We saw its rise last year. video game publishers offering several days of early access to big AAA games for one price. This year the situation will get worse as every major game publisher seems to be holding games hostage and charging players a ransom fee to play a few days early. So what happens if you pay $80, $90, $100 or more for early access to a game and you can’t actually play it? We’re seeing this play out with WB Games and Rocksteady’s as well. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
After numerous delays, Rocksteady, the developer behind the game, arkham games — has finally (sort of) released its next big game, Suicide Squad. But unlike this Batman This new game is one of the games he developed before. live service (yes it is) A cooperative looter shooter starring iconic villains like Harley Quinn. As a result, many Batman fans were disappointed with the game’s reveal, and things only got worse with every delay, leak, and leak. gameplay trailer and preview. And now the game is out for people who paid $100 (plus tax) for the special edition of the game; A version of the game that comes with some extra goodies and a major “perk”: three-day early access. Yet, Most of January 29Players could not play the game they spent so much money on.
Technically, during some time periods, players who purchased the $100 deluxe version of the game were supposed to be able to start playing. Suicide Squad Today. However, this was not the case, due to a bug that meant some players started the game and discovered that the entire campaign had already been completed. Mistake! In response, Rocksteady shut down the servers, and since the game has no offline mode (yet), which made it unplayable.
Of course, the deluxe version comes with some extra cosmetics and a free single-use coin that allows you to upgrade a battle pass to the premium version. But checking Twitter and other places, it’s clear that most players bought the fancy version because they wanted to play the game early. And now they can’t.
Normally I’d say: Hey, games are hard to make and servers are complicated to run, so let’s cut everyone some slack while we figure things out. But not this time.
Sorry, but if you view early access to a video game as a prime marketing point (something you’ll be advertising forever and hyping for weeks), you have to deliver the experience. Yes, I know there’s a blurb at the bottom of the store listing that says they can’t guarantee you’ll get 72 hours of early access. I know. However, this does not change the fact that WB is happy to acquire all of these players. $100 pre-orders and they won’t be able to provide them with what they want: early access.
And there’s no way to fix this. If the servers are still down for most of tomorrow, players can get 24 hours early access at best. WB will not be delaying the game by two days for everyone else to allow those who pay more to play “early”. They’ll just be devastated and maybe learn a lesson: Don’t pay those publisher ransom fees to play something early.
You don’t actually play games “early”
Remember that these games star field And Mortal Kombat 1, it doesn’t actually start early for people who pay extra. The game has gone through all the certifications, testing, checks and other stages required to launch a game on consoles. That’s the only way WB can sell you Suicide Squad On Xbox Store or PSN. So all of these games are ready to stream for everyone (assuming the servers are up). All the publisher has done is delay the game by a few days for people who don’t want to pay an extra fee on top of the standard $70 asking price.
I know some people’s argument is that it’s a choice. If some people are willing to pay the money, why wouldn’t they let them? Because we shouldn’t allow corporations to become evil, greedy assholes just because someone is willing to say, “Okay, sure, I’ll pay.” Do you think the world is a bad place now? Imagine if companies could do whatever they wanted as long as someone, anyone, was willing to pay.
So yes, I understand. The market supports this. People will pay. BLA bla. But hopefully today we’ve shown that paying for early access is for suckers, especially for online-only games. You’ll pay more for a possibly less stable and more buggy version of a game, and the publisher can’t even guarantee you that you’ll make it. Actually You can play anything you pay for early.
I hope you can. And if it’s not good, good luck and enjoy your extra digital hats or whatever, I guess. Is this worth $100? I’m not so sure.
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