Metacritic user votes?

That article only talks about games, and specifically steam and some other few examples. It's incomplete.

Early access exists for movie (http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299865/fox-ultraviolet-movie-downloads-prometheus), books 'http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/59808-amazon-unveils-early-access-program-kindle-first.html, music/concerts (https://www.facebook.com/firstmidwestbankamphitheatre/posts/10153956254910230?stream_ref=10) and a some big games not listen in the page (like the EA games or the blizzard games, ie http://www.mightybloke.com/#!Blizza...Pad/cx2j/54ACFE88-69AF-4B61-BFCD-CFEE0A287B2E).
And each time, it imply that the product is finished but available earlier if you are fast enough or live in the right country, Not that it's half-baked.

May I remind you that the PA box is on sales in only some countries?

Google Early Access. What do the first few results tell you?

I just hope you realize that you are cutting the branch you are sit on, that's all.

No idea, as it depends mostly on your last searches and cookies.
But if I remove steam (because it's only steam links for 2 pages:



But my real life experience is that early access means what I've said, not what Steam is trying to do.

How? That's what I don't get. You clearly are upset about the fact we sold the game post Kickstarter, but you are very much in the minority, at least based on feedback from the other 40 thousand some backers. Unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning.

Well, if I were you, I wouldn't base my opinion on the guys who did bought it.
It's unlikely that people who buy something and put a lot of money (more than they should have) dislike what they did.
There are psychology studies about that phenomena if you are interested.

I would probably look on the forums where there are people that didn't bought it, and why. You will be surprised.

And sadly for you, they are more people who didn't bought PA that people who did. So you can't really say it's a minority. Unless you only want to sell it again to the same people, these are not the guy you must convince.

And the bad publicity is...

Well, just an example on the biggest french video game site :
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2014/...-en-version-boite-lancee-par-nordic-games.htm

It basically says that what you offer is confusing, you can't garant a good product, that you had a lot from the kickstater but now are selling early access on retail, for more money than the targeted final price. And how it's an awful deal/idea.

I can tell you it's not the only one. I'm listening to a lot of podcast (hosted by video game journalists, not random people of the internet), read a few video game magazines, and the general opinion is that what you are doing suck ***.

And the quote about how cool the idea was... Well, it' really mocked.

I always get something along the lines of this:



I've tried Icognito on Chrome, private mode on a rarely used iPod and Chrome and whatever the default browser is on my not-often used phone.

They're targeting Uber specifically?

Unless they stopped caring giving you a feedback.

Hey @carlorizzante, I know you're on the other side of the discussion at the moment, but it's nice to see you posting again!

I actually really hadn't thought about that, and I'm pro-early access. This game is being funded through Early access, if there was no further funding, the game wouldn't exist, or it'd be missing SO many features if any.

No ****, Sherlock ! But maybe if we get all China and India to buy it ...

Biggest junk site for teenagers. What a reference ...
This so-called "journaliste", wrote a news just because he had too, without context / knowing the game.
Extract : "suggesting that this is a special edition including some bonus. There is obviously nothing since in reality it is a non-finalized game that may never see the light of day and the price is increased"

Very professional and unbiased

such love

And S'cargo looks like unappetizing platters of semi warm loggias, take my word on it as I have never tasted it therefor know that it is best avoided.

How would the fact that many people did not buy the game and because so they know so much about how this is a good or bad game? I suppose one could watch a number of Zaphad's commentaries and get a good idea of the feel of the game. Honestly however, why are these reviews worth noting?

I do agree in part as I feel the whole Armory thing to be a bit hard to follow but other than Star Citizen and the giant pile of money that they have been given for development. PA is the only Kickstarter video game that I can easily find to at least come to market without being horribly crippled by bad decisions though ether design intent or running out of funds before finishing. Annihilation is a case when you look at some of the other games that were more than fully funded

Godus, Massive Challece and Double Fine Adventure, and a few others. The named three were put out there by legends of the gaming world who promised more than they could deliver.

PA has come out. Is activily being worked on and updated satisifactaly to the majority of players and is overall at least fun to play. And being fun to play is at the end of the day what really matters.
PA has come out. Is actively being worked on and updated satisfactory to the majority of players and is overall at least fun to play. And being fun to play is at the end of the day what really matters.

Pilot, you make some interesting points, even if I'm not sure I agree with many of them. I certainly see where you're coming from. However, I would like to point out:

If you go looking for an echo chamber, you will inevitably find it. Perhaps try doing searches for articles that discuss it that don't match your bias (Not using that as a pejorative - we all have our biases) and see what others who may disagree with you are saying. And not necessarily on a forum - I love all you guys, but a forum can be difficult to have a even keel discussion. People get too easily worked up over a poorly chosen word and then the entire world goes up in flames.

And it is kind of silly to say there are more people who haven't bought it than have. If even 51% of all people who had a computer that could run it in the world had bought it, you better believe I'd be wearing a money hat. And possibly money shoes. I know that's not what you meant, but the absence of a purchase today from the 80 million ish Steam users who haven't bought the game yet doesn't mean they won't buy it at launch. I see far more people comment "I'll buy it when it's no longer in early access" than "I won't buy it because they did early access". On the Steam forums. On Facebook. On Reddit. Some people simply want a 100% complete game. And we're trying to leverage early access to the best of our ability to make sure when we leave early access, it truly is a complete 1.0 experience - one that we'll continue to improve and enrich afterwards. And the way we can do that is with the people who think Early Access is a net positive for the industry. You're not one of them. That is 100% fine, no hard feelings. We all have our opinions about how things should work. As a gamer, not just a developer, I am a HUGE fan of Early Access - I have gotten to play more games in the last year from genres I love than the last decade, because Early Access on Steam made it possible for them to actually make money while developing an awesome concept, and not having to sell their IP or studio to someone else to get the funding.

Regarding all the talk about the retail early access, it was at it's heart, a retail experiment. We've mostly been a digital distribution software company. But there are still markets for physical delivery, and it behooves us, and the industry, to better understand what people want. If the retail early access truly ends up being a net negative, you can assume we probably won't do it again. But you don't get to decide that, and neither do I. The consumers it's aimed at do.

supply and demand eh?

I personally never buy physical packages of software any more. But I'm an atypical consumer. There are plenty of people who still want that disc or box. And yes, the early access version does include a DVD, just like the final retail version will.

Early access is all about the targets.

Planetary Annihilation, well if you argue against early access, will you fund the game to not be sold until release? If not, you are arguing the game shouldn't release. It hasn't really commited any travesty's in it's run, so I argue why trample my harmony garden brah?

There are game with good intentions like PA that didn't turn out. I can't blame all of those guys, a lot of them didn't pocket from it but didn't accomplish it and released their work for community to sharpen themselves. If PA oneday stop development but released what they have right now, I wouldn't hold it against them, at least we get the thing. Except PA wont, they have it SO close to finish it would be absurd not to release it now as a shabby release.

There are things that were totally BS pre-development crowdfunding, those guys put us where we are, in the fearmongering and the "what happens when they take the money and run"? Cryptocurrency has that fear. Early release has that fear. Seriously, PA works just fine, find an actual vampire/demon/witch to hunt, don't go Salem Witch Hunt or McCarthy Hearings all over PA.

Fact is, PA is a working model, at the end of the day it doesn't attack the customer, the customer gets plenty an equal trade, the cost of PA for PA.

Eh I would still rather a standalone disc any day of the week. I don't see the use of a non-standalone disc. Besides the fact that in a day soon to come, the other files will be fetchable including server and such. If it were me, I would get a copy of that cover art on a disc I print on release with the standalone copy and all the other disc goodies. Replace that sucker with my unique functional copy. That is the disc though, any box game that is on steam, doesn't contain a disc. I remember the first time that happened, my best friend bought Killing Floor, an empty box with a download code for steam, it was a new thing indeed but now he loves steam.

Wholly fallacious arguments, Batman?!

- Some Awesome Guy

Too easy to manipulate, no transparency on how comes up with the aggregated score (The algorithm behind it), etc.