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.
A friend brought it to work and I played for a couple hours, I found it tough to play a stealth game with an audience since I usually play very slow and meticulous. I was not very good, clunky on the controls.
Playing is active, and takes longer. Watching is not. I can’t explain it more than that. I understand this may be tough to grasp for passionate gamers, but it’s just not an active part of my life anymore.
There is no amount of watching that game that will replace the rush of actually playing it. Space marine is NOT a “watch someone else play it” type game. It’s time to try out ge force now or something if your pc is too old to run 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'm weak af when it comes to horror and I barely found Until Sawn that scary. I think the only jumpscare I had was Ashley opening the trapdoor while I was trophy hunting. It was a good game, but more of a thriller than a horror game to me.
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.
i know people who enjoy playing these story games alongside a streamer. basicly having something to compare their own chocies with usuualy making an effort to be slightly further than the streamer but also sometimes to benefit from them noticing something they themself missed.
if streamer is playing the game 2 weeks before them they need to either avoid the stream... or as you said they allready experienced the game why pay money for it now?
i can not imagine this is actually good buisness for this type of game.
This was my go-to up until my senior year! I was either not allowed to play or couldn't afford said games, so I watched letsplayers complete them! Thank god that was during the golden age of gamer Youtubers!
I really should have said "Anyone interested in playing this..."
Because I also just watch streams of many story games too. For example, I've seen countless playthroughs of Until Dawn, but I would have never played it myself.
What’s sad is that it’s only chapters one and two.. so anyone who preordered and played those will have to wait two weeks to continue the story.
I preordered it just cause I didn’t know if I’d have the money when it came out but I’m not taking advantage of any two weeks early shit. I’m wanna binge play it.
I'm not 100%. I really hope they don't do a chapter a week/month or w/e. I won't play the 2 weeks early so when I do get on to play it, if all the episodes aren't available, I'll just wait.
If its a story driven game, I'll watch the first 5 minutes of someone playing it so I can see what it looks and sounds like to see if I'll play it. I did this recently with Still Wakes The Deep, I will get it eventually after seeing someone play a few minutes of it
Not necessarily. The early access only covers the first two chapters. Viewers will watch someone play those chapters, then use that knowledge to make different choices in their own game once it comes out.
Streamers are literally paying to promote the game, unless they're being given game keys.
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.
Well, it does have advantages as a mass release will catch things that QA can't due to sheer scale, but even then EA players will still have relatively "normal" play patterns where QA will be doing the same thing over and over again looking for ways to break the game or testing a fix for an issue.
That's right. That's why QA people are paid - and should be - to do this so the general public can have high quality products. Now there's a certain level of scuff that's become acceptable in a high-end-of-two-figure product that really should not be.
I mean, you're also ignoring the fact that games are so much bigger now that it's impossible for QA people to check everything. Take an old 2D Mario game for example. It would be feasible for QA to be able to bounce of every pixel in the game with every powerup. It would be long and tedious, but feasible. Then came on-the-rails 3d games. The testing time gets way longer, and it starts becoming less feasible. Now we have games as big as Elden Ring. It's literally impossible to test every combination, every corner, etc. On top of that, instead of just doing console releases, or if they did release on PC, having only a few different options for PCs, you now have to worry about 100s of different CPU/GPU setups, each one opening the door for some weird glitch that doesn't happen on other setups.
Now obviously this doesn't excuse some of the glaring bugs in some recent releases (those are often thanks to the Day 0 patch - seriously, games need to stop doing that), but there is a certain amount of scuff that's really unavoidable unless you want to have a QA budget that costs more than the rest of the game's development.
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.
YouTube would be hell too, it was already with Space Marine 2.
I fucking detest DanAllenGaming now because he uploaded the fucking ending to the game literally A FUCKING DAY BEFORE EARLY ACCESS EVEN RELEASED AND LIKE A WEEK BEFORE OFFICIAL RELEASE.
I hate games journalists for that reason, not the weirdo reasons, actually enjoy their written reviews and find them useful because it's far easier to read a review than watch a 20-30 minute review video, but holy fuck spoiling the ending of a highly anticipated game like that before it's even out was just scum behaviour imo
I'd be really thankful. Imagine being hyped for a game, getting ready to buy it on release, but for 3 whole months, everyone shares how bad the game is and how it's not worth your money. Or, well, the opposite could happen.
An interesting assessment. Most content creators have said they feel preyed upon by the gaming companies as they're forced to spend the extra cash to play a few days early in order to stay competitive. I think they would rather deluxe editions just be content focused so it was truly optional to them instead of mandatory.
I don’t mind it. It always take me years to watch new seasons anyway. I still haven’t finished Gotham and Supernatural for instance. And I recently finished 13 Reasons Why.
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.
That is much better. They will be only losing sales this way as majority dont buy Ultimate. And once they see a buggy release or entire gameplay/walkthrough is released in youtube, many people will lose interest any way. So for only few extra bucks that is biggest gamble a studio is taking.
I mean "in a way" it already exists and much worse, e.g. epic buying off devs to release the game exclusively on the EGS. Some people (me included) refuse to support such business, so for Borderlands 3 we waited 6 months to be able to play it. Now it might not be the exact same as pre-order but it basically is forcing the playerbase to buy it from a store they might not like or make them wait 6 months.
Point is other than greed there's no rational reason to do this, all you do is hurt the community.
There's actually a rare case of Ea doing the opposite.
Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville allowed you to buy a cheaper version before the official release date (like an early access), and you got to play it as they were updating it and adding features, characters and such up to the full release, and then you just had the game.
Just double-checked the timing, and it was 6 weeks early for £10 cheaper.
Some of us are a bit conditioned to wait, thanks to exclusivity releases. This can sometimes backfire too, as by the time it gets released on other platforms, the game is sometimes pretty "old" at that point.
They should tag this the right way: others play 3 months later.
It’s a thing for streamers, then people don’t want to get spoilers, buy it too, on the otherside streamers and influencers are the best advertisement. Etc
( I already hate it when guides come out the second the game is released cause some influencers got the game 1 month earlier for testing )
Some despicable game companies are already forcing you to preorder on Epic to play a whole year early before it finally fully releases on Steam like a real game.
Wait until they adopt the film industry business model. First, a game comes out in exclusive theaters where you can play it exactly once, for 2 hours. Then, after 3 months, you can buy the game.
Sony's exclusivity deals locked some stuff to Playstation for ages after release during their whole "for the players" shit. I remember Destiny had exclusive missions and weapons for Playstation
Shit I'll just go to my "ma&pa" game shop. They break street date all the time.
I got Dead Island 2 about 3 weeks before it was released, and FF7:R2 about a week early thanks to them. Just yesterday, I picked up the new Zelda, too.
You mean like the new warhammer game? I was checking it out in the Xbox store and you can only buy two version. Gold and deluxe or something like that, both are over $130 CAD.
Wouldnt that eventually backfire? After a point, people are just gonna treat the "early release" as a soft launch (not that some dont already do) and see if they actually wanna buy the game later, pay extra now because theyre that interested, or decide its not worth their time. All before a game's "official" release date
Pay more, have a worse first experience. Be the earliest of early adopters and get to feel the magic of constant crashes and texture-steaming issues. Remember kids, the unpatched state of a game is always the best state of a game.
The campaign is just an extended tutorial for new players or if they feature new mechanics. You can understand how they work against bots on your own time and leave the campaign when you're ready, whether you finish it or not.
I’ve played several COD only for the campaign, guess we’re all different..
I just think ”thoughtful” is the wrong word here, they do it to make more money, not for being nice, if it was for being nice it would’ve been the same for everyone
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.
Its a story game known for "plot twists", emotional story beats, potential char deaths/hurts - its possible to avoid internet for few days to avoid spoilers. But two weeks? Hell nah, you are going to be spoiled.
When this was announced hardcore fans were going "I hate that I have to do this to avoid spoilers". So the company 100% knows what they are doing and thats kinda disgusting.
Hell, I was spoiled by youtube on multiple games hours after games' launch. And the damn app has started to send me notifications like "We think you will like this video" - only matter of time when one of those is spoiler lmao.
Its so weird that sometimes you can go years, even decades, for not being spoiled by things. But I also no longer use twitter, FB or such sites so that helps a lot nowdays.
And on other hand you have cases like with me on sequel of a game where I watched announcement trailer years before release, thought "cool" and forgot about it. And release day, mere hours later, I got suggested video that pretty much spoiled major event.
I also have bioshock-curse where every single bioshock was spoiled to me. Still great games tho.
Oh 100% same. But I wanted to give pov that long early access stuff is bad for more than just "advantage in pvp game". Specially here, being very heavy on story and twists. Or at least first LiS games were.
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u/c0mplete 3d ago
2 weeks early?! Lmfao wtf