As Hades 2 arrives in full, is early access good or bad for the overall video game experience?
What is early access? While most of you no doubt know what we mean by early access, we’re referring to when a game is released to a store (usually Steam) in an unfinished state, but with the promise that new content will be added over time and it’ll eventually launch as a complete 1.0 version. This week saw the 1.0 release of Hades 2, but the biggest game to ever do it is probably Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, which was in early access for almost three years.
Today Tom and Bertie make their cases for and against games releasing in early access.
I don’t play games in early access, just like I don’t eat my lunchtime sandwich before I’ve put all the fillings in
Imagine paying £34 for a good game? That’s just utterly ridiculous, of course, but it’s fine to pay good money for a game that isn’t even finished? OK, that makes perfect sense. I’m firmly on the side of “buying and playing games in early access is a bizarre thing to do, and borderline sabotage of your own enjoyment,” just to be clear.
