ive only been burned by one early access title out of dozens.

Im a little more discerning.

Report whatever you want. You should have done that initially instead of clogging a thread with a bunch of unrelated discussion.

Im amazed that people will twist whatever is said to justify their own meritless view. Misleading who?

The game has no developement for two years and received two updates. Threads are dead over year. Who exactly am i misleading?

[76561199628031747]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von phoneticdecay:

I never bought theres games, are you just some shill for steam?

yeah there is a little group of them of steam fanboys that troll the forums. Its better to ignore them, talking to them is waste keyboard strokes

[Haruspex]

While proper communication is certainly preferred, I wouldn't say there's any fraud there. Anyone can see how long it's been since the last update. You can take a quick minute and dip into the forums too and see if they're dead. The information is there for people to make an informed purchase.

I've also seen instances where an early access game went dark for a year or more, only to return for further development later.

Early access is inherently a risky purchase, but as long as you understand this and make use of the information available to you, there's no reason anyone should get burned.

[Rin]

OP do you expect solo devs who have died to also report on their progress or those that get drafted? As for your own example, it looks like an obvious asset flipper but I guess that doesn't matter?