cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/hytale/p/450908/hytale-is-out-now-in-early-access
Note: Not my screenshot
It’s been over 7 years since the game was announced, and after being cancelled by Riot and bought back by the original devs, against all odds it is FINALLY playable!
The game was supposed to come out in an hour but it seems the devs released it early. I’ll wait and see some early gameplay but it looks like I might buy it on launch day. Feels surreal that the wait is finally over.
Back in my day games were finished before they were released.
And they were a lot simpler, and there was a lot less competition. Nowadays, games are everywhere and hype doesn’t last long. No hype, less sales, even though the game is great and released in the final version
Let’s be real, older games content is much more smaller, or if they want to update things they will sell you a second installment or something.
Except for online games.
A little ironic to post this on a game inspired by Minecraft, the most prolific example of an early access model working out.
But Minecraft - even in the Beta days - worked as a complete game. They have been improving (depending on how you like the changes) on it since, but it wasn’t ever filled with literal work in progress signs like Hytale is…
Yes, but Minecraft was on sale for a year before it ever went into “Beta,” back before it was in Alpha even. In fact, it wasn’t until one of the last Alpha updates that the earliest semblance of “Minecraft” as we know it really began to appear. The Beta updates added a lot of core features we take for granted in the game, like beds for sleeping, tall grass for seeds, redstone repeaters, pistons, sprinting, hunger, etc.
The first purchasable version of Minecraft I remember didn’t even have a working health bar.
Notch sold the game to Microsoft long before it was ever a complete game. Why program something when you can sell players on an idea and then sell that idea to Microsoft?
I know it’s a bit fuzzy with Minecraft since it’s constantly getting updates, but I find the claim that Minecraft was “incomplete” before selling it to Microsoft is a big stretch.
Version “1.0” came out 3 years before the Microsoft sale, and at least to me, the game felt “complete” long before 1.0
They still haven’t delivered on the finite water promise.
From what I’ve gleaned from the history of this project, the original creator of the game sold the IP to a publisher in order to secure money and resources for further development, where they promptly started interfering with development to the point that it was delayed and ultimately cancelled.
The creator bought the rights back from them and released it into Early Access so that they can fund its development.
I personally have nothing against early access games after playing other EA games like Factorio, Rimworld, and Satisfactory that were known for being incredible experiences long before they launched into 1.0.
This is one of the few times I’m ok with a game releasing early. It was in Dev hell for a long ass time only to get nearly canned until it was reacquired. If it can get the support it needs to achieve the dev’s vision, I’m ok with that.
And they have made it extremely clear what kind of state the game is in.