Steam Early Access Game Released in Full One Day After Being On Sale

[Teriver]

Hello People of the Escapist

Unless you live under a rock you probably noticed that Steam had a sale recently. You also probably know that Steam has a lot of "Early Access" games that can be quite horrible.

Out of general principle I don't buy early access games because if I like it and it changes I feel really ripped off, along with the possibility that the game is hiding its awfulness under the Early Access title.

I was considering buying Divinity: Original Sin because it was on sale but I decided not to due to its Early Access state. The day after the sale it is released in full, with a full price as well. This felt like a really dog move.

Now this may just be me but I wanted the opinions of the good folk here at the Escapist. So what are your thoughts? Do you think it is a bit scummy or just good business?

Also thank god for Jim.

EDIT:
Okay a lot of people made the point that I didn't check the actual release date and it's true I didn't. So in this case I am going to admit that I was wrong and it isn't really scummy at all.

However....

Assume that there was no given release date and a game was officially released the day after a sale. Would that seem a bit iffy to you?

 

[Erttheking]

I'm not really sure how this can be considered scummy. I mean if you really REALLY wanted it, you would've bought it despite it's early access state. And if it's just been released, not that much could've been added to it. So really, it's the same game that you were interested with just a little bit of tweaking added on top of it. If you weren't interested enough in it as it was in early access, then frankly you're not going to be interested in it now.

 

[Qwurty2.0]

Good business.

As a new release, people will by it regardless, and from what I hear Original Sin is a very good game, so honestly the developers deserve the full price, imo.

I'm not 100% on how games are selected or prices set during the sales on steam, but I don't think any game that is about to be released is ever put on sale unless the developers demand it, and no developer in their right mind would do so unless their game was too bad to sell well on release.

 

[StriderShinryu]

That's an interesting one. I hadn't noticed it myself as I haven't been following that game at all.

Personally, yeah, I do find it to be a pretty scummy move. I can't say with certainty that it was intentional but it sure seems like it given the timing. I'm very much of the opinion that Early Access games should be exempt from any sort of promotion on Steam and being part of sales should be part of that. As scummy a move as this appears to be, it wouldn't/couldn't have happened if Valve did a better job with Early Access on Steam so I can't totally blame it on the devs/publishers.

 

[shrekfan246]

It was on sale yesterday because of the Steam Summer Sale. It was also on sale the first day of said Summer Sale, for the same discount. It was also specifically not discounted any other days of the sale, by choice of the developer.

Also, if you've been following the development of the game, you'll know that its official release was pushed back multiple times; Only recently it was pushed back from June 20th to June 30th, but it was announced before the summer sale that the official release would be the 30th.

I'll understand if people don't follow certain games closely enough to really know or find all of that information ahead of time, but honestly no, I don't think it's any more of a "scummy" move than putting a game up on Early Access in the first place. Maybe it's just my overall exasperation toward the gaming community these days, but I think it's more "scummy" for people to immediately start jumping onto bashing a developer/game because of something like a 20% discount right before their game fully launches. Seriously, just clicking on the game's store page would've let you see that it was rapidly approaching the full release date. No offense, but I believe that this is a situation where it falls upon the consumer to be a savvy customer.

I'm not 100% on how games are selected or prices set during the sales on steam

Steam asks the developers/publishers. They get a baseline sale price and, in the case of daily changing sales like this just-passed one, the Flash Sale/Daily Deal price and then work from there. From what I understand, the developers can also stipulate how frequently their game is liable to turn up in a daily deal/flash sale, though I imagine at a certain point those get randomized into percentages or something.

But generally speaking, nothing happens on Steam without the okay of the people who published the game in question.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

you do realize the game had it's release date on the game, right? it was there for as long as I've been looking at the game. (as in, a few weeks) This is no different then the pre-orders where you get it 5-10% off for buying in early, except for with the early access you got the literal game (minus an update) anywhere from a day to a couple weeks early, depending on when you got it.

it doesn't bug me because it was right on the page, I don't know how it is scummy to get massive sales/publicity during the steam summer sale and have it coincidentally release right after, it's good for them and great for the people who bought it at smaller fraction of the price.

 

[Majinash]

I don't think it is scummy at all. It is your choice to not buy early access games (which I agree with for the most part), so it was your choice to pass up the sale beause the game didn't fit a standard you set for yourself.

I'm a bit more careful with early access games, but I always try to read up on any game I buy off steam, so If I see something on sale I'd pop over to the steam forums, or google it, or check for a lets play. A little research would have popped up that the game was pretty much done and you were safe to buy.

I know a lot of people are really down on steam for the early access thing, but that doesn't mean they are "hiding" good deals behind the early access tag.

 

[lacktheknack]

That's not scummy at all. It's no more scummy than ending a sale normally.

Your stringent standards led to you missing a sale. No big deal, it happens. It's not "scummy" of them to not cater to you because you didn't buy their game. You're just feeling burned because you missed out and want to blame something.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

What?

No that isn't 'scummy,' you just feel so because you missed out on a bargain and are now seeking validation for your feelings from anonymous people on the internet.

Now if you'll excuse me there is an armchair that requires psychology.

 

[Ragnar47183]

No but what is scummy is Steam letting games like Nether release out of Early Access without completing what it was supposed to. There is a large amount of Early Access titles that release their games with missing features/buggy ect.

People abuse systems in place that were originally a good idea. Its human nature I suppose. This is why we cant have nice things.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I don't think it is. Larian Studios are a good, professional studio who've made many great games. They are in this way one of very few companies that could post a Kickstarter or Early Access which I would utterly trust in. They are not a small outfit or unheard of, untried, etc.

The timing of the release date with the ending of the sale was a case of, at worst, bad timing. But the game was bound to be released eventually and Steam's sale is Steam's sale. While I'm sure developers are involved in pricing and such like, the sale was managed by Steam. It just happened the date fell after it was on sale.

Further, the release date was never a secret but rather well publicised by anyone who chose to look. I think this is a case of losing out in hindsight. If one had known the release date, there would not have been an issue and the game could've been bought at discount. If one had not known the date, they missed out on a sale but only insofar as I missed out by not buying Apple shares 15 years ago, or investing in property in 1998.

As it happened, the discount was enough to tempt me to pick it up during the sale. It was on my wish list for a while and I made a habit of checking it regularly to see which games I'd put on there got reduced and by how much. Over the course of the sale my list went from 20ish to 10. I also picked up a fair amount of things that weren't on the list. The sale was not kind to my wallet. I even picked up Wasteland 2 on the last day...I knew I would buy it eventually and at least now I saved some money and still get it on release day.

 

[Shpongled]

"I hate Early Access! There's no guarantee early access games will get released!"

*Early Access game gets released*

"I hate Early Access! This early access game just got released at a slightly inconvenient time for and i failed to inform myself!"

 

[Eve Charm]

A few games did that to, Like trials gold, Buying it as early access was basically play the game now without steam cloud support then the game released 2 weeks after having the set release date.