While Steam's year-long experiment with selling unfinished games through its "Early Access" program has had its share of issues, it's hard to understate the impact it has had on the way PC games are developed, marketed, and sold, with games like Day Z and Rust becoming best sellers before they're even finished. This hasn't gone unnoticed by console developers or by Sony and Microsoft, both of which have been hinting they might introduce their own "Early Access" style programs for their consoles soon.
In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Sony Publisher and Developer Relations VP Adam Boyes said finding a smart way to give players access to games that aren't finished yet is "one of the massive conversations we have internally." One of the major barriers, he said, is making the development state of the game clear to potential purchasers. "We don't want somebody to stumble across that title and expect a full product, and have a negative experience."
Boyes went on to say that Sony is working out guidelines for just how early a game can be before being offered to PlayStation customers. "We obviously have our tech requirement checklist that people have to adhere to," Boyes said. "So we're internally discussing, what does that list look like? What are the caveats? Stuff like this. So it's still a project that a lot of minds are considering. No details yet, but it's something on the top of my mind every day."
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