Head of Slipgate Ironworks: Developers of live-service games are forced to resort to early access, but would prefer to do without it
Frederik Schreiber, CEO of Slipgate Ironworks and lead developer of Tempest Rising, participated in The Hot Seat podcast. During the conversation, he touched on the topic of releasing games in early access.
Tempest Rising
According to Schreiber, many developers are compelled to use early access due to various circumstances, from the necessity to secure funding for further game development to the desire to start building a community this way.
In the case of service games specifically, Schreiber emphasized, it's very difficult to manage without early access. However, this does not mean that the creators are happy with this arrangement.
“To be honest, I think most developers releasing games in early access would prefer to have enough funding to avoid it. Instead, they could conduct open betas, closed playtests, and so on. They would gain the same benefits: convincing tens of thousands of people to play their game and getting feedback. But all this without the consequences such as negative reviews due to the game being unfinished, which inevitably affect the release,” explained Schreiber.