The article references it but this is a hilarious thing for the company making Craftopia to say.
SIX YEARS of early access and it’s nowhere near complete. They fucked off to make Palworld which is understandable but…maybe they shouldn’t be the mouthpiece for this complaint?
I agree with them but the irony is just too much.
seriously, palworld seems to have implemented most of craftopias shit from a glance… refund people for craftopia, cancel it, and give them a discount on palworld.
early access is bullshit, and is mostly either used for games that are finished but don’t want to be held accountable, or for games that’ll never finish and be abandoned once the devs got enough money.
Steam needs to put a hard limit of like… you can be in early access for 2 years, and if your game is not finished and released in that time, its automatic refunds for all customers.
Automatic refunds!? Now that is would lead to some serious grind to avoid. Think about it, finish the game or go bankrupt. 24/7/365 development baby!
I also think the name “Early Access” is misleading. You’re really paying to become a beta/alpha tester which also includes a license to the full release when/if that happens. If that is what you want, then that’s fine, and the product page always details the current state and plans, but I still think it’s a tiny bit problematic.
Personally I ignore most Early Access games altogether and only buy if the price clearly makes sense for what the game offers at that moment and that seems pretty rare.
I hate that so many are trying to normalize the “release” date with the Early Access. Like no, your game being in beta testing is not “released”. CohhCarnage is doing it with his game he’s a part of, using the word “release” when he’s talking about “Early Access”. You opened up early access. Your game releases later.
Maybe it’s the price the problem? It’s 29€, at that price tag i expect a full game to be honest…
(To be noted: i never played palworld)
Maybe use a roadmap with dates? I know it’s hard to pinpoint a date but if you had a road map with the estimated quarter… And if you communicated why you had to push it to later… I understand communication is a dual edged sword but that’s what it’s for!
So many EA titles go radio silent with no road map. Then we wonder whats happening after six+ months of silence.
Runescape Dragonwilds is a prime example of how to do EA. Roadmap, expected dates, and reasons why a certain feature didn’t get pushed out on the said date.
