Larian Considering Steam Early Access for Divinity: Original Sin
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Judging by this recent Swen Vincke blog post, Larian is seriously considering a Steam Early Access release for Divinity: Original Sin, though they're also interested in understanding why a part of their audience is against it, and hear their opinion on it. There's a decent discussions going on in the comments, but hopefully I'll be forgiven if I instead focus on the developer's side of things:
So what about the cons?
Bad first impressions & player misunderstanding
The same risks of players having bad first impressions exist with any alpha/beta program and the benefits of actually having a lot of people participate in such programs far outweigh the negatives I think. Clear & honest communication about what to expect, like Day Z did, an early access game that's been riding the top of the charts, seems to be the most important thing here.
Speaking for Larian, we're releasing our game in alpha/beta state to all of our Kickstarter backers, and thus share our development process with them. That creates some confusion but in general it's a gold mine of feedback. I don't see why we should not extend that to the much larger community we have on Steam. The more feedback we can integrate, the higher the quality of the final game will be, and that will eventually shine through, just like I'm sure it will for Wasteland 2.
In reading through certain comments I noticed that a lot of people seem to be concerned that negative threads aimed against faults of an alpha/beta or against the fact that a game is on early access itself might influence future buyers. I'm an optimist so I don't think that'll necessarily be the case, first because I assume that our audience is smart enough to read through certain comments and second because you may not overestimate the impact of such threads. What matters at the end of the day is going to be the quality of the game if it's good, people will tell each other that it's good.
It might also be worth pointing out here that as a developer at this stage we don't really care about the form or tone in which we receive the feedback what interests is how we can improve the gameplay experience. So if somebody writes something like (this is the worst game ever because you can't change the turn-order. Larian designers are morons, XYZ did that so much better. ) we only remember changing turn-order seem to be in demand.
In the same breath however I have to admit that I'm guilty of the same thing, criticising games that are on Steam Early Access. I have a few games that disappointed me in my Steam library, even if they shouldn't have, and I've been vocal about it. As a developer I should know how fast seemingly big things can change for the better (and vice versa), but as a player that somehow doesn't register.
So yes, some misunderstanding about what's in an alpha or a beta is inevitable, but I think that as people play more of these early access games, it's something that'll correct itself over time and they'll learn how to judge things. The same will apply to those reporters who are thinking of reviewing Steam Early Access titles just as if they were finished products, something I think is a pretty bad idea, for the aforementioned reason they cannot possibly know what's still going to change. That they review Steam Early Access titles is fine, but as an alpha or as a beta not as a finished product.
No Critical Mass
Judging from my own limited experience and watching the Steam charts, I don't think that's a really big issue. Take Wasteland 2 for instance it was a hit on Kickstarter, it was a hit on Steam when Early Access went up, it'll be a hit when it launches. I'm pretty sure the same will apply to Day Z or Starbound. Or comparing it to pre-orders, which is the only thing I have experience with: Dragon Commander did very well during its preorders, but that didn't stop it from going to number 1 in the charts on the day of its release and spending some quality time in the higher regions of the Steam charts.
Delayed Gold Launch
Everybody in this industry and beyond knows by now that it's better to release it when it's done, even if everybody keeps on sinning against the principle. Not really a con if it's for a good reason.
Less revenue later
If you release it with feedback integrated, even at a later date, you will get more revenue, not less, because the game will be better for it and word of mouth will be better too. Larian is still in business after all these years partially because we've tried to integrate feedback post-factum into our games. If it'd been up to my publishers, nothing would've changed in our games and they'd be long forgotten. Selling games nowadays is about lifecycle management, not day 1 sales only.
That leaves me with little cons.
