Should You Buy Early Access Games on Steam?
While looking for your next game to play on the Steam storefront, you’ll inevitably come across a few labeled “Steam Early Access.” So what does Early Access mean for you as the player, and are there downsides or risks involved in buying Early Access games?
Early Access lets game makers put their games up for sale while they’re still under development. Steam itself doesn’t put a lot of restrictions or rules on Early Access—you could, theoretically, put a broken mess online and try to get a few suckers to pay for it. That said, Steam expressly states in its documentation that Early Access isn’t a place to showcase tech demos; the game needs to be playable.
Steam itself doesn’t seem to enforce this, though, relying instead on its community. Basically, when you play any Steam game, you get the right to write a review about it. This review can be marked positive or negative, and the text can be as long or as short as you’d like it to be.
This is important for any game, of course, but in the case of Early Access games, it’s particularly vital as it’s here that prospective customers can see what others thought, and where players have left valuable feedback for the developers. That said, these days most Early Access titles will also have a Twitter, Facebook, and Discord where you can leave compliments and complaints.
The system in itself is pretty simple, as is its purpose: Early Access is great for developers as it gives them the opportunity to test things on real players, see what works, see what doesn’t. Adrien Briatta from Shiro Games, a studio that makes liberal use of Early Access, in an email describes it as a “honeymoon phase.” It allows the devs to balance the game and implement new content with near-immediate feedback
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