Metacritic user votes?

"Hmm, I've never seen the words 'Early Access' on a game box before, I'll google it to see what it means *Early Access -steam*"

Yep, a completely plausible scenario.

We all gave money to Uber to not depend on a publisher. Without a publisher they still do this stupid move and release it early... A game should be sold when its finished and not before!
It doesnt matter if its early access, the people will cry. Selling a alpha in the store is really bad and sad.
All together it feels like Uber needs more and more money... What did you want to deliver for 900k ??? The kickstarter feels like it was complete scam.

I don't seek for articles that goes one way of the other. I merely browse game site, and see news about early access.
Most of the time, they are just saying that this or that title just went on early access, merely copying what the PR said on the email.

Some are virulent without much arguments.
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/173353-kickstarter-and-early-access-games-are-ruining-pc-gaming

Even I'm agreeing on the fact that early access kill expectation, it goes beyond that, and was really well covered by the video posted here :
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/extra-credits-the-problem-with-early-acces.61562/unread

And overall, it doesn't line the good points of early access (facilitate the dev for small company, even it can be crushed quite easily once big ones will jump in).

I've also read some dev opinions.
http://www.lar.net/2014/01/14/steam-early-access-is-a-good-thing/

He acknowledge the flaws in the system but argue against them.
I hope for you that he is right. It was written before steam early access section crushed under tons of prototype, similar to what is happening on mobile platform.
Only a few games will succeed, while a lot of them probably worth some money.
When a big excepted title will fail (I look at you Star Citizen), it will probably means the end of the system, sending lot of titles/companies in the sink. It's too fragile, and I do believe you just created a little crack by selling an early access on retail.

He also dismissing quite fast the bad PR coming from selling a unfinished game at an higher price range, then putting it on "sale" while you just put it at the normal price. It's something that is punished in most country during sale periods (increasing the price of a product before sales to do make huge fake reductions).
Not a lot of people realize that little scam currently, but it's a matter of time.

Also some other sites are less virulent but still concerned about what you did.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/01/planetary-annihilation-boxed-copy/

It should be interesting to make a compilation of all articles concerning your choices, and make some stats to evaluate the "good/neutral/bad" opinions. I would say that, hopefully, the current trend is toward the "warning" side.
I might be wrong, but I don't think so.

I won't dismiss the good points of early access. But I do think you underestimate the drawbacks.

Again, maybe you will realize it was bad overall, but you won't revert a bad opinion about the way you did things so easily, and that might hurt you in the long run.

Hej there, squishypon3

I supported the development of PA buying an Early Access on Steam and of course I like the game very much. But Uber, or perhaps their marketing/PR department (that actually it's the same thing), clearly wasn't sincere with us about their agreement with Nordic Games. What they told us months ago was plain bullocks.

I believe that this conduct is unacceptable for a project that has been launched on Kickstarter, specially the way it has been done for PA (with stretched goals and everything). It is true that several projects look at Kickstarter to test the market and later finding bigger investors, but in that case the company behind it should be very clear with their customers base and backers about it.

I wish Uber the best of luck with everything of course. They seem really nice people with good intentions. Uber surely isn't an evil company. But I also think that their marketing and financial choices suck big time. All those discussions about the Early Access Physical Boxes are pointless: Uber will never tell you the real reasons behind the operation, 'cos simply it is miserable.

Therefore, at the moment I prefer to dedicate my time to something else.

That's why I pass by here very seldom. I still follow the King of the Planet series to be honest. That still gives me joy

I chuckled a bit on this metacritic comment

Be right back, playing at 60 fps on my 2g dedicated 2yr- gpu.

Have you clicked and followed any of the results?

Early Access Iowa - "Early ACCESS is Iowa’s system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with or at risk for developmental delays." To me that doesn't tell me I get a full baby to care for early.

Manning Early Access Program - A book can take a year or more to write, so how do you learn that hot new technology today? The answer is MEAP, the Manning Early Access Program. In MEAP, you read a book chapter-by-chapter while it's being written and get the final eBook as soon as it's finished. If you pre-order the pBook, you'll get it long before it's available in stores." Again you not getting something full early.

Now see I read a bit more to learn what each particular meaning of Early Access was.

there would be no naval, less orbital units no orchestral soundtrack, no lava and metalplanets on 1.0
also no galactic war ..
in short you would had way less content than you now have ... and stuff would have also taken way longer to get in ... even with the chance of the game being propper released sooner ..
but chances may have been it wouldn´t have been as successfull as it is now (heck i bet you actualy wished that)

Planetary Annihilation just got talked about on the patch (from rooster teeth) because of their retail version... interesting how this move gets them more press.

what has early access to do with depending on a publisher or not? if people will cry let them, no one forces you to buy in ... also early access has a point were it ends, after that point you may start to care less and less that it happened ... if the game gets to officicial 1.0 stage, released and reviewed early access will cease to be an issue for this game as it wont have it anymore ... at worst people may just continue to be salty that it happened, but would you realy then continue to tell people not to buy it because of earlyaccess for when it isn´t anymore just to make an example ? the mayority will likely not care at that point ...

and of course does uber need money, it´s not like they are nintendo with 150 billion who could sustain itself for the next 50+ years without doing anything ...

You quoted the wrong dude, my friend. I've never said those things

Let me answer that question for you.

That 900K was a SEED CAPITAL to fund Uber, so that they could start developing PA the way they think is best.
They communicated their vision to you through kickstarter, and if you liked the idea, you had the option to give them some money so that they could work on their plans.

If this seed capital would've come from a publisher......
Well, you know publishers and their strange urge to 'protect' their investment.
Uber would've lost creative control and it could have gone something like this:

Imo Uber is handling things well.
As you probably could have imagined PA costs more than 900K the rest was always supposed to come from sales, who cares if those sales are 'early acces' or 'early acces in a box'. We'll all get the complete game the way Uber envisioned it, and that's what matters to me.

Think about it free development, yes plz And in the end its all kickstarter and only kickstarter, for me" It`s a good thing, think about all thoughts and dreams come to life. did anyone do anything wrong? what are we talking about? Is anyone angry about shareing? expectation?

You might be in the wrong here, I am afraid. Kickstarter projects are supposed to be able to be completed given the funds acquired there. Relying on the prospect of additional funds after the Kickstarter to continue development and not communicating this as a part of the Kickstarter process is a dangerous path to tread.
So I find it highly unlikely that Uber considered Kickstarter money seed capital. Look at their original release estimate for a second and you can clearly see that they intended to finish it quickly enough to prevent runnning out of Kickstarter funds.

You're incorrect @vyolin, Uber were always intending to inject additional funds into the money raised by Kickstarter.

Edit: Also, why is this thread still here?

What else was it going to do? Get them less press?

More good press?
More press about the game and not their horrible ways of self-publishing games?

Subjective.

Exactly, this is bad in your opinion pilot, not ours. (Nor the majority's it seems.)

Oh and about the more press bit. Like I said, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Except that's just plain wrong.

Meh, not really.