Should TTG Games be branded Early Access?
I'm seriously questioning how truthful it is to the consumer to not mark that the product is unfinished in the store. The parts saying that it is unfinished is below the 'Buy Now' area and even the reviews so it's possible to miss it if you're not paying attention. Furthermore since TTG hasn't been able to fulfill any kind of release scheduled for it I think that it's fair for the game to be marked an 'Early Access' title so it's very clear the game is an unfinished product and they it will be done when it's done. This season pass thing seems like a sneaky way to get around being classified as an early access title but let's be honest here: it is early access. Other games with perfectly functional gameplay are still considered early access if the developer thinks they're unfinished, why shouldn't TTG's products be the same?
Comments
Nope, Early Access would be knowingly releasing episode 1 with plans to change and 'finish' it later on, or releasing episode 1 alone when the original plan was to release all 5 at once., which wasn't the case.
I agree that they should be clear about it on their Steam page though - it would suck to pay full price expecting to get all 5 episodes at once.
Except it kinda is the case since the developers so far haven't kept with their last two release schedules. It really does seem like they have the mentality "Ah we'll finish that one later" and this being my first purchase from this company makes me doubt I'll be buying another product from them if this is the kind of service I can expect.
Telltale's games always have been episodic, which predates the Early Access model. Like Wyvers said, Early Access is for games which are not finished yet, that are going to be finished at a later point. The episodes are not released until they are done, so it's not early access. Each of Telltale's episodes is a complete game, which taken together make up a season. Hence, the term "season pass".
Plus, the Steam page does clearly state that the games are episodic, and that you'll receive the games periodically until Summer 2014.
Telltale hasn't missed any deadlines for The Wolf Among Us so far, as the only release schedule set was that they'd release further episodes periodically, and that they'd continue to release the episodes until Summer 2014. If you have issues with Telltale's handling of episode 2, please keep discussion in the episode 2 release date thread, as conversations are harder to follow when the same topic is being discussed in multiple threads.