With a series of posts on X, Thomas Mahler, the CEO of Moon Studios, spoke about the decision to launch No Rest for the Wicked in early access and, in general, dei benefits of the early access formula in the gaming landscape, so much so that in his opinion more and more games will adopt it.
As for No Rest for the Wicked, according to Mahler the Moon Studios team would never have managed to publish a 1.0 version without collecting the data and feedback that only early access can guarantee, even having more time or double the time available. ‘organic.
“We’re not even in the first week of early access and it’s already pretty clear that publishing in early access has been one of the best decisions we could have made“Mahler said.
“I think as games become more complex and sophisticated, we will increasingly see some form of early access” he continued. “Speaking from personal experience, we could never have launched No Rest for the Wicked 1.0 without being able to see all the data we’re seeing now and get all the feedback from users. And I mean actual users, not a focus testing group. Even if we had two or three times the staff, it would have simply been impossible, it’s too complex a product.”
Many other games could benefit from early access
Mahler suggested that many other games could benefit from the advantages offered by the formula of early access. To give an understandable example, you mentioned Dark Souls 1 and how the second part of the game was not very refined, just think of Lost Izalith (and the Cradle of Chaos, we add).
“Imagine if Dark Souls 1 had been in early access: instead of rushing to release a product in a somewhat unfinished state, it probably FromSoftware would have been able to work better on the second half and shape and refine less polished areas like Lost Izalith, etc.,” he said.
“Publishing games is always incredibly difficult and stressful, and more often than not it means making pretty drastic compromises, especially if the product is trying to do something new. And if you don’t know that it’s okay to introduce certain features and purposes after the fact, yes it ends up cutting before it gets to market So even if you don’t like the idea of early access: It’s a way to allow developers to really refine a product over time, so understand that there’s value in it. This”.
In a post published later, Mahler stated that PlayStation and Nintendo should allow early access on their consoles.
“The industry is changing at a very rapid pace and holding on to things that were the norm 5-10 years ago is too restrictive,” Mahler added. “Ultimately, people just want to play great games. It shouldn’t matter how the game was developed, just that it was developed, and if players can’t play some great experience on your platform, you’re doing a disservice to the your audience”.
Meanwhile No Rest for The Wicked has already received the third update which has improved many aspects of the Moon Studios experience.
