Yes.
No.
Who cares? It’s a great game as it is right now. Loads to do, for £11-15 if they never added anything else you really can’t complain.

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Why do people have this perpetual impression that staying in early access is 'milking' early access?

words. i dont like massive quote replies (not trying to offend you).

Quite a few EA games never, ever leave EA. and thats because they can "milk" it. never finish the project, get some money and generate hype, free press (or paid press) and generate more money. a released title is generally a one and done deal, with sales and patches to generate hype.
Its easier, imo, for an EA game to add a basic feature into the game finally, and generate hype because it doesnt have it, its ea, etc etc.
Dont get me wrong, i love this game. I loved it the moment it hit EA and watched it carefully. I'm one of the people that won't buy any ea game, all ea games i have in my library were gifted to me by friends.
I'm not a fan of ea, and i dont want to see this game fall into the same traps that other games like 7days, and Project zombie did.

God I am sick of people who buy EA games and have such expectations. The entitlement of you younger ones is amazing. I think some sort of test needs to be filled out before cry babies buy gmes.

1st, the game is one year old , Most games even AAA titles take 4 years to make. If you do not have the patience then dont buy these games.

2nd, 7D2D is a great game. (IMO) with a ton of features. the update a lot, and there updates are substantial.

3rd, (the other zombie game) Yeah Dayz may be in EA forever, who cares. like 7D2D, its been updating a lot, adding features and fixing bugs.

4, WHo the hell cares. Dayz is one of my fav games. I have over 4k hours in it, if it stays in EA the next 5 years and does 2 major updates a year, I would think thats the cats balls. GREAT. So many AAA games I have bought, "full release" played 40 hours and put away. And I never see them updated or fixed.

5, Milking? I fail to see how a game in EA is "milking it" In fact you can charge more for a finished game.

Stop buying ea games. you obviously are a self entitled person with unrealistic demands and a bad sense of sell importance. Like 7D2D this game released with a ton of content. I for one can not wait to see where this game is at in 3 years. Finished or not I bet it has a ton of content (more) and will still have a solid fanbase.

I don't think it will be eternally early access, but it could be in that state for a good while. I think a lot of the issues the game has are thinks that just have to be ironed out and polished. I think its just that updates come slowly that will keep it under "Early access" for most of it's time. Kind of like Phasmophobia where the game is very enjoyable but you know that the devs are probably unhappy with a lot of little things.

Valheim is functional enough for me that I don't really think about it being early access that much. I think I've only ran into two buggy things that bothered me.

Average time in early access for games is 2.5 years (it has been one). Average means half take longer, and half take less time. Temper your expectations accordingly.

I have found that people who say the devs are just taking the money and running are often not making an accurate prediction, but instead are telling on themselves. That's what THEY would do, in that situation, so they have a hard time believing that others would behave more appropriately.

Originally posted by mimic:

Ive been watching this game for a minute, and after it was gifted to me i played it. great game, as i knew it would be etc.
but my question is, is this going to ever release? Or is it going to be like 7days2die and that zombie game that never release and keep milking early access?

If you want a true example of perpetual beta go look at "Warframe"

Welcome to 2010. Ha ha.

Originally posted by Sunny:

Average time in early access for games is 2.5 years (it has been one). Average means half take longer, and half take less time. Temper your expectations accordingly.

I have found that people who say the devs are just taking the money and running are often not making an accurate prediction, but instead are telling on themselves. That's what THEY would do, in that situation, so they have a hard time believing that others would behave more appropriately.

Plus they don't understand that writing software is more fun than work. Business meetings are a drag, along with team-building exercises. I don't think IG has much of that going on.

These devs are working on a hit game. That is not work. That is play. And their motivation is to finish the game as quickly as possible so that they can begin to charge full retail.

But the real money is in expansion packs.

"25 North European game and song-birds. Giant Roc"
"Wildflowers and obnoxious weeds."
"Gnomes and other crypto-critters."

And there is Valheim II to think of.

Lets call it ongoing 'live service'.

Only time will tell.

Even in current state the game is way more complete than the titles you mentioned.
We already had a bigger update adding lots of cosmetic stuff, and the next biome is in the works while the mountain rework patch is possibly releasing any day now.

And in podcast, the devs said the game is meant to be completed, it's story at least.

TO be honest, for the price and how cheap it is, its worth the money even if you play it for a month. If you enjoy building also its great. Just hope they bring out public servers in future so we can all build together

This game is already 100 times better than 7DtD and with much less time of develpment

7days has consistently improved their game since the start of early access, so I'm not sure exactly what you mean. This isn't some DayZ situation where they can't even add in the vehicles that the mod had working, it's noticeable progress in both graphics and systems. They stick to roadmaps, post updates to their community, and general conduct themselves in a trustworthy manner. Same thing with Project Zomboid (which I assume is the other game you're talking about), so the whole "milking early access" doesn't make any sense. If this game does what both of those games are doing then it's going to be great.

Why do people have this perpetual impression that staying in early access is 'milking' early access?

You're joking, right? Many people actively avoid purchasing early access games. Many EA games also sell for a lower price during EA than what they will at full release. There is not some recurring pay model where you're giving the developers $10 a month to keep playing the EA game- It's a one time purchase. By the time a game has been in EA for a couple years, the majority of sales that will happen before official release has happened.

So any game that is still in early access after numerous years is doing so to keep their promise to make the game they envisioned at the start. Using 7DTD as an example, they're likely breaking even with incoming profit; And more likely actually a bit in the red in that regard- Spending more than they're making. They have the capital at this point to continue development. But they're not making bank like you seem to think. They're not 'milking' it.

But I suppose you'd rather these games have called themselves released 6 years ago, and have all the updates since be paid DLC? Is that what you want? 'Cause thats what AAA companies do to you. They release a game, and then they nickle and dime you with numerous DLC. Sims 3 and 4, Anyone?

Or you'd rather them be like Empyrion? Call the game released despite not actually being done developing the core of the game. Features listed on the store in a 'coming soon' or 'proof of concept' state despite being officially released? Them LITERALLY selling you an incomplete product as a finished one? I bet thats what you really want from an official full release..


Don't get me wrong. There have absolutely been companies that 'Milked' early access by releasing a hot mess, doing a couple half-hearted updates, getting a couple million sales and then just cutting and running with the money and leaving the game unfinished and untouched forever more.

But, Any developer that is still actively developing the game 5+ years down the line is not doing so to milk it.