Unsung chumps, more like. We never should have normalized paying retail price for unfinished games. Now people buy them just so they can bitch about the bugs on YouTube.
There's still a valid case for early access for small dev teams ta be able to both earn additional income and get valuable player input. But anything under capitalism must be taken to the extreme to the detriment of everything except capital.
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u/NaZul159800x3d | rtx 5080 | asrock x870e nova | 32gb3h agoedited 3h ago
And only short term capital, as in the next 2 or 3 years. But forgetting about investing in the happiness of consumers by only looking at current data values, losing the entire soul of what made something good and not understanding that after those 2 or 3 years the entire playerbase is gone and you have nothing worthy of getting sold.
So many game studios and publishers go all in on that short term money, not realizing they're fucking up their steady income.
It happened to multiple need for speed dev companies under EA (black box, criterion, etc), it happened to Bungie, it's currently happening to cod.
When tf will they learn to take human opinions instead of their bs short term data? It's clearly not working, and yet
Alot of early access games have a lot of qol things that wouldn't be there without the buyers. One that I'm thankful for is groundeda hot deposit. I love getting into my base where I have all my chest below the floor and I just got deposit and my inventory is clean.
What are these mysterious games that demand full price for early access?
The real chumps are the idiots buying 100 games on sale because they think it's a good deal...that they will never ever open. At least early access players normally play the damn game (and for every one I've been part of, at a cheaper price than full release).
*okay apparently bg3 was full price and they called it a "playable preorder", that's a weird way to describe it and one I think is pretty stupid
If no one bought games at retail price, a lot of games would not go out and not in such scope whether you think that's good or bad, that's for you to decide.
If Rockstar spends 2B+ and everyone waits for the game to cost 10$/€/£, this is likely their last game before closing the studio as you would need 200M+ buyers just to break even.
And what is true for large companies like Rockstar that have a wealth of investors that can sustain for a while but not indefinitely, is even more true for small indie devs. That could be the difference between continuing support on the game, or shutdown development.
How many games have you played and enjoyed that were released after a long early access that was sponsored by "chumps" that would have never seen the light of days otherwise?
The prices are usually cheaper and get more expensive with time. My example is games from the 2010s tho like rust, I played the super OG rust and also some of the new rust. I haven't bought new early access games in a while tho
The thing is like... with OG rust that was when dunkey first played it and there was all this hype and fun around the game and it's geniunely one of the most shitposty and fun games. You can't experience that now anymore. It's a different game and the people are different people. Like I played some of the newer rust and it's full of sweatballs, chinese fucking clans, and no lifers who fuck your shit up when you are at work in real life
I remember being a bit tempted to try BG3 in early access. The price of 85$ (here in Switzerland, most expensive early access I have ever seen) scared me away. Glad that others tried it out and helped them make it the great game it is.
I'm ok with buying $15-20 indie games in early access. The devs need the money to complete the game, and at that price I still feel like I get a good value out of it.
I'm not ok with paying $70-100 for a half-baked AAA game.
Also, if all people were "patient" there would be less sales, so why would developers but energy, time, and money into DLC? Who would mod the game no one plays?
Still plenty of issues. The big games always come loaded with bugs. Even the best ones weve had in the last 10+ years did. Its easier to think of the AAA games that launched with bugs than those that didnt. CP77, Witcher, Skyrim, starfield, Veilguard..the list goes on and on. Im actually not sure I remeber a smooth AAA release in the last 10 or so years.
The best thing about being a patient gamer is that once you've waited a while it's easy to be even more picky as well.
Just yesterday I got an alarm from ITAD about the new FF7 on sale. Great, I thought, been waiting forever for that, but then I saw it was in the Microsoft Store and said "fuck that" and deleted the mail.
steam has publicly spoke about their whale customers who buy games and proceed to literally never evne play them just because they feel like they're getting a good deal
Idk maybe there is something wrong with me but I just can't get into the witcher games. I tried 2 and 3 several times they just are kinda boring to me. What's crazy is I love the world and the lore.
I think I have over a dozen hours in witchers tutorials cuz I can't bring myself to finish them, then I take a break, then I remember nothing so gotta restart.
Same, it looked like such a mess on release that I steered clear, but after picking it up a couple of years ago it's one of the rare games that I've finished multiple times, a stone cold classic.
Cyberpunk 2077 was a game I had zero interest in at all and when they fumbled at launch best buy did a huge flash sale the 2nd week after launch and I got a steel book copy for $10. When I went to pick my copy up I was the only person who got one.
I don't think by "last longer" he meant how long it lasts before it breaks, rather how long it lasts before it becomes obsolete.
But if we're already on the topic, PCs are easy to repair. You can swap out every component individually, on consoles the ram, cpu, gpu and ssd are soldered onto the motherboard and thus only repairable for professionals with BGA soldering experience
This might be a extreme example but I think many people have stories like this. I bought my pc in 2012. I got a GTX 1070. to replace the 660 inside it., it was still functioning I just wanted more performance. I retired it in 2025. Like actually retired it. Not a single part if you don't count 10 dollar fan replacement in 2021 or something broke, everything was working fine. I am still using the 2 hard drives I had in it from 2012. They are just the spares in my current PC. They are both WD 1 TB's. I looked their statistics it showed about 45k hours of operation.
Best part is, It's the still same PC case. It's a Coolermaster Cosmos 1000. When I first got it, I thought "It was too expensive, I made a wrong choice etc etc etc". Best decision ever. Amazing PC case, incredibly easy to work in, it's very easy to clean, put stuff in. Tons of dust filters. I hope I can use it for a another decade or two.
Only problem with old PC cases is the USB ports tend to start acting up at some point and you probably only have 1 or 2 USB3 ports and won't have a front USB-C
Not necessarily (depends what you play), however you can upgrade only parts of it which ends up usually being cheaper compared to buying a whole new console.
For example my computers oldest parts are i think nearing five years old (motherboard, third of the ram, ssd and psu), the newest is a few months (new aio cooler). The cpu and gpu have been updated a few years ago from what they originally were, so has the ram. This extended the lifespan considerably, while allowing me to keep using the parts that didn't need an upgrade.
Its also usually easier to keep clean, their so many videos out there of people cracking the shells of consoles to find it encrusted in dust bunnies.....or worse.
It largely depends on how powerful it was when you got it, in relative terms.
Like a pc with a 5090 today could maybe last another 8 years or so if you're willing to cut back on the settings progressively.
Literally me early this year, playing Darkest Dungeon for the first time ever. I had no goddamn idea this game was so good, maybe the best in its genre (the X-Com/Fire Emblem style of tactics). Such cool mods, literally a dark fantasy Black Panther that is shockingly balanced among other cool heroes and monsters. And yeah, the game just released new heroes from the (failed) sequel, I'm willing to comeback, or maybe just wait for the Butcher's Boulevard mod to finally release (no big hopes for this one, is in development for years)
As someone who sunk 100s of hours in DD, its definitely not xcom like, but it is definitely an amazing game and really frickin hard until you start to learn it all.
i dont have a console to play gta vi. i dont mind waiting since i have a lot of games to play till it comes out on pc (assuming it isnt gonna be a long wait like rdr1 on pc)
i just worry about getting spoiled (though miraculously i never got spoiled on gta v, gow 2018 and ragnarok when i finally had a pc/when the norse gow games released on steam)
And it's only going to get better. You take a pretty big graphical hit playing stuff developed 5 years ago, but anything past like Skyrim is plenty playable. Especially with mods, though they do often look like mods, a little out of place at least.
So yeah, from 2011 to 2016, or 2016 to 2021, you notice a difference, but it's not terrible. 2021 to 2026? Almost nothing. Lighting is better I guess, if you really look for it. Just imagine what small, incremental improvements we can not notice missing out on playing a 2026 game in 2031.
Very true, but there are some games we cannot pass up on launch day. I’m nabbing Control Resonant launch day because I know it will be good and I wanna support Remedy.
Nah you can never that hype back. Watching the trailer, watching the launch date get closer, being one of the first people to experience a brand new game.
Or you can wait 3 years, save 20 bucks and have a bunch of stuff about the game spoiled for you by the internet.
Yeah im glad I dont do what everyone else does and has to play it day 1, I really dont care ill get it when I get it and if the reviews are good then ill keep it at the top of my list till I finish a few games and I saved up enough
I got the Arkham trilogy for $6, the mass effect trilogy for <$5, and re collection (0-8 with 2 & 3 being remakes, OG 4, and both revs) for $30. It’s highway robbery.
That's what I do. I am now thinking of getting Dragon's Dogma 2. Bought Skyrim 8 years after it's release. Considering the modern gaming industry that tries to fuck you over every chance it gets, buying games a few years after the original release is really the way to go.
The truth is, games have never been affordable for everyone. I rented and borrowed most NES games I had a kid. Without physical media, there has to be some other way for us poors to play games. Either give us a deal, or we don't buy your game. We're not stingy, we literally do not have the money.
Nintendo still sells its own games at a premium and pretty much never lowers their prices. They're able to do this because they have unique high quality games. PlayStation and Xbox don't have that.
literally cyberpunk 2077, there's a new 3rd person mod that looks really good and is probably going to be finished by the next time the steam sales come back around
I don't care if your an early gamer, patient gamer, early access player whatever. Do what feels good to you, it's your money, your life and your way to relax and entertain yourself. So don't let the internet dictate how you should do that.
Bought Witcher 3 years ago for $20. Never played it. Now its getting a free remaster and I'll be playing the shit out of it at the end of the month.
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u/Darkwr4ithPentium 1 166mhz | Diamond Monster 3D | 16mb ram | 4x CD Rom5h ago
I'll only buy a game on release if I plan on playing it and finishing it right away else I wait for sales. I tend to buy like 95% of the games that interest me on sales now.
There would be no stable gaming industry if no one bought games at full price and support the developers on the first 2 weeks of a game's release. Games live or die by their pre-orders and early sells metrics.
Most of my games are grindy, jrpg or rougelike so I stay in 1 game for months. There's no need to rush, unless its a live-service or multiplayer game (except if its like Monster Hunter)
I waiting to buy a license to play metro exodus until the epic exclusivity expired. I wanted mods and such that were easily integrated. They released Metro SDK a few years ago and its great
This the reason why a microscopic part of me is a little annoyed with CDPR at the moment. I bought Witcher 3 years ago on GOG, but couldn't afford the DLC. Couple years later bought the game with all the DLC on Steam at a big discount. And now, in the lead-up to the Remaster, they are giving everyone with only the Witcher 3 all the DLC for free.
Anymore the games don’t even drop in price. They just release in beta then still expect you to cough up full price years later after they finally finished developing the game.
For me it's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It took probably 15 or 20 years to finally fix all bugs in the community patch and to make a new engine that was not crashing more often the longer you play. I still played it back in the old days but now the experience is so much better.
The thing I hate most is you buy the base game at full price then you have left it alone for a few years and all the DLC has released. They sell the ultimate edition that includes the game & all the DLC and without fail this ultimate edition ends up on sale for less than it would cost you to buy just your 2 pieces of missing DLC on sale.
You forgot that your pc is also a couple of generations ahead and you don't have to worry much about performance. At least it used to be like this sigh
I just had a go at ff14 for the first time, it's great 😃 there is an unbelievable amount of content, the main story is looong, zero bugs, great controller support.
I do this to pick game that I think are good candidate/ will be fun to adapt in VR, then I spend weeks modding them, and I complete them to test the mod before releasing it : this is the most satisfying loop I ever got stuck in
Wish I would've held out on BF6. Almost a year in and the game's gunplay is still atrocious. Game outcomes are heaviliy sbmm balanced, gammodes removed. And flat out lied to about skins staying grounded.
6 months later, EOL declader; 8 months after that servers offline and game delisted.
1 year after dev studio gutter and IP sold to highest investor who will shelve it in a digital vault for 15 years or release a sequel that has lostthe pirit of the original game BUT has mucro transactions.
Unpopular opinion: if the game wasn't interesting enough to be worth playing on launch despite any issues, it's probably not interesting enough to be worth playing years later, either.
I got burned by Mount & Blade Bannerlord by being in the day 1 crowd. Not only was it rife with bugs & missing dialogue but my old laptop couldnt handle it. I had bought it, was off work, and did most of my housework while it downloaded because rural internet is slow only for that to happen 🥲. In the following weeks and months I had to sit out, I saw a lot of hot fixes and patches go out. Never again ✨
The only game I have ever bought the Deluxe Edition to play before release is Halloween: The Game because it is an IP that I love with creators that I trust (lllFonic, not Gun Interactive). But people be doing it with every single game and then complain about bugs. How tf u complain about bugs when you're playing a game before the release day???
Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, FO3 GOTY, FNV, and RDR2 probs. my best super discounted and years later purchases. But RDR2 still has that crash in the cutscene involving Emmet Granger lmao. Just inexcusable. But overall, the 2 CDPR games performed great on my PC that if I ignored the early reviews it's like there were no issues at all haha. But yeah, I would've had a lukewarm opinion if I played those games on release, but post fixes/updates, discounts, probably at the top of my favorite games list.
If no-one buys the game on release, you will never get a post launch sale, because the developer funded development at risk and will fold by the time they would get to release. (or the publisher closes the studio because the game haven't sold).
There will be noone left to fix the bugs. so on discounts you will get the same broken game.
Buying Witcher 3 preoder on GOG
Get discount for owning two previous Witcher games, even though one of those was on Steam
Get free upgrades when expansions come out
Get free upgrade to GOTY edition
Get free upgrade to remastered edition (along with everyone else)
I was a little disappointed they didn't do that with Cyberpunk, but I think most of the issues with that game revolved around the amount and timeliness of paying Keanu Reeves, who had an AAA list Hollywood agent negotiating his contract with CDPR.
yeah waiting a year or two means you get the game at its best and usually at a discount, but honestly some folks just enjoy the ride of watching a game evolve from the mess to something great. kinda like those people who proudly say they were there from day one even if the servers were on fire.
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u/clothanger 6h ago
I'm thankful for the early access buyers to play all games in such a rough state and help devs fix their game.