How major content drops can boost Early Access games like Slime Rancher 2

gamedeveloper.com:

Slime Rancher 2 is rolling along in its journey through Early Access development, and it's apparently going quite well. During a catch-up with Monomi Park CEO Nick Popovich at DICE 2023, the director of the gooey homesteading adventure told us that the game has sold more copies in its first day of sales than in the first nine months of Slime Rancher's availability.

That's an impressive feat for any sequel, but as Popovich explained to Game Developer, maintaining that interest takes a lot of work and planning. One tool in Monomi Park's toolbox? Reliable "content drops"—updates to the Early Access title that are clearly themed and that bundle quality-of-life updates with new content. The most recent of these, titled "Song of the Sabers," introduced a new winter-themed biome to the game, along with a number of bug fixes and tools to let players better manage their Slimes.

It's not exactly a new practice—you can look back at the Early Access adventures of Hades and Hardspace Shipbreaker for similar examples—but Popovich did a great job breaking down why this practice has clear benefits for developers and audiences alike.

Popovich joked that the worst phrase any Game Developer can see in their reviews during Early Access is the words "dead game" or "is it worth coming back to this game?"

"There's different ways devs can do to curb some of that, and one of those ways is making these content drops that feel 'whole,'" he said.

It's not quite just enough to prep a new content drop—Popovich explained that there are a number of additional steps that help players take breaks from games like Slime Rancher 2, and these bursts of gameplay can be structured to welcome them back in. "We're going to structure it so getting back into the game