"AAA publishers are abusing Early Access," RPG dev says

For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. We will send a confirmation and sign you up to our newsletter to keep you updated on all your gaming news. "AAA publishers are abusing Early Access," RPG dev says, and Steam games like Subnautica 2 and Path of Exile have warped "the landscape and players' expectations" Denis Dyack – founder of Silicon Knights and current CEO of Apocalypse Studios – says that AAA publishers' use of Early Access is shifting player expectations and making it harder for independent teams. Specifically, he cites developers releasing a "polished product" and using the Early Access standing as "a marketing beat," the problem being that the quality of these titles, in turn, will lead gamers "expecting a near-perfect game," which Dyack asserts "defeats the purpose of Early Access, which is a collaborative development process based on player feedback." "AAA publishers are abusing Early Access, skewing player expectations in such a way that it heavily disadvantages smaller independent developers," Dyack continues, citing Subnautica 2 and Path of Exile as examples of titles that used the program "drastically changing the landscape and players' expectations." With Apocalypse Studios' Deadhaus Sonata, he says the team hit "significant barriers to entry" which in turn "significantly reduced" their market impact.