X4 Should have released as Early Access

[ChaosShadow00x]

Hear me out...

Early Access is essentially an open invitation for people to jump in early, with the knowledge that there will be bugs and issues, and that content will be added as bugs are fixed. In all honestly, this is the current state of the game.

The major difference is that Early Access announces this, where as releasing as a 1.0 version indicates that it's feature and content complete, with minimal bugs. I feel that if Egosoft had gone the rout of early access, they could have not only avoided a huge amount of back lash, but actually gathered a huge amount of respect from how quickly they are to provide updates and patches.

X4 Early Access would have, I truly believe, been one of those Early Access success stories. Egosoft has a proven track record of investing heavily in their games, working on and patching it, refining their games until they're a polished gem. X3 for example was a crap shoot on launch, but is adored and loved by so many now. I have little doubt that Egosoft will do the same for X4... But the Early Access branding would have indicated this intent from the get go.

I personally am waiting a few more months with full confidence that X4 will be a wholely different experience than it is now, much more polished than it currently was when i played at launch. I dont regret supporting them (I bought the collectors edition simply because I wanted to support), I simply wish they would have taken some simple PR steps to avoid so much backlash. X4 has the *cough* foundations *cough* of a great game, and Egosoft will most certainly ensure this.

[Ramokthan]

I have the feeling you dont know what early access means.

Releasing a game as EA just because its still bugged af is not the purpose of EA.

[chew-ie]

I'm fine with the release & the current efforts on patching additional stuff. My CE is running great, just needed to upgrade some outdated hardware on my desktop (nvidia 760 -> 1070) to get a better experience, but that had nothing to do with the game.

No EA needed from my side.

[Grimmrog]

I have the feeling you dont know what early access means.

Releasing a game as EA just because its still bugged af is not the purpose of EA.

An early access now covers just being able to play the game before release.
And this includes games even in alpha stags now. (I played quite a few Alpha EA's)

The issue is if you release a game the Software devlopment industry has some kind of "standards" on which level a Software is. And X4 currently is very much in a state of a beta testing. (feature complete, etc blah blha. just read about those stages)
And thus a early access would have been the better choice because the game si currently at best a "Realease candidate" in it's stage.

However if customers buy a software they have a specific expectatiosn towards bugs and other issues. And this surely is not why X4 should have gone released without an EA flag. Does no one remember when gothic 3 was released? It feels more and more the gaming industry makes the Gothivc 3 release state being the new standard. Which is not good at all.

[Vandragorax]

There was also discussion about this months before the game released.

The devs have stated themselves that it's too much work for them to do Early Access as they are right now.

It means that they need someone full-time to:

- run quality control sessions with the 'public' early access testers
- collate all feedback, confirm reproduction steps for issues and report these to the devs in a prioritised manner
- deal with Early Access queries on the forums and maybe discord etc. at all times

The whole process would likely require some change to the current dev processes that Egosoft use and would certainly not be a trivial change. It's not as easy as just saying "ok we'll do an early access release today".

[galthar]

I have the feeling you dont know what early access means.

Releasing a game as EA just because its still bugged af is not the purpose of EA.

EA means that game is out of content. The X4 i totally out of content comparing to x3 tC or X3 AP. And EA means that product is not complete. Do you think it is a full complete product? ready for release? (don't care of bugs, crashes etc)

[AdánPasos]

I kind of expected the game would be released with bugs. Will probably buy it next summer... But at least it is a proper X game right?

I read Steam reviews and even though it seems to have bugs, the rating is still "mostly positive". Usually when a game with bugs is released sooner than it should, people get really mad and harsh. But most people seem to be nice with the game. I guess that means it isn't bad right?

I have lots of good memories about X3... Hope this one is as deep, if not now at least in the future.

[otto_deluxe]

I agree X4 could have used another month or two. However, early access is supposed to be centered around user feedback and incorporating it in the game. By that I mean the devs do not yet know how to shape a gameplay mechanic, and ask the audience "how should boarding roughly work?". I think ES have a pretty clear plan for all the features, the design desicions have been made, though some might not resonate well with the player base. If they had released X4 as EA, the community would (probably) not have been happy either. Then, we would have discussions about "how everyone does AE, and uses EA as an excuse to relase an unfinished game" and how "community feedback is ignored" (since the plan is already pretty much set I presume) and we'd get all the nay-sayers who go on about "...and after a week they slap on version number 1.0 and call it a day".

I've seen this kind of feedback on steam so many times.

[bl3ek]

Why do people keep saying X4 lacks content? Honest question.

For me X4 feels like there's more to do but with less ships and sectors. Are the last two parts the 'lack of content' people refer to?

I do wonder if this will change with 1.3 as war steps up and the universe awakens from slumber.

[ZombiePotatoSalad]

Early Access holds a certain stigma among gamers. I think I can count on one finger the amount of Early Access games I backed that have come out as feature complete since I started using Steam games back in late 2013/early 2014. Early Access means for mind-to-full price, the developers can work as slowly on a game as they want. In fact, I have more games that are STILL in Early Access (a couple even abandoned) that I bought years ago.

I think Egosoft full-releasing now, even with bugs is a lot better than going Early Access. We all know EGosoft games have bugs, but they do come into their own. People need to stop complaining and start offering constructive criticism. "X4 is buggy af you should have remade X3 fam" is not helping in any way. Yes, we KNOW there are bugs and issues. Griping about them won't make them go away. Offer ideas for fixes.

[Grimmrog]

There was also discussion about this months before the game released.

The devs have stated themselves that it's too much work for them to do Early Access as they are right now.

It means that they need someone full-time to:

- run quality control sessions with the 'public' early access testers
- collate all feedback, confirm reproduction steps for issues and report these to the devs in a prioritised manner
- deal with Early Access queries on the forums and maybe discord etc. at all times

The whole process would likely require some change to the current dev processes that Egosoft use and would certainly not be a trivial change. It's not as easy as just saying "ok we'll do an early access release today".

of course it is, is there a written law in how the EA has to look like? surely not. nd all that they have to do now, except hearing lots of ranst inbetween those non access testers now caled customers. Collate feedback? isn't that what they need to do now anyways too? is now no one priorising issues and bugs?
That really does not differ much at all. The only difference is less people would have bought it yet (mostly those who don't öike highly unfinished products) less refunds given, and less salty threads inbetween relevant feedback and bug reports.

But I guess dedicated feedack analysis and bug sorting together with the users isn't a process at Egodsoft, otherwise the Froum had subsection for these.