How does early access work?

[Hajile]

I'm just curious, when I buy a game while it's in early access, will I have access to the finished version, or are they separate?

[nullable]

Generally the Early Access version gets "released", the game is patched promoted to that state, and they just take the early access banner off the store page. I feel a great swell of pity for any developer that attempts to double dip by making early access customers rebuy the released version.

Essentially it's just a version update, not a whole new game.

https://store.steampowered.com/earlyaccessfaq/?snr=1_5_9_

[Teksura]

Early Access is intended to be a way for developers to fund their game while still under development by selling copies before it's finished and allowing people to play the unfinished product.

However.

Some Developers abuse this, and will list a game as Early Access and use that as an excuse to justify bugs and unimplemented features which then never get addressed. Shady developers will leave the game in a state of "Early Access" forever and never actually "finish" the game, but will string people along with promises and ideas for things that might get added someday.



So. What does this mean for you? It means buyer beware. If you see an Early Access game, treat it like what you see is what you get and assume it will never get another update ever again. Ask yourself if you're okay paying for that. Don't buy games based on the promise that maybe someday it will be what you wanted. That's silly, just buy it when it is actually what you wanted instead of buying it when it isn't.

[Darkwave Dahlia]

Considering that the essence of this concept came into existence in 2013 here on Steam (I don't care for others who might tried it), it would be appropriate to assume that it is quite recognized by the general userbase. Otherwise, it would be Demo. If they demand you to buy it again when they got it up to 1.0 - there would be a significant uproar.