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Are You Secretly a Developer’s Guinea Pig?

Are You Secretly a Developer’s Guinea Pig?

Something’s started happening with games. The Early Access trend has mutated into something terrifying. Like a lab experiment gone horribly wrong, what was occasionally a good idea for well meaning, independent developers has been transformed into a means of getting more money out of everyone. Unfortunately, in this situation we’re the lab rats.

More and more, we’re being subjected to paid betas for games. It started when Steam launched Early Access, and suddenly all the titles ended up appearing there. People were paying close to full price for games that were nowhere near done and, in some cases, still aren’t close to completion. Starbound , I’m looking at you. Console makers saw what was happening, which led to the Xbox One Preview Program.

Which was fine. OK. We can accept this. It’s a new means of marketing for indie games. Except it didn’t stay within the realm of independent games. Other companies saw this opportunity and seized on it. Want to participate in the Uncharted 4 Multiplayer Beta? Buy a new copy of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection . Want in on all the Street Fighter V action early? Pre-order the game. Oh, you did that? Ha ha! Now Capcom’s giving extra closed beta keys for people already in it to share. Access to The Division closed beta? That’s behind a pay wall too. We’ve reached a point where we’re paying for the right to play unfinished games.

Worse, we’re even paying to play free-to-play games. Most notably, both Albion Online and SkyForge, where the developers are asking people to buy things like Founders Packs so they can participate in the beta testing period. But… both of these games are going to be free-to-play MMOs. Even though people are getting something out of the purchase, it isn’t at all right to charge for access to a free-to-play game.

Are You Secretly a Developer’s Guinea Pig?

Companies have started allowing this, because we’ve shown we’ll let it happen. We’ve gone ahead and made paying for unfinished products okay, when it’s absolutely not. Are there cases where Early Access is a viable method? Yes, for independent titles it’s a godsend. Are some companies handling Early Access right? Of course. GOG has a “no questions asked” two week refund policy on all of its early access games. But it’s wrong when companies start abusing it or AAA developers and publishers use it to coerce people into buying other titles or committing purchases. The next time a company locks a closed beta behind a paywall, just say no.

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