No Rest for the Wicked's decision to release the game in early access was met with mixed reception among players. The game's CEO defends its decision and addresses disagreeing fans' dissent and concern in an insightful, lengthy post.
No Rest for the Wicked CEO Defends Early Access Launch
No Rest for the Wicked Will Be the 'Most Fun Possible' Because of Early Access
Despite initial concerns and criticism of No Rest for the Wicked launching in early access, CEO Thomas Mahler defended the move, citing the various advantages of early access for game development. The action RPG hit Steam's early access last week, drawing negative feedback from players regarding performance issues and overall polish.
Game8 played the game and ran into the same issues, noting specifically that the game "still has a few bugs, like clipping issues," and "wonky controls and uncustomizable keybinds," creating instances where commands don't register.
The studio behind the game, Moon Studios, swiftly responded to players' concerns, pledging to address them through continuous development and improvement based on player feedback. Meanwhile, Mahler addressed fans on Twitter (X) yesterday and explained their decision to launch No Rest for the Wicked on early access, mentioning it's one of the best decisions the studio made.
He argued that as games become more complex, early access provides developers with invaluable insights that can't otherwise be gathered from traditional testing methods. Drawing parallels with other successful titles, Mahler suggested that games such as Dark Souls could have benefited from an early access phase to refine and polish their gameplay.
"Imagine Dark Souls 1 would've been in Early Access - Instead of [FromSoftware] rushing to ship a boxed product in a somewhat unfinished state, they probably would've been able to look at the second half of that game and still fully form and polish the less polished areas like Lost Izalith, etc," read his tweet.
Now more than ever in gaming do we see games launch in early access. Even Hades 2 has an "early" early access in the form of a Technical Test, allowing developers to sort through player feedback and see what needs to improve.
"So, even if you dislike the idea of Early Access: It's one way to allow developers to truly perfect a product over time, so please try to understand that there's value in that," Mahler concluded. "I'm confident that we will see games being created through Early Access programs that would've never been made without EA 👍❤️"
BG3's Michael Douse Also Thinks Early Access is 'The Way'
A game that merits Mahler's defense is Larian Studios' 2023 GOTY Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3), indeed a success like no other. BG3 launched in early access in 2020, with developers Larian releasing the full-game masterpiece in 2023. Larian’s director of publishing, Michael Douse, seems to be of the same opinion as Mahler.
Speaking to Game File in a recent interview, Douse stated that early access "is the only way to do it now," especially if an objective of the early access phases are "to create social resonance, to create a situation where you have a constant dialogue with the players."
"When you release a game in AAA, whatever method, [if] you don't have early access, you're taking a huge bet on the fact that this is good and people like it. In early access, you find out very quickly. It helps you steer the massive ship," Douse explained, "...if you are interested in creating a really strong core gameplay loop and then building around that, to foster a strong community, that’s a really good way to do it. It’s probably the best way to do it."
While early access offers numerous benefits and advantages for developers, it also poses risks and eventual disappointments, as demonstrated by the notorious MMO-not-meant-to-be-an-MMO The Day Before from studio Fntastic, which faced accusations of being a scam due to unfulfilled promises during its early access release.
Source:
No Rest for the Wicked dev defends early access, says Dark Souls would've benefitted
Baldur’s Gate III exec on what’s right and wrong with today's game industry
No Rest for the Wicked had a rocky launch, but fixes are coming
