Do you play games in Early Access, or wait for the full release?

[icterine]

Random question because I've been curious about how other people approach this.

Do you play games while they're still in Early Access / active development, or do you usually wait until everything is basically complete before starting?

Personally I am very firmly in the second camp I don't purchase itch.io games before they're released in full and I have a Steam collection folder dedicated to games with pending content. And by pending content, I don't necessarily mean only games officially labelled Early Access either. If a game has DLC or other major updates planned, it goes there too, because I want a "complete experience" while my memory of the game is still fresh, rather than coming back months later for new content.

In addition, I do play demos if they're available, but only if the game is already out, so I can make a more informed purchasing decision. Otherwise, I don't touch the demos.

That said, I know there are also people who enjoy playing games throughout development - following each update, seeing the game evolve, discussing new content as it releases, giving feedback to the devs, etc.

So I'm wondering where everyone else falls

Do you:

• play demos, or avoid them entirely and dive straight into the full release?
• happily play Early Access and come back for each update? (granted, buying during EA always comes with the risk that the game may never actually be completed)
• wait even beyond 1.0 if you know major DLC/QoL/voiceover/updates are planned?
• just decide case by case depending on the game?

Happy to hear more thoughts

 

[Breeze Daydream]

I like to wait for the full version before playing the game, because in the trial version, when I reach the exciting part, there may suddenly be no storyline afterwards, which can be very disappointing. The full version is released again, and it feels like the experience version is like an early spoiler, having to replay the content of the previous experience version.

 

[dogiwall]

Another one in the full game camp. I might play a bit of demos, but I'm definitely not going to pay up for early access games lol

Unlike manga, tv series, or even MMOs and gachas, I don't think much early access games are going to get that much of engaging discussion in between updates, or they do and it quickly dies out. Also, there could be large gaps in early access updates and never get done until like years later as you've mentioned. In a few cases, the early access versions and the release version could be drastically different or doesn't live up to what the EA promised. I know Starbound is like that lmao

As for waiting for other things beyond the full versions, maybe I'll wait if it's like soon, it's substantial, and I have a lot of other games in my backlog.