Steam Early Access' new policy change: Game gets ditched? Tough shit.

[NiPah]

I'm not sure what system would prevent this...
If you forced Steam to offer refunds then they'd just end the system all together...
if you forced the developers to offer refunds then they would sudden call their game finished even though it was clearly not...
And what way would you prevent developers from just saying their game is finished? That it didn't meet what they originally advertised? Hell hardly any game does that...

Face it when you buy early access you're taking a gamble, you're buying early access to a game and that's exactly what you're getting, early access to a game.

 

[Loop Stricken]

and developers can be irresponsible with their games all they want?

im sorry but early access already gives way too many perks to devs, there must be some balance, and experience tells me Valve USUALLY tries to find this balance, comming up with solutions that generally make everyone happy, here, the dev is basically the only one laughing all the way to the bank, free to promise the world and deliver nothing

Yes, they can be. And then nothing else they make will ever sell.

But if people were more careful with their money in the first place, said shady dev would be able to rip off far less from far fewer people. It's almost impossible to stop unscrupulous people employ unscrupulous business tactics - just look at Ubisoft.

 

[Caiphus]

It's almost impossible to stop unscrupulous people employ unscrupulous business tactics - just look at Ubisoft.

But surely, at least in this instance, we have a fairly easy way to stop people employing this particular unscrupulous business tactic:

Offer refunds if the developer absconds with their Early Access money.

Of course, there would be fewer problems with this if Valve held the money in a sort of escrow arrangement, although I don't believe that they do.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

and developers can be irresponsible with their games all they want?

im sorry but early access already gives way too many perks to devs, there must be some balance, and experience tells me Valve USUALLY tries to find this balance, comming up with solutions that generally make everyone happy, here, the dev is basically the only one laughing all the way to the bank, free to promise the world and deliver nothing

Yes, they can be. And then nothing else they make will ever sell.

But if people were more careful with their money in the first place, said shady dev would be able to rip off far less from far fewer people. It's almost impossible to stop unscrupulous people employ unscrupulous business tactics - just look at Ubisoft.

you cant guarantee that, they might find a way into other dev teams or something like that, its likely they wont sell more games, not a guarantee

meanwhile someone expecting a finished game sometime down the line, well, they will never have it

 

[CommanderL]

All I hope now is that the company that made Kenshi can finish Kenshi...

You did agree to pay for the beta after all, so it's fair, but still

At least they tell you right up front that their product/ideas aren't finished, unlike EA.

I think they have been working on kenshi since 2011 so they will finsh it more people buying the game means more money for the guy making it to wok on it

 

[SecondPrize]

You bought a product, you never bought the game as it would be X years in the future. You only bought what was on sale at the time. Now don't fret because there's a way around this. All you have to do is what till a game ships, check whichever reviewers you trust, maybe watch some gameplay videos or ask some friends what they think of it and THEN decide whether to buy it or not. It's as easy as that.

Yeah I'm looking forward to Kenshi as well, but I'm waiting till it's in at least a healthy beta state, if not actual launch. Hopefully he comes through on it.