Having early access to a game that you’re interested in is cool, you can see what the game is about and get an early feel of the experience you will one day have. Generally these experiences are found on PC through Steam, but we are seeing a slight trend in developers wanting to offer console gamers the same experience.
With the amount of love both Sony and Microsoft are showing indie game developers lately it would make sense for them to attempt to bring Steams popular feature to the console scene. On PC the early access system is an imperfect yet important feature where independent developers can easily receive feedback from players. With that being said I don’t think it would be as popular on console. The community driven process is absolutely better suited to the PC, where gamers are known to hack, mod and remake their favorite games, and in some instances even team up with the developers to create the best experience possible, This freedom isn’t available from Microsoft and Sony. Now this is my opinion but I believe console games are held to a higher standard than on PC, for instance when I go buy a new game I expect to be able to put it in my console and have a fully finished and polished game. When I buy into an early access I have a more personalized interaction with the developer where I can say hey this and that could be a little bit better, could I have that type of interaction on a console? Consoles are not designed to be a pathway between an idea and a finished product.
Will we see this trend continue? Absolutely, with the independent developers entering the console marketplace more frequently you can expect to see more early access features, because that’s how indie games are developed. Having this feature will attract more indie developers to consoles, but for now is should stay where it works best and that’s on PC.
