Uber and Nordic Games has decided to take a first run at what will likely be a controversial new direction for the industry if others follow suit. They have released Planetary Annihilation, still in Early Access to physical retail. As far as we can tell, this is the first time that an Early Access game is going out to retail.
To be clear, this isn’t like getting a demo or a shareware version of a game. Early Access means the game hasn’t finished going through development yet, at all, and people playing Early Access will be a part of the game’s testing process. Of course, people who buy this version now will get a free upgrade to the full game when that version comes out.
The presumed assumption in gamers backing or paying for an Early Access game is that the developers are expected to eventually finish said game in such a state that it can be justifiably sold at retail for full price. On a conceptual level alone, this raises a lot of question, but Uber is trying hard to quell fears.
Not that Uber director Jon Mavor offers much in way of arguments. Basically, he states that a retail release has really been planned for the game, but it was Nordic that came to them with the idea to bring the game to retail in this early state.
It’s too early to figure out how this will play out, but if it means anything, Nordic trusts in this game enough to release it early, and did what was needed to bring the game to retail, including presumably covering costs for manufacturing and distribution. If nothing else, that has to stand for something. Whether this leads to more projects going this direction has yet to be seen as well.