Early Access is well known to all users of the gaming service Steam. With it, players can access the games of interest to them even at the stage of their alpha or beta testing. This allows them to communicate with developers, make comments and valuable suggestions on the gameplay. Owners of the PlayStation family of consoles may soon receive such a service.
Surprisingly, the fact remains: one of the best-selling games on Steam is not the final versions of the products, but the games that are still under active development. People are really willing to pay for early access to such projects, despite the fact that they are far from perfect, full of bugs and flaws. Explaining this phenomenon is quite a challenge.
This system is primarily good for game developers, since they can receive the much-needed funding for their projects at almost any stage of their development. All they need to do to do this is to prepare a high-quality presentation in order to interest gamers, just as the participants of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform do. After Steam management approves the project, it starts selling for a small amount of money, for example, $ 10 or $ 20. This is not so expensive, considering that the final product will cost 40-50 dollars, and those who received “early access” will get the final game for free. In fact, we have such a crowdfunding system for sponsoring promising game projects, which has already proven its viability and effectiveness.
The Japanese company Sony, it seems, is imbued with respect for a similar approach in the development of video games and is ready to launch a similar service for its PlayStation Network. Adam Boyes, president of Sony Computer Entertainment in the United States, said in an interview with Gamespot that the company is currently looking for the best way to provide developers with the opportunity to host games that are under development in the PSN Store online store.
“This is one of the most popular conversations within the walls of the PlayStation division lately. The most important is to determine the point in the development of the project, after which the game can be placed in our network. We really care about our users and don’t want someone to accidentally download the game, expecting to see the full version, and instead come across a raw product. At the same time, independent game developers now need material support from users. So we are carefully studying all the possibilities so that at the same time we will not leave anyone without proper attention. ”
Sony is currently seeking to develop a service that will be free from the weaknesses of Steam Early Access. Therefore, all projects that will qualify for a place in a special subsection of the PSN Store will have to meet special requirements, the list of which will be published by the company a little later.
Sony's main competitor in the console market in the face of Microsoft also does not sleep. Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division, not so long ago, in one of his interviews, also let out what the company was thinking about introducing a special program of early access to games to Xbox Live.
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment