Steam Early Access has allowed some of the best video games of the last decade to receive the funding and interest they needed early on, helping the final product continue to develop over a longer period of time. It is a great way for developers to get their game on players' radar early, and many players are more than happy to test an earlier version of a title they were going to buy anyway.
However, not every Early Access game manages to make it to a full 1.0 launch, with many struggling to find the support they need or having too many problems that simply can't be fixed. Many games, like The Culling, show that even if a developer manages to make it to a full launch, there are no guarantees of success. But for these games, they never even made it that far.
Godus
An Experiment That Ended Poorly
- Marketed as a true "God game" spearheaded by the hype around Curiosity – What's Inside the Cube?
- Long-term development promises and updates.
- Declines due to stalled updates and a lack of developer communication.
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Godus came with enormous expectations, promising a reinvention of the god-game genre with evolving civilizations, player-driven outcomes, and ongoing updates shaped by community input. The Early Access phase brought in some strong initial momentum, which was aided primarily by the Curiosityproject, and the game was shaping up to be a long-term success story.
However, development quickly stalled as promised features failed to materialize and communication grew increasingly sparse. Major systems remained unfinished, and promised content never arrived, leading many to leave the game behind. Later on, the development team moved on to other projects, including a spin-off, but eventually, contracts and support ran out, which left the game as a cautionary tale rather than a triumph.
Fault: Elder Orb
Attempting To Revive A Fan-Favourite MOBA
- A Paragon-inspired MOBA using open-source assets.
- Emphasis on heroes and competitive integrity.
- Smaller playerbase made it hard to support long-term.
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Fault: Elder Orb entered early access as a spiritual successor toParagon, aiming to revive the third-person MOBA genre with updated visuals and refined mechanics. For fans of the genre, it delivered a familiar but modernized experience, offering heroes that felt well-designed, and it looked to be carving out a comfortable niche in an otherwise hotly contested space.
The project eventually faltered due to its small player base and an increasingly challenging multiplayer ecosystem. Matches became difficult to find thanks to a lower overall player count, and without substantial community engagement, the game slowed to a halt and faded into obscurity.
The Day Before
Misleading Players From The Start
- Large-scale MMO with both PvP and PvE elements.
- Generated hype through cinematic trailers and ambitious design.
- Delivered a poorly polished final product that didn't reflect the promises.
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The Day Before was marketed as a polished open-world survival MMO, combining elements ofThe Division and The Last of Us into a supposed blockbuster experience. Promotional material showcased an ambitious world filled with detailed environments and tense gunfights, all bolstered by a solid multiplayer core that earned it a lot of attention well before the game was set to launch.
Everything unraveled once players finally got their hands on it. The game was virtually unrecognizable when it was released into Early Access. The actual product was far more bare bones and broken than the trailers had shown, forcing many to accuse the developers of misleading players. Ultimately, the game was pulled from Steam shortly after its release due to the rampant backlash.
Worlds Adrift
Player-Driven Worlds With Not Enough Players
- An MMO influenced heavily by player actions.
- Unique floating island setting that could be navigated with airships.
- High server costs and low player count led to its decline.
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Worlds Adrift offered a unique vision of a physics-driven MMO where players could build skyships and explore a magical world set entirely in the skies. A lot of the game's tools and mechanics encouraged an organic way of exploring, and the unique world design drew in a lot of players, which helped garner some early attention.
However, its ambition couldn't outweigh the realty. The game's infrastructure required massive server resources, making long-term maintenance increasingly expensive. Paired with a slow content rollout and a relatively small player base, the game simply couldn’t sustain the financial demands of its design, and despite a loving fanbase, the project fell flat before it could really fly.
Radical Heights
Gone Before It Could Truly Blossom
- A battle royale with an 80s neon aesthetic.
- Aimed to release weekly updates and integrate with Twitch features.
- Launched in a saturated market with unfinished mechanics.
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Radical Heights arrived at the height of the battle royale craze, aiming to capture players with a bold neon aesthetic and frantic, arcade-style gunplay. Its world was small but chaotic, filled with fast movement mechanics, and the developers hoped to keep players engaged with weekly updates and a clear line of communication between themselves and the community.
Though an exciting concept, those constant updates proved too good to be true, and the promises could never quite be fulfilled. Many core features also remained incomplete, and as a result, the player base dwindled rapidly. Eventually, the developers shut down and effectively abandoned the game and any further development.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
