The release of “Endless Space 2” is coming up, and players eager to get their hands on the new game will have a chance to try it out in advance. The title will enter Early Access on October 6, and even though it will not give players access to its complete set of gameplay features, the experience should still be enough to let most people decide whether they want to spend their time on the full version or not.
The developers have explained that the Early Access version of “Endless Space 2” will feature half of the planned factions – or more specifically, four out of eight. This will give players enough variety in their experience while also allowing the developers to leave some things locked, and work on them behind the scenes.
Furthermore, the upcoming Early Access version has been labeled as an “alpha” by the developers, which means that players should expect lots of issues, possibly even major ones. When a piece of software is in an alpha stage, this means that the developers are still implementing new features (and removing others), making major changes and possibly even altering the course of development as a whole.
Next, in the beta version, they will freeze the addition of new features and will focus on polishing the game in its current state, fixing bugs and improving the balance where necessary. Finally, when the game is out of beta, it will be ready for its “official” release.
With the help of Steam’s Early Access system, players will not only have a chance to experience the game before others, but they also have a real opportunity to direct its development, at least to some extent.
The developers will rely to a large extent on feedback from their community during this Early Access phase, and it’s safe to assume that any suggestions for new features, bug reports, and general comments will be read by the team.
Not only that, but they will probably implement a good portion of the things that get brought up over the next weeks (as long as those suggestions make sense of course), so fans joining the Early Access phase should definitely not be shy to make their voices heard.
We don’t know how the Early Access version will be priced yet. While some players expect to get the game cheaper since they consider this to be a form of supporting the developers, others are more skeptical. We’ve seen some developers actually charging extra for Early Access, and it makes complete sense from their point of view.
In some cases, it can cost hundreds of dollars to get access to a game during its alpha version, and that’s fine. The motivation of the developers in those cases is that they want to be sure that anyone playing the game during that time will be properly motivated to actually play it as much as possible, and take part in the discussions about it.
On the other hand, such a restrictively high price also guarantees that players joining the alpha will know exactly what they’re in for. It’s one thing to buy a game at a regular price, disregarding the Early Access label, and then complain that it’s unfinished; but having to spend a lot on the purchase makes it clear to everyone that it’s not intended for the general public, and that people should be sure that they actually want to make this purchase.