If you put out a game that works but hasn’t got all its art assets yet then it looks like you’re basically just releasing the game early.
If you put out a game which only has its first two levels and upon completion of level 2 it has some text that says “more to come” people understand that’s an early access.
But there’s way too many of the first example and not enough of the second example. None of this is helped by games like No Man’s Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield that released in buggy states, making people think that early access just means broken.
It depends how you use it.
If you put out a game that works but hasn’t got all its art assets yet then it looks like you’re basically just releasing the game early.
If you put out a game which only has its first two levels and upon completion of level 2 it has some text that says “more to come” people understand that’s an early access.
But there’s way too many of the first example and not enough of the second example. None of this is helped by games like No Man’s Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield that released in buggy states, making people think that early access just means broken.