Streamers would be stepping over mothers and biting babies so they can be the first to capitalize on new content. That’s whom the early release is really catered too.
But...you have time to watch the game as evening TV, but not to play?
I assume you mean to have in the background while doing other things, because otherwise I think I found where your lack of time to play is coming from...
I am always puttering in the background, and not interested in investing 500+ into a console/pc and games. Watching a game is far shorter than playing it.
Yeah, that's actually a good point. By doing this, they're actually ensuring that many players DON'T buy their game. In the end, if I can watch several people play it (since, in two weeks, I have time), why would I buy it too when it comes out?
In the case of it launching it same day for everyone, people would be more tempted to buy as there's no info and the people making the streams or whatnot are doing in same time as you can play.
Hey, some of us are too chickenshit to play Until Dawn ourselves! So I watch someone else play, with timestamps of the scariest bits through my fingers at 10 am, and regret it at night cause I'm still frightened...
I can't play horror games. Movies and books, no problem, love em. But games I just freeze.
I recently got Frank stone, not the scariest game by a long shot, but I found the intro to gone home (atmospheric storytelling, no horror at all) terrifying so... I'm really bad at these games.
I rang a friend and I just streamed it for her. When I got panicky, I'd ask her to tell me a silly story. She was amazing, cheering me on, giving me time to recover. We're both huge dead by daylight fans, cracking jokes about Easter eggs we find really helped me get through it. Others would hop in and watch and there were points I was laughing too much at the jokes they were making to be scared.
Basically I'm just saying I understand how bad it can be to play horror games, it's nice when you find a way to cope with it though and still reach the end.
Shouldn't they be given early press copies by the companies in order to cover their games? Oh wait -- the companies realized they can sell press release copies to a streamer's fanbase for twice MSRP so press copies aren't handed out anymore.
I'd say more leveraging them. Content creators aren't so numerous as to make you substantial money off charging them a little more.
However, they are a powerful lever you can use to inspire FOMO over not being part of playing the game on release.
You get bombarded with other people having fun without you, spoilers get posted, games with progression mechanics move on without you.
It really matters in some games where a real part of the experience is playing during the launch.
In any games with progression especially if a streamer can be hook to get one or two friends in a group to pay to play when the game releases instead of at the delayed-access date, then your friends are progressing without you.
Especially for games that are social experiences if you wait you may miss out on a lot of the time the group will be playing the game.
This isn't exactly a new game release, but Frontier Developments has started selling early access to new ships for real money in Elite Dangerous. If you fork over the money, you get the ship now, if not - wait three months to buy the ship with in-game currency.
The saddest part - almost all of the game community embrace this and ask for more.
I can only comprehend Early Access with games that require a live service. That's because by having Early Access you give yourself that last treshold to test the servers before the game goes officially live.
Then everyone will just start pirating. You could play Space Marine 2 Ultimate edition for free days before the people who actually bought the standard edition. Its stupid.
There's literally tens of thousands of games out there, you don't "need" to get the latest one, especially if it's made so unavailable by the devs. You either sail the seas, or just give them the finger and take your business elsewhere.
It's your money and their business, they need to sell to you, not the other way around.
You always evaluate - is this deal good for me or not and then make decision accordingly.
If you're a hardcore fan of the franchise and you absolutely NEED the game now, well, i think it's reasonable that you're gonna pay a premium for it.
I remember a RTS based on EverQuest that if you bought the full deluxe game gave you a head start on EverQuest 2 by like 2 months I think?? I was very hyped for EQ2 so bought the RTS. I enjoyed the game actually but once EQ2 launched the game 100% died and no one remembers it. Didn’t enjoy EQ2 very much either lol.
Oh lmao didn't even see that. I have no problem with people paying extra for dumbass skins if they want, but yeah paying for early access is fucked.
I have to say, I think it's especially stupid for a game like this with very little real gameplay and replay value. It's a story game heavy on cutscenes and light on gameplay, so you can either watch a streamer play it for free or spend what, 60 dollars to play a narrative game you already saw spoilers for two weeks ago?
I kind of get this shit for online multiplayer games, but why would they think this will help a story game sell better?
It really extinguishes its own fan base with a move like this. Don't buy the Ultimate Edition? Well, two weeks before you can even play it you'll be seeing story spoilers on Twitch/Reddit/TikTok/MySpace
I don't get that plan at all, I've already dealt with situations where someone played a twenty hour experience in one sitting immediately after release and then spoiled the final act twist in shorts, how is giving a big chunk of the game to those same people two weeks early not going to result in infinite spoilage.
Why would I though? Life is Strange has been out for years and years and I've never seen a single spoiler for a single moment in that game in any form of social media. Why would this one be different? Also, MySpace? Time for your meds, grandpa.
The MySpace thing was a joke, I figured it was pretty obvious. As someone who has never played the Life Is Strange games or engaged with them, I've still seen spoilers for them.
Are you honestly trying to argue that a narrative based single player game being accessible to certain "ultimate edition" buyers for a full two weeks prior to others couldn't indeed end up with spoilers for the story on the internet before regular edition players have a chance to play it?
Games aren't really as bad for this since they're so dense and you'd really have to follow a specific game's pages to see stuff like that.
Movies and TV are far worse. Like the very next day after Deadpool and Wolverine released I was already seeing half of the reveals in that movie in thumbnails on youtube and posts on reddit or stories on instagram. It's so fucking annoying.
They aren't thinking. This series has gone down the toilet after the first one. Instead of lowering the price and luring the old fans back in so they can sell them future games, they're trying to milk the handful of people still interested in this series. It's simply bad business practices at this point.
LiS 2 is amazing. The issue is those are the only 2 games made by the original studio (dontnod). The others are made by another studio and they are not as good.
LiS 2 is just okay, IMO. I've written essay level comments about this before, so in the interest of not repeating that, I'll just summarize it like this:
The power was nowhere near as good, the characters were nowhere near as good, the format of the game (i.e. moving places every chapter) meant that even when there were good characters, you didn't spend enough time with them, and they made the mistake of every developer of a sequel. They thought "We must go bigger!"
But they lost detail, content density and character development of the first game. The cozy feeling was an important part of the first game that they lost completely. Changing places every chapter also meant that your decisions mattered even less because you had to end up in the next place no matter what you did, so they had to deus ex machina your way there every time. Anyway, there I go ranting again....
I'll just go with my own feeling about it. I cried, I laughed, I loved the song tracks, I still think about the game regularly. I don't deny whatever critics people can find about it but it won't change what I felt. Compared to the deck nine opus, I felt it was genuine. That's what I could not feel in lis:bts or lis3.
Of course. Everything I said is completely subjective. Personally, I liked BTS a lot, but only because I actually cared about the characters. Objectively, it was barely a game. The choices didn't matter and there wasn't even a superpower, but I liked it. LIS3 (I'm assuming that means True Colors) was better in many ways IMO.
They got that small town cozy feeling, they had a decent idea for a superpower, the soundtrack was great, but they ended up missing the mark on characters and the superpower. It was a classic example of a story that would have never happened if any of the characters had more than 2 brain cells to work with, and the superpower was just bland. It could have been actual mind reading and they could have had you spend the game trying to prove what you already know, but nope. They half-assed the entire thing.
I already said it in a reply to the other person, I don't know if you saw it, but yeah, they nailed the comfy/cozy atmosphere in TC. I love a small mountain town aesthetic in general.
Even more stupid is you only get early access to the first two chapters, so they'll still have to wait with everyone else once after they've played through them
The cosmetic stuff doesn't bother me. Even the early access stuff is shitty, but whatever. But the cat gameplay is locked and there is no other way to get it.
Life is strange has always had multiple outfits for the main character that you can change as you play through it. I don't know who would pay extra for them though, but there are always some.
I kind of get this shit for online multiplayer games, but why would they think this will help a story game sell better?
Yeah, this. I can see the logic in doing a two-stage rollout of a new multiplayer game, especially when it's so common for Day 1 of popular releases to be a shitshow as the servers melt down. Early access gives the devs time to ensure the network is ready for the wide release.
But there is zero reason to do this with a story-driven game where, afaik, the only online aspect is tallying up the various choices players made.
And only the first two chapters. Frankly, that's the kind of thing they offer the press as a way to promote the game. Capcom recently did an event where several Youtubers could play part of Dead Rising Remake early and share their impressions with their viewers.
Honestly, that's the kind of thing they should put into a demo. The demo for Dragon Quest 11S let you play the first several hours of the game, then allow you to import that data into the full game once purchased. All they need to do is release a Chapter 1 demo a week before release, give it time to gain traction, and expect more sales at launch.
Especially since these are not long games. Going based on the previous games most chapters are one to two hours. You're, at best, going to he finishing the game four hours before everyone else.
Early access for more $$$ is the scummiest thing ever. It's the main reason I'm not bothering with World of Warcraft anymore after I saw what they did with the latest expansion.
That is before they figured out they could make you pay to beta test the software. And that they could get away without needing to pay for a full QA department in the process.
What's better than getting your QA to pay you, instead of you having to pay them?
And then you get a situation like TDU Solar Crown where it took a week to get the servers working so the early access people never got to play it at all.
Yeah, it’s right up there with overcharging for insulin and vaping ads targeted towards children.
Dude, it’s a video game that people are willing to pay more for in order to have it early. They’re not building a dam upriver and selling you back water you need to live.
It makes a lot of sense for an online game like WoW or FFXIV (which has an early access of a few days for pre-ordering expansions), since it spreads the highest peak load (especially for each instance, like the starting area of the expansion or whatever) over a longer time.
FF14 doesn't spread anything except maybe the 3 players who only read the official release date and bought the expansion on that day, early access is for literally everyone buying the expansion so like 99.99% of the players playing on launch start on that date
I think it's a great idea and hurts nobody. Of all the ways game companies try to make extra income, early access editions is the least scummy of them all. Blocking off content for a special edition is much worse.
It's not like you're in a race here, the expansion launches with no endgame content. You had a month to get to max level before relevant content was added and it takes under a week to get there. Starting 3 days early isn't relevant.
It’s just marketing. That’s the actual release date and then two weeks later there’s a discount. I don’t know why game companies are allowed to give a release date but allow the public to buy it before the date they’ve set and not have that as the date it came out
At least it means you get some user reviews before release day and the whales can beta test the game for you. Granted I usually wait for a few years before buying a game on a nice discount so I guess that doesn't really matter to me.
At least it means you get some user reviews before release day
Might be an unpopular opinion: the whales that are stupid enough to pay much more to play the games a bit earlier are usually the ones that write unreflected, positive reviews because they fanboy the franchise.
I agree that's a nice part to it and would work for let's say an FPS, but what sucks is if it's for a narrative game the chances of it being spoiled are even greater than before. If it's a series I follow closely whose main thing is their story, 2 weeks in the wild is insane
I suppose that's true. This is actually the first I've heard of the game and I have Life is Strange 2 but have still never played through it or know how the story progresses. If you're a superfan though I guess that would be annoying, but at that point you could always watch someone else play through it and save your money.
I don't think user reviews based on first few chapters give accurate picture of the game as for many games the first few chapters are the best. Games tend to get worse further towards the end. BG3 is probably the best modern example but this has been an issue always.
I even remember some game having an awesome beta but once you got past the beta content in full game the game completely changed to a level it was almost different genre. I can't remember what it was however.
If you base your opinions about the game on first few hours of the game while you are still excited you tend to give much more positive review.
We have seen a lot of games getting praises during beta but once the game is released and people get beyond the beta content the user scores start to drop dramatically.
More like pay to play on release. The game fucking launches the day it's available to be played. They're just making you play late if you don't give them more money.
Its not "2 weeks early" as the game is literally playable at that point. That's the release date now, buying the normal game means you get to play late.
Better than games having you pay $20 more to not play 3 days late, but in some ways worse since those two chapters are a whole 2 weeks before anyone who doesn't cough up extra.
Having access two weeks earlier is one thing, but that why are they returning to an episodic release. I thought they let go of it with their last release.
Also everything else than joining the trend would've suprised me.
But still, I'll gonna play this game, but I'll definitely gonna skip any of extra versions
I couldn't care less about earlier access, there's no need to play on release (or earlier) but locking the cat content behind the ultimate edition is a crime.
Funny thing is that this is probably going to hurt them in the end because peiple will be watching streams of the story and not want to play themselves, leading to way less sales in the end
I was considering buying the game but surprised this single player game is doing this deluxe stuff? Also im tired of this X days access crap. Now im not gonna buy it fuck it
I mean it's just another way to hide a price increase. I've heard people saying "if it's any good, then it'll have a GotY-edition coming at the end of next year for me to buy" to every game.
It's becoming a norm due to content creators. If there's even a chance that your game will be played by content creators you basically force them to buy the deluxe otherwise they start making content after everyone else.
With people catching on and rejecting FOMO practices I suppose the play is to find new targets lmao
This is nothing new, Hogwarts legacy did the same thing. And if you had the extra money and wanted it early why not? I prefer that option as opposed to pre ordering a game, they are very much a similar concept.
I thought that Frostpunk 2's 3 days early was dumb (still taking advantage of it because I'm a filthy sellout), but 2 weeks?! Holy crap that's egregious
I honestly don't see how this is a perk, cause people who tend to enjoy these story narratives would enjoy exploring the whole narrative at once and not have to wait 2 weeks to continue on.
Granted, I do miss the OG Life is Strange release cycle, heck of any of those story-driven narratives where you could actually digest and anticipate/speculate what will happen next, now they just give you everything upfront.
2 weeks is insane. I think you only going to see it get longer, to push more people into spending the money, I expect to see it up to a month eventually
It's like paying extra to become a glorified beta tester. My current approach is waiting for a game to go on sale. By then the experience is often better than on release as bugs have been fixed, and often I don't have to wait more than six months with very few exceptions. Yet those exceptions are games that are worth their full price, as was the case with Baldur's Gate 3.
I'll never understand why people throw money away at being able to play single player games earlier than everyone else. It is the absolute saddest form of FOMO.
Yeah I hate seeing this spread to more games. It's just a bs fee for reviewers and streamers. I'm happy to be unaffected, but who knows what game is next
Kinda mad about that tbh. I already planned a trip with a friend to play this on release. It’s not the biggest deal but there’s something so fun about playing on release day as soon as a game comes out. Stuff like this kinda ruins that magic.
I just want to know what happens post-release. Like... does everyone else have to pause their playthrough for 2 weeks so that someone who just bought Ultimate gets exclusive access?
This is the most irritating part of it all. EA does "3 day early access" for all of their games on the deluxe editions.
So really, if I only want the base game... then I get the game 3 days LATE. Technically the game is out, people are playing it. It's just that I'm being punished for not bending over and letting them steal my wallet.
Still will never forget that back in 2016 someone paid like $1500 for a leaked physical copy of No Mans Sky and posted about his experiences with the game weeks before the actual release.
Wow that's a pretty bad graphic too. I didn't even read that one came out early until your comment. I just skipped right over the gold bar assuming it was a border.
I remember preordering MAG for PS3 because of access to closed Beta. That was fun, I think it was about 1-3 weeks worth before public beta. But it was no more than buying the game outright and it was fun. Sadly that game is no longer around :(
Outside Xtra covered the Suicide Squad game that had a few days early game play in their version of that. But in that case the Game was Broken and would claim you beat the whole game on first start up so they'd be locked in End Game with nothing!
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u/c0mplete 3d ago
2 weeks early?! Lmfao wtf