GOG's rules on "early access" games

[cimerians]

Very cool GOG is doing this and I agree Steam needs to take notes, I only got burned on one early access game and then I made a rule to never put money into any of them no matter who its made by:

 

http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-could-learn-a-thing-or-two-from-gog-s-new-early-a-1755748698

 

 

“First and foremost: we’re hand-picking only the games we can truly stand behind. Offering a selection of the most promising titles, and those most highly requested on the Community Wishlist, is our way of avoiding bloat and ensuring that every game will be worth your time.”

 

“It takes some confidence to discover games that are still being shaped — and to build that trust, every game in development comes with a simple refund policy: 14 days, no questions asked. It doesn’t matter if you’re having technical issues, if you don’t think the game is sufficiently fleshed out, or if it simply doesn’t click with you — all games in development can be returned for any reason within 14 days of purchase.”

 

“The GOG Galaxy client should also come in handy for games in development. It lets you control updates manually if you want, while the rollback feature allows you to easily restore any earlier version of your game if an update breaks something or makes unwanted changes. For games in development, rollback will also track and create historical snapshots throughout a game’s development. That means you can always revisit any point in a game’s history — for fun, or for science.”

[leods]

Damned. You made me click on a Kotaku article.

 

GOG's page about games in development:

http://www.gog.com/support/support_view/games_in_development_faq#en

[cimerians]

lol....I know.

[SoulBlazer]

Steam does offer a refund on games now, although I don't think it's as good as GOG's policy.

[Reaperman]

Great start.
now maybe they should offer a refund for the dosbox games that they never really brought up to a playable level.

(I'm looking at you, privateer)

 

Or maybe at least a little flag warning when their games use dosbox.

[MrMaddog]

Or maybe at least a little flag warning when their games use dosbox.

 

Like more than half their entire library?

 

Anyway, I stay away from early access and croudfunded games because most of the time they're never finished and get pulled. Devs want my money? Then finish the game first...

[HammR25]

I'm pretty much done with any type of Early Access. The only one I've supported that's been good was Dirt Rally and that was because they already had a working game engine and just needed to make new assets.

[TPA5]

 

Like more than half their entire library?

 

Anyway, I stay away from early access and croudfunded games because most of the time they're never finished and get pulled. Devs want my money? Then finish the game first...

 

To be honest I've never understood this issue that people say they have. With just over 100 GoG games, I have never once had an issue with running them. Even the one's people generally have issues with work fine on my Win7 box.

 

 

So about early access.... I'm not a fan. I understand the concept, but 90% of the time it's executed so poorly it seems ridiculous to pay for it. It's like paying for an entire car, but only getting the 4 wheels to start with the promise of drivetrain, frame, interior, etc to come at a later date. Promises that may or may not be kept. So in 8-9 months you may still just have 4 wheels sitting in your driveway, looking nice but completely pointless on their own.

 

Then again I suppose most AAA titles release so horribly broken these days that they might as well be early access, so maybe this is what gamers truly want.

[Mord]

Devs want my money? Then finish the game first...

 

This is the boat I'm on these days. If they want to sell a portion of the game, they should expect a portion of the money. (The way mojang did it with minecraft when they started off - at first free, then 10 bucks in alpha, then 20 bucks in beta. I think in it's "released" state it's at 30 bucks. That kind of release pricing makes more sense to me but it seems other companies looked at mojang's success with the early-release setup and tried to mimic it... horribly. )