This Group is a Petition for Early Access Games

Remember when games would release in a finished state and Game studios didn't overpromise and underdeliver?

Join and don't support any new release early access titles.



Early access has fundamentally changed how Game development occurs in a way which negatively impacts consumers (which will be discussed below). These factors largely have shifted the video game industry to one which incentivizes Studios to overpromise on features and underdeliver or never deliver.


Did you know that about 40% of Early access titles never reach a full release? and on top of that, most games which do make the 1.0 full release do it 3-5 years after the initial release and promises from release trailers?

What does this mean for consumers? They pay for games at full price or slightly discounted for a game which may or may not ever be finished. Would you pay full price for a drink at a restaurant if it were only half filled?

Depending on the title, UP TO 90% of a game's lifetime sales will happen within the first year of release. Financially speaking, studios are not incentivized to update and finish their games after the first year after release because most of their customer base has already bought in. This is why we see a tapering off of care and attention to early access titles most of the time; Studios simply know they're unlikely to make more money from a title, and therefore move their priorities to the next project.


What about early access player feedback? Isn't that useful for studios to be able to determine what to add?

In short, no.

Early access buyers are inarguably the ones most devoted fans of whatever title they buy in early access. However, all games rely on developer vision rather than player wants in order to get the systems which work best for the health of the game. Fanservice is sometimes ok, but when it taints the original vision of the game, you end up with a bloated mess going into the finished product of the game.

This is shown best in reviews of early access games, which live and die by update drops. studies show that Early access games receive more negative reviews over the lifetime of the product. The worst part? Early Access games, on average, receive more sales despite worse reviews. This is due to them grabbing attention from new users when they do finally do a 1.0 release and having an established userbase already.


there are many more issues with the game industry and early access is only one of them. By joining this group and inviting others, hopefully we can make a difference in the user experience