Early access
Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, and may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.
History
Traditionally, game publishers do not release unfinished versions of their products to the public, instead relying on in-house testing non-disclosure agreements. This prevents such versions from becoming the target of software piracy, and limits what information can potentially be shared with competitors. As such, publishers will fund the full development of a game through its completion, but will be less willing to take risks on experimental titles. In some cases, publishers have found ways to allow players to win or buy into access into a game's beta state in a controlled environment. For example, an invitation to the beta version of the multiplayer portion of Halo 3 was bundled with the game Crackdown, contributing to the latter's strong sales.For indie games, which are typically distributed without a publisher, the source of funding for development is not as readily available. Many smaller indie companies use personal funds, while larger ones may get investments from other sources, and more recently crowdfunding programs such as Kickstarter or Patreon have proven viable for both. Another difficulty for indie developers is the means of testing their games prior to release, lacking the resources of a publisher and not obtaining enough feedback prior to release.
The concept of early access helps to alleviate both problems. Early access to a game is typically offered when the game is in a playable state but may not be feature-complete, or may still have several software bugs to be found. Often these games are considered at alpha or beta releases, and may be months or years from anticipated completion. Interested players are able to buy into the development of the game, gaining access to the software in the working state, and are encouraged to play and stress-test the software. Their feedback can help the developer tune the game's direction, art, and software mechanics in anticipation of a final release. Once the game is released, the player either continues to have access to the software or is rewarded with a means to obtain the final release of the title and other extras, such as sounds, their name in the game's credits, or other rewards. These players help fund the game to completion, but take a risk that the game may never reach a final release. A further benefit can come from preliminary word-of-mouth of a game in an early access state. As players are typically not limited by confidentiality agreements to participate in early access, these players can provide reviews on social media, or play the game on streaming broadcasts, which subsequently can stimulate interest in the title.
One of the best-known early examples of this model is Minecraft. The game's development began in 2009 by Markus Persson initially for web browsers that he developed alongside his full-time job. The alpha-version game proved popular enough that within the month of release, Persson added a means by which players could pay 10 euros to access the game, allowing him to continue its development. As sales of the game increased, he was able to quit his job about eight months later to work on the game full-time, founding Mojang to bring on a larger development team. Minecraft continued to offer early access throughout its development period, assuring those that bought into it would receive the final version for free, which happened in November 2011. Prior to this, nearly two million players had purchased into the alpha- and beta-stage releases, with over $33 million raised from these early sales. Minecrafts success led to the early access approach becoming a popular way to publishing indie titles.
Approach
To help early access, some digital distribution storefronts have provided the sales and distribution mechanisms for developers to use to offer their titles under early access. While these stores take a small fraction of the sales for the service, they also handle complex issues with payments through credit card and services like PayPal, bandwidth for delivering software, redemption of keys for other digital storefronts, and promotion within the storefront. The digital storefront Desura launched an alpha-funding initiative in 2011 to help indie developers promote upcoming titles. Valve added an early access to Steam in March 2013, allowing developers to take advantage of the Steam storefront and the Steamworks API. The storefront GOG.com began an early access program, "Games in Development" similar to Steam's in January 2016, but staying true to their storefront's philosophy, maintaining digital rights management-free titles and providing more curation to vet the titles using the service. GOG further implemented a 14-day, no-questions-asked refund policy for early access titles, which removes some of the risk for the potential buyer. itch.io introduced its Refinery early-access program in May 2016, which allowed developers to choose from other early-access models, including limited-user alphas and by-invite-only betas.The Humble Bundle group has created a Humble Store that also provides storefront and distribution methods for indie gamers that wish to sell early access to games, and for developers looking to get on Steam, offers the ability to provide Steam redemption keys once these titles are listed at the storefront, while also incorporating a method to allow players to pay or tip the developer in addition to the base cost.
Video game console makers have also looked to the success of early access and have created their own similar programs for their consoles' users. Sony Computer Entertainment stated in July 2014 that they considering creating an early access program for independent PlayStation 4 developers following the Steam model, and launched this approach in September 2015 with the game Dungeon Defenders II. Microsoft similarly started the Xbox Game Preview program in June 2015 for those users involved with the dashboard preview of the Xbox One console with plans to expand it fully to all users on both Xbox One and Windows 10; the Xbox Game Preview program differs from other approaches as the early access titles include a free game demo at the current state of development to give players a chance to test the game before buying. This service was launched with the early access titles The Long Dark and Elite Dangerous. Google offers a similar Early Access program for the Google Play store for Android devices, starting in mid-2016.
Though most titles that use early access are from independent developers, some AAA developers have used an early access approach to augment their normal development cycles. Codemasters used Steam's Early Access to help develop Dirt Rally; at a point where they had to make a go or no-go decision on whether to proceed with full development of a niche racing title, the company opted to use early access to offer a polished version of the game still in development to meter interest and gain feedback from players, correcting issues that players had had with previous titles in their series. After about a year, Codemasters was confident to proceed to complete the game and producing console versions of it with their publisher alongside the personal computer version. Ubisoft used early access to help complete Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms after the primary development work was complete, incorporating player response to fine-tune the final game.
Early access is often tied in with other means of funding. Games that have used Kickstarter or other crowdfunding mechanisms often include early access to backers, and later allow those that did not participate in the funding to buy into that early access, which helps to provide additional funds for further expansion. The term may also be used in a derogatory way to describe games released to the public at large under the presumption they were completed games, but still required a high degree of patching or updates to resolve large numbers of software bugs or to add features missing at launch, even if this was not the intent of the developer or publisher. Full release games such as No Man's Sky, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Sea of Thieves have been negatively labeled by critics as "early access" in this manner.
For games that expect to be released as free-to-play with in-game monetization, developers and publishers frequently offer a paid-for "founders" package that gives players early access to the game, including in-game currency, special equipment or other items that mark them as founders they can use after the game's full release, and other benefits; further, any progress made during this period is retained when the game leaves early access, giving such players a head start over newer players. This approach has been used for games such as Paragon, Dauntless, and Fortnite: Save the World.
Around the late 2010s, major publishers began to use "early access" to describe pre-order or premium version incentives for their titles, though which the purchaser of these versions would get access to the step some days before the full release to regular purchasers. Games such as Mass Effect: Andromeda and Battlefield 2042 were some of the first games to offer these early access periods. In such cases, these early access periods are typically not used for player feedback but to identify last minute software bugs or test server performance before the full release. Similarly, the term "early access" has been used derogatorily to describe major game releases, typically from AAA studios, that are released with large number of bugs or unrefined gameplay with expectations that the game will have one or more updates shortly after release to fix. In such cases, the use of "early access" to describe these games is to reflect the seemingly uncomplete game and that players that purchase the game at release are testers for the developer.