Why are developers releasing unfinished games?

With the increasing number of ways to release games in the videogame industry, publishers may be investing in unique ways to promote and release their videogames, even at the cost of release quality.

First, we should compare the current state of games with the past. In the 2000s we see disc-based games as the mainstream way to play, especially on PC and consoles PlayStation and Xbox. Game developers’ creating this form of multimedia lets you use the physical disc to download and play the game. This may have inherently constructed an industry devoted to releasing games that should be fully functional on launch day, be these classic singleplayer stories or online multiplayer games. Even now, video game development will have bugs that even weeks of testing solve, therefore minor updates and bug fixes to video games were more common than large updates.

Downloadable Content (DLC) paired with this may have provided enough enjoyment to keep gamers hooked on the games they love to play. One of my most vivid memories of these as a player is Star Wars Battlefront (2015) developed by DICE and publisher, EA. A game which was released with an environment for players to opt into relaxing PvE on demand or into online multiplayer with battles between players on iconic planets in the Star Wars galaxy. With new planets and game modes released in the form of a physical disc or redeemable code of the ‘Seasonal Pass’ DLC released throughout the year of 2016. Whilst this could be received critically as unfinished content released later, it could be perceived as keeping players engaged through new content drops, which hasn’t been forced to recorrect errors of releasing unfinished games that are almost entirely online based nowadays.

Are modern ‘early access’ games causing concern as ‘unfinished’ games? Are the problems overly ambitious, incomplete game releases from established publishers?

Facepunch’s Rust, Epic Games’ Fortnite, Larian Studio’s Baldur’s Gate III are some of the most popular examples from a long list of early access games that have reached incredible success during their developmental phase and after full release. However, a great example of unexpected success is Satisfactory by Coffee Stain Studios, released in early access in March 2019 in the Epic Store. While selling over 5.5 million copies in early access, it looked to reignite with its full release on September 10^th, peaking at an all-time high of 185,957 concurrent players just days into the 1.0 release on Steam, not accounting for those playing through the Epic Games Launcher.   

CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 experienced many years of development leading to a rocky release period in 2020, riddled with bugs. The developers faced over 30,000 refund requests early on due to lack of customer satisfaction, but through the determination of the developers managed to recover from critique and be the story it was meant out to be.

On the other hand, one of the most recent ‘flops’, City Skylines 2, failed to meet the great expectations of a community of fans from original game, resulting in Paradox Interactive facing retaliation for their shortcomings, Game Rant’s Max Borman stated that it suffered “numerous performance and technical issues” and misses “fan-favourite features” from the loved original. Reflecting on the widespread dissatisfaction in the community The deputy chief executive officer, Mattias Lilja, states that gamers are “less accepting that you will fix things over time” and have "higher expectations" because of fans with a “squeezed budget for games”.

Does this mean that gamers have higher standards for games released into the industry today? Are publishers not weighing up the consequences of releasing incomplete videogames? Will we see the full release of more unfinished games or is it time for early access titles to become a new tradition?