How do I know when a game is actually released not "Early Access"?

[John Hadley]

I've noticed a disturbing number of unfinished games being released on Steam under the "Early Access" program. I have no interest at all in playing Early Access games so is there some way I can tell when these games are actually done and ready for consumption? Or will Steam just be a dumping ground from now on with all manner of incomplete product and no way to locate a quality game?

[Ultrapwnd]

On the store page for the game, scroll down and it will be clearly labelled Early Access.

[John Hadley]

So I need to check the store page for every Early Access game on Steam each day to determine when they are ready to play for real?

[Ultrapwnd]

You have to go into the store page to buy the game anyway. Just scroll down and it will tell you if it is early access. Why do you need to monitor every game? Just check what interests you.

[John Hadley]

I couldn't possibly keep up with every game under development to know which ones I will like. Steam did this in the past for me by screening games and only putting the ones that were complete on Steam and listing the new games in the New Releases section. I could find new games that were ready to play now in this way and maybe buy some of them.

Now fast forward to "Early Access" and half of the games in the "New Releases" section are now unfinished games unsuitable to be consumed. How do I find quality games to play now without having to sift through someone's unfinished garbage?

[Ultrapwnd]

The majority of games are not Early Access. You have to browse the new releases section and check the ones you are interested in individually, I guess. Early Access is not that bad, hardly unfinished garbage. But I understand you wanting to play something complete.

[John Hadley]

I don't think I'm being too hard on the early access games. I bought one early access game oh I dunno 3 months ago or so after trying its demo. The game is called Kerbal Space Program. In the start menu of the demo there's a shaded out option Story Mode so I buy the game thinking that if I buy it I will unlock this Story Mode and I can actually play a game instead of a simulation, where I would have a campaign with structure to it rather than just building random disassociated rocket ships with no goal. After I buy this game I find out that the story mode is not even implemented yet. Three months later still no story mode so I have a game that I'm waiting who knows how long until I can actually enjoy it the way it is eventually meant to be enjoyed. I could have spent that money on a game that I can play today.

I played another early access game that was free to play. Its a racing game, Ridge Racer Driftopia. I'm racing down the street in this game and my car just flips over for no reason because of broken physics that I assume will be fixed by the time the game is actually released. Many of the other people that try this game say they can't even get past the car select screen because the game crashes. It too is not ready to play yet in the way it is eventually meant to be played.

These are the only two early access games I've tried and I've decided I won't be trying any more because I don't want to waste my time playing games that might work in 3 months or might never work. I am ruining what could be an excellent gaming experience if I waited until these games are actually ready to play, but I haven't seen an early access game that became finished yet so I don't have the faintest idea how long that will take or how to figure out when it happens.

Since I don't know how long it will be until an early access game is ready to play I don't want to waste my money or my time on these games. I'd rather play one of the many hundreds of games that is complete so I know I'm getting a game that's ready to play now. If these early access games become complete later I would like to consider them at that time, not months before they are ready to play.

[The Rock God]

İlk olarak John Hadley tarafından gönderildi:

I've noticed a disturbing number of unfinished games being released on Steam under the "Early Access" program. I have no interest at all in playing Early Access games so is there some way I can tell when these games are actually done and ready for consumption? Or will Steam just be a dumping ground from now on with all manner of incomplete product and no way to locate a quality game?

Steam could totally eliminate Early Access games tomorrow, but this still won't solve your problem. This place - the whole PC gaming marketplace for that matter - is, has been for some time, and will continue to be a dumping ground for games that aren't ready for release. What Steam needs is a way to filter out games that were released in the last six months. Then we could buy finished games. Maybe.

[John Hadley]

Certainly there's some of that out there even with non-early-access games, but if a game is coming right out telling Steam its not ready for release by asking for an Early Access banner then I should have some way to differentiate it from other games that are actually ready to play (or at least claim to be) when I search. Later when its actually ready for release I should be able to see it in New Releases, not when its ready for six months of beta testing.

[.]

I wanna know this as well, why cant I config Steam so that I can see relased games. I'm not interested in beta testing, I just want to see a list of new games I can play. No pre-orders, early access or what it is called. Only final, released games please.

[Pheace]

What's the problem here? Don't you open a store page to see if you're interested in buying a game anyway? Don't you look at screenshots? Watch the trailer?

Any time you do that you'd see the blue Early Access banner.

[sfnhltb]

İlk olarak Pheace tarafından gönderildi:

What's the problem here? Don't you open a store page to see if you're interested in buying a game anyway? Don't you look at screenshots? Watch the trailer?

Any time you do that you'd see the blue Early Access banner.

Ok, and why not have a little triangle in the link before to show a game is early access so you don't have to click through to every game to find it's status? Especially seeing as the default Steam client has a broken back button so you have to scroll through the list of 100 items back to where you were for every time you click through to see more information about an item, it makes it more important that obviously uninteresting (to most people, presumably) entries like early access/betas is clearly marked without having to drill down over and over.

[Sparkling Homonculus]

İlk olarak sfnhltb tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Pheace tarafından gönderildi:

What's the problem here? Don't you open a store page to see if you're interested in buying a game anyway? Don't you look at screenshots? Watch the trailer?

Any time you do that you'd see the blue Early Access banner.

Ok, and why not have a little triangle in the link before to show a game is early access so you don't have to click through to every game to find it's status? Especially seeing as the default Steam client has a broken back button so you have to scroll through the list of 100 items back to where you were for every time you click through to see more information about an item, it makes it more important that obviously uninteresting (to most people, presumably) entries like early access/betas is clearly marked without having to drill down over and over.

It lists the game as Early Access before you even click on it, it's listed where the various genre's of a game are.

[.]

But why do we have to even see this mess of games that are not ready? Move them away, where people who like this sort of products can look for them.

[Ultrapwnd]

İlk olarak Smeggy tarafından gönderildi:

But why do we have to even see this mess of games that are not ready? Move them away, where people who like this sort of products can look for them.

It's still part of the store. It is still a game that wants to be sold.

[Satoru]

İlk olarak Smeggy tarafından gönderildi:

But why do we have to even see this mess of games that are not ready? Move them away, where people who like this sort of products can look for them.

Just because you don't want to see it, doesn't mean others don't want to.