Opinion: Early Access has become a crutch

This opinion piece was originally part of a prior Traxion email newsletter – sign up to receive these early, direct to your inbox, every week.

Picture the scene: It’s been a long five days, and as a reward for completing the daily grind, you’re planning a Friday takeaway meal.

But instead of waiting until the end of the week, your local purveyor of greasy food offers an early access programme. Pay 80 per cent of the meal cost upfront to receive the chips on Tuesday, the pizza base on Wednesday, and the fizzy drink on Thursday. That leaves the toppings to complete the full artery-blocking meal on Friday.

You’ve saved some money and satisfied your insatiable desire for treats as you go.

Yet, something about that doesn’t sound anywhere near as enjoyable as receiving everything at once.

Early access is an existential crisis that has grown significantly over the past 12 months for fans of driving simulations and racing video games.

Aside from yearly sports releases (F1 25 and MotoGP 25), Japanese Drift Master stands alone in recent times as a major driving game releasing seemingly complete from day one – currently slated for a May launch.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer is currently in early access, whereby, for a fee (albeit a slightly reduced one when compared to the finished product), players can experience an unfinished game ‘early’, while the developers receive some revenue.

So too is Le Mans Ultimate. And Wreckfest 2. And Assetto Corsa EVO, plus countless others.

It seems like a win-win, and in the case of Le Mans Ultimate, entering this release format seemed a necessity to earn some much-needed cash.

But Wreckfest 2 and Assetto Corsa EVO? I don’t think these projects necessarily needed the upfront liquidity.

Early access can provide creators with valuable feedback. EVO’s developers, Kunos Simulazioni, recently announced a change so the embryonic simulation can be played without an internet connection. An alteration based on early access player feedback.

But it can also put a dampener on things, robbing a title of momentum or the ‘hype’ deemed a prerequisite to hitting sales targets.

I believe this is happening right now for both Wreckfest 2 and EVO. Following a wave of popularity for the initial early access release, player numbers don’t just tail off, they fall sharper than Wall Street is presently.

That’s the point where you have to question whether early access is worth it. Is some up-front money and player feedback worth potentially squandering pre-release anticipation?

A cursory glance into wider gaming at Rockstar’s plan for Grand Theft Auto VI would suggest otherwise. The next trailer and any pre-release previews will undoubtedly reach record numbers, and in some ways, the longer it is between campaign beats, the more suspense builds.

You can have too much of a good thing, and being part of a media cycle across one-to-two years of work-in-progress updates may lead to oversaturation. If early access doesn’t go to plan, and with rough edges on display, you could lose support long before the game is finished.

In some respects, then, those on console who cannot access the PC-only early access versions have it the best way. They’ll only ever get to play EVO once it’s ready…

This opinion piece was originally part of a prior Traxion email newsletter – sign up to receive these early, direct to your inbox, every week.