Key findings

• Buying a game in Early Access feels like paying to be a beta tester.
• Games in development can experience unexpected changes in direction and broken promises.
• An early burnout can reduce the enjoyment of the game once you’ve finished it.

Early Access allows you to satisfy your urge for something new because you can play a game while it’s still in development. I used to be an avid follower, but I don’t buy Early Access games anymore because of this.

Pay to be a beta tester

In the past, signing up for a beta test was a fair trade: I got a sneak peek at a game for free and helped the developers fix bugs. But buying games in Early Access feels like you’re paying for the privilege of being a beta tester.

I remember when the base-building game Factorio was still in Early Access – every time the game got a major update, my several-hour save would be corrupted. And as if the post-apocalyptic world of Rust wasn’t unforgiving enough, I also had to deal with a cheater who flew around naked and shot at me with an AK.

Both titles are much more stable (and enjoyable) now that they’ve been officially released. If I had it all to do over again, I’d skip the initial difficulties.

Lack of customer support

Many games in Early Access simply don’t have customer support. This example might not be entirely clear because I’m not sure if any of you have played Eternal Return. I can’t blame you, considering what happened.

Eternal Return is a battle royale MOBA game, like League of Legends and Apex Legends had a fun baby. I had a blast with the unconventional gameplay and fun player community. Wanting to support the game’s free-to-play model during Early Access, I bought Battle Passes over a few months.

Then, without warning, there were a few weeks where the game wouldn’t load after an update. I also remember an extended period where the matchmaking algorithm on NA servers crashed, putting you in an endless queue. Both times I was surprised when emails to customer support were dismissed with terse replies and a shrug when I couldn’t even play the game.

Purchasing a product in Early Access gave me the wrong expectations. Well, lesson learned; I won’t make that mistake again.

Broken promises

Sometimes an Early Access game goes in a completely different direction than what you signed up for. Case in point: BattleBit Remastered. BattleBit Remastered is an FPS that can handle hundreds of players on a single map. It’s like a Battlefield game, but more on the low-poly side, where the emphasis is on fun.

Unfortunately, the shine has worn off. Now all I see every day are posts from angry players who logged in during Early Access. Partly this is because patches have changed the way weapons are played – maybe the balance has been improved, but the fun has been inadvertently reduced. Partly it is also because of promises of new features that have not been implemented, allegedly due to buggy source code. At the time of writing, no update has been released in over eight months.

Some may argue that changes in direction are to be expected and that game delays are a good thing for the long-term health of a title. That may be true, but early access is a gamble that I prefer to wait and see.

Beta burnout

Burnout is actually the main reason I don’t buy games in Early Access anymore, but I put it way down because I thought it would be thematically appropriate to make you wait for it.

While playing Valheim, I realized that beta burnout is a real phenomenon. Valheim is a Viking-inspired cooperative crafting game with randomized maps – yes, I’m a fan of procedural generation. My friends and I set up a hosted server and played together online late into the night.

Like a whirlwind romance, the passion died down and everyone just stopped playing. Valheim is set to officially launch in 2025, but I don’t think any of us will be returning. It’s a little sad to think that we’ll never be able to recapture the magic of that time, because I’m sure it will be a much better game once it’s officially released.

Playing a game too much in the early stages can spoil the fun later on.

Waiting without end in sight

If you have game abandonment issues, sticking with games in Early Access won’t help. I’ve played Project Zomboid for less than 10 hours, but I can see the outlines of an excellent, problem-solving, procedurally generated (yes, it got me again) zombie survival game.

I felt the game needed some more time, so I took a long break. The idea was to enjoy the game in its full glory once it was finished. What was stupid of me was that a) updates are happening at a snail’s pace and b) Project Zomboid has been in Early Access for over ten years and is still going strong.

I like to imagine the game’s zombies shuffling into eternity like the White Walkers from Game of Thrones, wondering when the next book in the series will be released. In other words, you could start an Early Access game dreamy-eyed and then find that you may never be able to play the finished version.

It was fun, but I don’t think early access games are worth it. While I don’t regret grabbing Rimworld, this space refugee won’t be buying any more early access games in the future. Thaw me out of cryosleep when they’re actually finished.