How Early Access and DLC Ruined Video Games

With the arrival of Demonologist, another Early Access Game added into the bottomless pit of incomplete games, it had me wondering, whatever happened to fully finished Video Games? Games that regardless of their genre – being Linear, RPG or Action-Adventure, were complete products that could be purchased on the day of its release and enjoyed to its fullest potential. What remains in 2023 are Video Games that have cannot be completed. With every release, nothing can fill that gaming pit that has remained since mid 2010’s. From their bugs and glitches, to the tiniest “Campaign” where the actual product exists within the post-game. This is the story of how Early Access and DLC ruined the Video Game Industry.

From Finished Concepts to Recurring Ideas

In PS2 era, Video Games were completely products but sometimes something weird would sneak its way onto the shelves like the first TimeSplitters. A game which felt more like an idea than a full concept. This of course would later become a fantastic trilogy and one that I still greatly miss. But even the likes of massive household Developers such as Nintendo, Rockstar and EA have taken a turn for the worst with their releasing of consistent, unfinished products.

As a site that covers the latest and trending Video Games, seeing the amount of money a consumer has to spend on the “best” and biggest games of the year has become ridiculous to say the least. What had started from the thousands of dollars a young football hooligan would spend on FIFA Packs has now transformed into the daily consumer, purchasing the next Expansion Pack in Sims 4. As a gamer who misses complete Video Games, prime examples being The Last of Us, Infamous, and Silent Hill in my adolescent years, we have lost what made a fantastic Video Game – its finished state.

Living in a Bubble of Endless Incomplete Video Games: DLCs

The concept of DLCs in the era of PS3 and Xbox 360 games worked perfectly. They appeared as additional content that perfectly ended the Video Game or added much needed context/ explanation to a lot of gamers questions and theories. An example of this is The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC which focussed on the story of Ellie and her origins with her immunity. Whilst it did not handle the question on how she was immune, it did instead tackled the fear and confusion she would have felt during learning her immunity and thinking she was about to die after the events unfolded.

The Police Lineup of DLC Terrorisers: Destiny 2

DLCs have only become part of the Video Game Industry since technology has progressed to the point that my PS4 has to delete and recopy the files of Apex Legends when a new update releases. Certain games thrive off their playerbase regularly purchasing the latest DLC, our main culprits being EA with Sims 4, Bungie with Destiny 2 and Nintendo with Pokémon. Being someone who purchased Destiny 2 in its initial release, assuming that it was a full game, I cannot put the right words onto this page without being unprofessional to express my disgust that I had paid full price for a game that would later be placed into a free-to-play experience for anyone to partake in.

Now players would have to repeatedly purchase DLCs to play the next portion of the game which could have easily been a full release from the get-go. But apparently the playerbase are happy to pay $150 at the time of no bundle listings but buying each Pack as it releases. I guess the cost of Apex Legend Heirlooms do not come as much of a surprise anymore.

With 4 Expansion Packs for Destiny 2, this is just one of the many free-to-play games that hook players in with what is a fun FPS Game to a making sure that you have enough money in your Bank Account to purchase the next Expansion Pack coming out in 2024 to complete this game. No longer will we get a full game upon release, with an asking price of $60. No, that is just the initial price before paying out loads to complete the game, 7 years later.

The Police Lineup of DLC Terrorisers: Pokémon

But Destiny 2 is not alone in this fight to ruin the Gaming Industry. No, another prime candidate and one that a lot of readers may get defensive to read about is Nintendo. Being a Developer that is highly regarded as the best in the world, Nintendo have become one of the many that indulge in the DLC fantasy. As someone who is not a regular consumer of Pokémon games, when I had played through Sword and Shield to learn that Nintendo were releasing two separate DLCs for this Game, I looked back on my RPG experience within the base-game to learn that I had completed it in under 25 hours.

All Video Games do nowadays is make a player feel incomplete, needing and demanding for some downloadable content to quench their thirst for something whole.

The DLCs attempt to extend its life however was only half-baked, being what all DLC today feels like: something that was made in the game’s initial development and distributed to the public to milk the game’s potential and collect as much coin from their playerbase as possible. All Video Games do nowadays is make a player feel incomplete, needing and demanding for some downloadable content to quench their thirst for something whole. Not only this but, Nintendo are known for shipping out incomplete Video Games since their leave from the outdated DS. From its mediocre level design (thus making the hand-held device with pixelated graphics look spectacular in comparison), to the bug-filled and terrible performance in the franchise’s latest game: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

The Police Lineup of DLC Terrorisers: Sims 4

I am all for cozy games that make you feel relaxed. As someone who works from home in a 3-dog household, you need some way to either relieve stress or make you feel whole again by playing something cute and relaxing. This is when game like Sims comes in. But who here can say that spending a total of $519.87 on every Expansion Pack Sims 4 has to offer is relaxing? Whilst for Sims 4 players this amount would have been spread across the sum of 9 years if you bought the game back in 2014, for those wanting to start now, choosing the right Expansion Pack or perhaps wanting to play across multiple of the 13 available would be inconceivable due to its price point.

What is worse is that upon spending a total of $50 for Sims 4 on the PS4 only to find out that it runs terribly, filled with lag and feeling unfinished due to only having the base-game and one Expansion Pack, I was left with $50 out of my Bank Account and no option to get my money back. EA are known worldwide as being one of the most money-grabbing Developers ever known. From their beginnings in EA getting children to gamble their parents money away on FIFA Packs, to the same being done now on Apex Legends, to finally shelling out hundreds to play a Sims game where every Expansion Pack gives you cosmetic items, some new furniture and a new place to hang-out for a week until you buy another Pack.

The Impending Doom of Video Games: Early Access Gaming

Early Access Games remain in Early Access. Just check out the Steam product pages for all of the Early Access Video Games available for you to contribute to and send “feedback” for the game’s development. The Early Access appears to be the new Kickstarter, where players will pay for an unfinished game, be unable to get a refund, and see microscopic and debatable development after years on a game that originally had a lot of potential. These Video Games are becoming the new it thing in the Gaming Industry, being something that would not have been achievable in the era of PS2/3 and Xbox 360.

Whilst a lot of Early Access Games have a strong sense of a devoted audience, a lot of these games see no development since its initial release. Even a game like Sons of the Forest was a disappointment for players who could complete it very quickly through obtaining the necessary Keycards and locating the right Bunkers. A game like this should not be in Early Access to begin with. The game feels complete already, even with its bizarre ending that may leave a lot of questions but none that will be answered with any future updates.

That begs the question then; what is the point in Early Access?

Introduced into the Gaming Industry as a developmental process of the playerbase being a core component of the game’s development, where having a say in what happens next is essential. But is this all that different to what has now become of Free-to-Play games such as Overwatch 2? The only difference is that Early Access is not repeatedly stealing money from you via Micro Transactions. But that is a rant for another day. Instead Early Access games stay as a hopeful gesture that one day they will eventually be a complete product that could be sold on a shelf in GameStop.

A lot of Early Access Games get left behind, collecting that coded dust. Some popular titles such as Project Zomboid are expected to get a massive update in 2023, not having one since 2021 or 7 Days to Die still incomplete after an 8 year developmental process in its Alpha Stage. These Early Access titles ask for you, the consumer, to place their faith in the hands of a consistent development with the high chance of you never getting to play a complete game. Clearly these act as a means of the Developer being able to continue their work using the assets funded by their fanbase.

To bring up my beloved TimeSplitters as an example once more for what Developers should and should not do. The Developer Free Radical went into bankruptcy in 2008. Whilst they could have set up a Kickstarter for the revival of TimeSplitters or to put their next game into Early Access, they chose not to. Instead a new TimeSplitters has been announced and although the wait is long, they are doing it without taking a cent off their loyal fanbase.

Why is this a Problem for the Gaming Industry?