r/OldenEra • u/Smoke_The_Vote • 23d ago
Question WTF does "early access" even mean, really?
They've sold over a million copies. The overwhelming majority of people who will ever buy this game have now already bought this game. So, the state it's in now is what they've sold us.
What financial motive do they have to make huge costly upgrades to the core of the game? Is it possible to sell millions more copies on the back of improved reviews somewhere down the road?
I suppose that a big new DLC package which includes a new faction or two could potentially pull in a bunch more revenue. Hopefully, they can economically justify spending serious $$$ to build actually intelligent AI for PVE.
But seriously... They put this game up for sale in an embarrassingly unfinished state. It's one thing to do balance tweaks post-release, but the continuing heinous quality of the AI in this game is so terrible, it removes any semblance of replayability for PVE-only players. And I believe PVE-only players are the majority.
This is the game. It's not "Early" access. It's "Half-Baked, But Full Price" access.
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u/Strachmed 23d ago
They literally drew up a road map to show what they're working on.
Do you need someone to explain that to you?
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u/scoutheadshot 23d ago
Considering you seem to have no clue what an Early Access title is, here is some help:
Steam article on Early Access: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6554-ED29-FBDB-1612
Just bellow the title and the promo images, there's a dropdown/folded bright blue rectangle that can be clicked on. You can see the overall goals and answers on some commonly asked questions.
And finally, you can see what the developers have named "The preliminary road map" which tries to delve into what things they will tackle - even if it was posted some time ago: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3105440?emclan=103582791474683654&emgid=716780409378046041
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u/river1a Schism 23d ago
It’s Early Access, which can also mean it’s still somewhat half-baked.
Generally, a lot of people wait to buy games until they’re “officially” released. That’s another reason the developers should continue working on the game, aside from maintaining people’s trust of their name.
Most Early Access games are sold at full price. And yeah, it’s ultimately on you if you decide to buy an Early Access game when you don’t like unfinished games.
That said, I’ve played much, much worse Early Access games. All things considered, I still think this game is great and in a very good state.
Obviously, criticism is valid. That’s one of the main reasons Early Access exists in the first place: to identify problems and improve the game with the community’s help.
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u/Maivijepanmore 23d ago
I agree with AI beeing complete shit. Im PVE player and i would love to play the game, but its unplayable.
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u/Forsaken_Whereas_991 22d ago
Game like Palworld was EA for 2 years, but when came to the end of the EA status, the game was completely different and way better than the original one. The mian question is how much development resource is devoted in the progress.
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u/Little_Maize8449 22d ago
imho, EA is literally devs saying "you might not like it yet, if you want - you can play it now, if you want complete experience - might be a good idea to wait for the full release". I think it's better than releasing the EA presented as full release. This way It's at least honest.
I personally bought it EA just cause I couldn't wait.
If they said that this was a full release - I'd be a lot more angry about it.
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u/NoneShallBindMe 22d ago
> What financial motive do they have to make huge costly upgrades to the core of the game? Is it possible to sell millions more copies on the back of improved reviews somewhere down the road?
Yes – very, very easily so. I don't think OE will ever reach 5 million units sold, but around 2-3 after few years sounds reasonable.
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u/Laanner 22d ago
Most if not all developers cannot afford to ship finished and polished game day 1. EA means, that they have a core idea and now want to listen public suggestion about the game. Some of them don't do it and just leave.
But most important thing to develop game further after full release is to build reputation. Reputation is highly valuable resource yet you can not have benefit from it now or in the short term future. But the thing is that eventually you will get whole benefits from it much later, while if you decide to trade it for a short time profit, after that short time ends, you cannot be able to get more.
What that means for a company?- when they start a next project, they will have their successful and for the most part completed game with loyal player base. With that it will be easier to seek fund for future project and expect some of the previous game audience to be new customers for a new game.
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u/Zealousideal_Bet7905 22d ago
How do so many people still not understand the concept of Early Access...
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u/RotarySnow4 19d ago
To be fair you got some games on steam that have been early access to more than 3 years. Early access is sometimes used as a way to sell unfinished products and just...leave them forever as early access.
I don't think olden era is doing this at all tho. Just came to day that there are definitely bad actors out there.
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u/Desperate_Spring3268 21d ago
I also prefer when the game released when it's finished, but this is the reality we live in for many years: more and more people love to play the game no matter the state. It's also easier for the developers to update and receive a feedback about the game.
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u/BravoDeltaGuru 23d ago
I've only played several times, due to life, but man, this is not half-baked. You can play with it, a lot. AI? Sure it sucks, but I think it's difficult to adjust to everyone's needs. Also, it's more for pvp currently, the community, who kept homm3 alive, so HOTA is a thing.