Despite console titles being the assumed home for racing games, PC is actually the system of choice for serious motorsports fans. So what are the best alternatives to Forza Motorsport on the PC? Read on to find out our picks.

Full Bore

Published by Nkidu, Full Bore offers players a gigantic underground world and a fascinating story. We reviewed Full Bore recently and loved the game. Be warned though, you’ll probably spend many hours of your life digging through the world trying to figure out the difficult puzzles.

Commandos 3: Destination Berlin

Younger gamers might not be totally familiar with the Commandos series. Commandos first appeared in 1998 and spawned two sequels, the last of which was published in 2003. Commandos 3 was the first game in the series to feature a true 3d engine.

Multiwinia

Multiwinia was developed by Introversion, the geniuses behind Prison Architect. Multiwinia is best experienced when playing against a few friends in a frenzied dash to destroy the other teams.

Infested Planet

Infested Planet is a top down reverse tower defense style game that is sure to keep you entertained for hours. We reviewed Infested Planet a few months back and found the game to be insanely fun and challenging.

Postal 2

Postal 2 is a follow up to the notoriously controversial Postal, a game that raised a number of eyebrows back in the 1990s. The game’s developer, Running With Scissors, announced at E3 that Postal 2 would receive a brand new expansion 11 years after release.

Corporate Lifestyle Simulator

There’s not much to say about this game other than go to the Steam page and watch the video. Corporate Lifestyle Simulator is insane, and sometimes being insane feels so damn good. Get this if you like to kill stuff.

10,000,000

http://store.steampowered.com/app/227580/

$2.49

10000000 looks simple at first, but the complex and addicting gameplay is hard to resist. You’ll find yourself losing hours of sleep trying to get through the stages to complete objectives.

Chuck’s Challenge 3d

http://store.steampowered.com/app/262590/

$2.49

Our editor Nicole Oquendo reviewed Chuck’s Challege 3d and had an absolute blast with this spiritual successor to Chip’s Challenge. If you are in the mood for some puzzles, Nkidu once again delivers the goods with Chuck’s Challenge 3d.

Cities in Motion 2

http://store.steampowered.com/app/225420/

$9.99

Cities in Motion 2 expands upon the original in nearly every way possible. Featuring revamped graphics and tons of new features, Cities in Motion succeeds in creating an addictive transit management experience that transcends genres. Cities in Motion 2’s DLC packs are also on sale during these last few days of the sale. Consider grabbing a few as they add some fun options to the base game.

Insurgency

FPS fans looking for a realistic take on modern shooters have a lot to be excited about with Insurgency. If things like crosshairs, radar, and damage indicators make you sad, Insurgency is going to make you very happy. Expect a bit of a learning curve as you’ve probably gotten slow in your years of being coddled by other FPS games.

For nearly 20 years, Sony Online Entertainment has been a driving force in the PC gaming landscape. With their industry changing EverQuest series, not to mention their innovative marketing strategies, SOE has been a company many gamers (myself included) grew up with. While some of their games have been less than perfect at launch, there may be no company more dedicated to the long-term support of their products than SOE. For example, development of the original EverQuest has been continuous since 1999 and includes the releases of 20 expansions up to this point.

Although SOE has clearly been a part of the overall Sony family, they’ve also been mostly segregated from Sony’s main gaming strategy as their platform of focus has been PC. Well my friends, by all indications, that might be changing very soon. It’s no secret that SOE is working on a trio of very promising games. EverQuest Next, EverQuest Next Landmark, and H1Z1 are all titles that have PC gamers pretty excited about the near future. Rumors have swirled for years of SOE porting their popular PC games to PlayStation consoles. You may remember SOE even created EverQuest Online Adventures exclusively for the PS2. While SOE does currently have a few titles currently or previously on console, fans have been begging and pleading for years for games like EverQuest and PlanetSide to be ported.

It is our prediction that as part of Sony’s strategy for PS4 we will see an official announcement that all of SOE’s upcoming games will also be released on PS4 as F2P titles. It makes perfect sense that along with the growing collection of free games that come with Playstation Plus, gamers have an additional set of options to choose from that doesn’t change month to month. With 4 major titles all being pushed with a F2P pricing structure, Sony’s PS4 could have an interesting way to diversify itself from the competition.

H1Z1 – A zombie survival horror game that could be set to become a DayZ killer. The size of the playable area is massive in scale, much larger than Chernarus+ in DayZ

EverQuest Next Landmark – With the creation of EverQuest Next going at full speed now, SOE has created a second game based on the land destruction and creation mechanics found in the upcoming MMO. EverQuest Next Landmark offers an intriguing alternative to the massively popular Minecraft. PlayStation 4 could win big with a free and full featured alternative to Minecraft.

EverQuest Next – There’s no denying the fact that EverQuest basically created an entire industry. Without EverQuest we likely would never have seen World of Warcraft (or that excellent South Park episode based on the game). While EverQuest 2 didn’t manage to capture as wide an audience, many former players of the longstanding series are quite excited for the new take on the  MMO that SOE has planned for their reboot of the series.

PlanetSide 2 – The PlanetSide 2 engine has worked as a framework for all 3 of SOE’s upcoming titles. PlanetSide 2 features futuristic battles on a massive scale. Considered by some to be a Battlefield killer, PlanetSide 2 has had a significant post-launch development cycle that has allowed SOE to optimize the engine and game.

With all of the additional services and accessories that go alongside buying a new console, investing in a new console can be pretty expensive. Imagine a world where gamers can buy a PS4 and immediately have free access to games that rival WoW, DayZ, Minecraft, and Battlefield. Alongside Riot, SOE has pioneered and revolutionized the F2P game industry. While many companies live and die by how they market “free”, SOE has thrived on their take on the business model. With millions of gamers on PC already playing their games, Sony has a leg up on the competition because they have a team that knows what works (and what doesn’t). SOE could become a developer known best for their PS4 titles overnight, and Sony themselves could have a major boost in the public relations department by offering even more games with their instant library strategy.

For E3 2014, we’ll hopefully see some interesting things coming from SOE. At the very least PC players have a whole lot to look forward to.

To learn more about all of SOE’s current and upcoming games, visit http://www.soe.com/home

It’s no secret that Steam users are notorious for buying piles of games at steep discount that go unplayed, sometimes forever. In a study by Ars Technica, it was revealed that somewhere around one-third of all games purchased on Steam have been played for less than 6 minutes. It would seem EA is hoping to capitalize on that fact by advertising directly to those among us that are guilty of buying games that we’ll never play.

Back in 2012, in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, EA’s stance for Origin was that game sales “cheapen intellectual property”. It’s clear that EA is starting to see the light as far as sales are concerned for it’s digital distribution platform. Valve is clearly making a bit of profit with their annual and weekly sales, it’s no wonder EA wants a piece of the action. Some of the deals currently featured on Origin are actually pretty good, especially if you’ve previously purchased the EA Humble Bundle and want some Sims 3 expansions for cheap.

While EA makes a wide range of games, there are some significant holes in terms of what games they offer. It’s also worth noting that even on sale, many of their games are still on the higher end of the price spectrum. Origin’s sale features just under 50 games coming in around a $5 average. Steam, by contrast, currently has 656 games that come in under that price.

• Is it a matter of quality over quantity?
• Van EA really hope to succeed without featuring more independent publishers on their service?
• Is EA doomed to forever be the program you have because of Battlefield?
• What, if anything, would make you adopt Origin more in the future?

We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

In a reply to a tweet he received about the acquisition of the Rise of Nations IP, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer acknowledged the need for Microsoft to improve their current gaming status on the PC.

@Daniel_H_UK I agree that MS needs to up our gaming presence on Windows. Part of my XBOX role is to bring back our Windows gaming focus.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 31, 2014

Microsoft has clearly been going through a structural change in recent months, with Satya Nadella stepping in as CEO, Stephen Elop joining as VP of devices and services, and Phil Spencer rising to the head of the Xbox division. With Phil Spencer at the helm of Microsoft’s gaming division, it’s possible that we could finally see some cool stuff coming out for the PC. In a piece we wrote in April of 2014, we explored 10 Microsoft Studios franchises they could revive for the PC. Soon after our article was written, Microsoft announced and released an HD update for Age of Mythology, a game on our list.

With E3 so close, the topics that Mr. Spencer is tweeting about might indicate more about Microsoft’s short-term plans than you might think. By the time a person gets to that level in a corporation, it’s very likely they’ll have handlers assigned to their official social media pages, as well as approved and unapproved topics. It’s almost a given that Microsoft is in some stage of development with a new Age of Empires game. Combine that with sequels to Age of Mythology and Rise of Nations, suddenly Microsoft’s captured a significant portion of the RTS landscape on PC. A cross-platform release of a previously Xbox One exclusive game like Forza or Halo could really change things in a major way.  Of course this is all crazy theory at this point, but hopefully some of the wiser heads at Microsoft are thinking about these PC scenarios as a real possibility.

Microsoft’s current strategy for everything is convergence, even if that means completely screwing up Windows in the process. Windows looks like a smart phone, Xbox One looks like a smart phone, Surface tablets look like a smart phone, smart phones just look like themselves. You probably get the point here. With Microsoft trying to tie all of their devices together in some way, it’s curious how they’ve managed to ignore one of the most widely used functions of their top product. Even with Microsoft moving to become more of a services based company, they still make a huge portion of their profit from selling copies of Windows to OEM PC manufacturers. Gamers moving to Mac is not a huge concern at this point, but with Valve set to unleash their Linux-powered Steam Machines, Microsoft could actually lose a decent amount of their profit over time.

As Daniel Hartshorn clearly demonstrated, for some ungodly reason there’s still PC gamers that are resistant to Steam. While much of Microsoft’s gaming core is currently hunched over on their couch, guzzling Mountain Dew out of the bottle, there’s clearly a portion of that crowd that (given the right push) could also occupy the PC market as well. While we pray each and every day that Lord Gaben will enlighten the console peasants and help them ascend to the glorious PC Gaming Master Race, could it be possible that the potato masters themselves will join the cause? Or rather, could a renewed focus on the PC market actually be a serious attempt to circumvent Steam? If so, could Microsoft be any more successful than Origin or Uplay has to date? While insanely unlikely, some type of collaboration from Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft could actually be a serious competitor to Valve’s platform when it comes to major titles.

At the very least, it looks like we’ll need to wait until E3 to find out what Microsoft has in store for us.

With the news of Google’s impending purchase of Twitch.tv for at least $1 billion, what does that mean for the popular online service for the future of the service? We’ve discussed the topic in length since the rumor broke, and came up with some thoughts and concerns regarding the purchase. Prepare yourself, because our list is pretty gigantic.

YouTube branding is probably inevitable. Many of your peers are probably familiar with Twitch already, a bunch probably even signed up for an account just to play Twitch Plays Pokemon. The truth is though that Twitch has very weak brand recognition with the non-gaming public (as it should). YouTube on the other hand is almost as recognizable as a brand as Google is as a word we use to describe searching the internet. In recent years Google has made huge pushes to converge their products into more unified systems rather than individual services. Twitch is probably going to reasure you that it’s going to stay Twitch, but watch as those “Twitch – Powered by YouTube” logos start to pop up over time. There’s a chance Twitch might just become a feature rolled into YouTube at some point in the future.

Google loves integration and rebranding. Take a look at this list of mergers and acquisitions by Google from 2001 to 2014. Google has a long history of buying companies as a means of bolstering their current stable of products.  For example, Grandcentral was purchased and quickly rebranded as Google Voice. Google’s recent purchases of Waze, Nest, and Timely suggest possible future plans with some seriously crazy home automation technology. It’s no secret that Google is making a major play behind closed doors to be the leader in self driving vehicles and the mapping software that guides them. Imagine a world where your fancy self driving car could integrate with the technology behind Waze, Nest, and Timely to analyze traffic patterns for your upcoming ride to work, adjust your alarm clock to ensure you wake up and arrive on time, and configure the devices in your home to be on or off according to the updated schedule. A purchase of Twitch probably won’t be that futuristic, but it’s silly to think they just bought Twitch to keep it exactly the way it is.

Google has a history of buying companies for patents alone. It’s highly unlikely this is the case for Twitch, at the same time though, Google did buy Motorola strictly for patents and then sell what remained to Lenovo. Surely Twitch has some interesting patents in their portfolio, but YouTube likely has many more. Twitch appears to gain a lot more patent wise in this deal than Google does, score one for Twitch.

Google is an advertising agency. Before anything else Google exists to sell and display ads. Most of their popular services now display some form of advertisements, some of them even comb through your private data to do it better (like Gmail). It’s probably inevitable that Twitch’s current ad network will go away and be replaced with AdWords. It’s also very likely we’ll see more and different types of ads on Twitch.

Buying ad space will be more expensive. Anyone who has worked with AdWords know that ads aren’t cheap. Buying ad space on Google’s network is usually the most expensive of your options, which is why vendors will oftentimes seek out alternative markets such as Bing or Twitch to reach out to consumers. Twitch being integrated with AdWords means an even higher demand and higher price range for ads on the  network. Buying up another ad market just further solidifies Google’s position as the hands down leader in the online ad market.

 Google owns a number of services that could really benefit from Twitch integration. Forget YouTube, think about what you see (and hear) when you watch a Twitch stream. You see somebody playing a game,  you very often see the player via a webcam, and sometimes you also hear the music they are listening to while they play. A Google Play Music Store integration isn’t too far fetched of an idea, nor is some ads displaying for vendors that sell the current game being Streamed. You’re watching somebody play Battlefield 5 while listening to some dubstep? Here are some links below to buy Battlefield 5 at Gamestop, or you can buy and download that song straight to your Android phone, oh and also here is a link to Amazon where you can buy the webcam that streamer is using.

Streaming is going to get easier. Here’s something to be excited about, Google employs a lot of really good engineers. Anyone who has tried to configure Twitch streaming has probably also found out how difficult it can be. Depending on the software you use, getting your PC to play nice with Twitch can be a frustrating experience. The inevitable code changes will likely also bring new features and lower the technical skill needed to make it all work for Streamers.

Google owns an ISP. Google Fiber, however limited in its availability, could eventually make some serious waves in the U.S. broadband market. Twitch is set to gain a lot from having access to Google’s network infrastructure. Likewise, Google also gains additional leverage against paying fees to other service providers like Comcast to ensure reliable data delivery to the end user. Google can now more than ever just say “screw you” to ISPs looking to milk big businesses (like Netflix) for extra cash. Twitch is now also protected by an insanely powerful company with lobbyists and lawyers that can prevent that sort of bullying by ISPs. The FCC might destroy the entire internet with this net neutrality business though, so it’s all up in the air at this point.

Don’t get banned from AdSense if you want to stream!  Anyone whose ever done something less than honest when it comes to Google’s business divisions knows that Google never forgives and it never forgets. If you’ve ever been a victim of (or conspired to commit) click fraud you’ll know that Google doesn’t take that lightly at all. You’ll get your Adsense account banned for life, though you’ll still have access to the rest of Google’s services. YouTubers that try to monetize too many copyrighted can lose access to AdSense forever too. There’s probably at least a few professional Twitch streamers that are banned from AdSense, those people are out of a job if Twitch adopts AdSense and AdWords.

In fact, just don’t do anything to anger Google ever. Because of how many services Google offers it’s very likely that you’ll eventually have an account with them. Getting banned from one of their services follows you for the rest of your life essentially. It’s highly unlikely, but doing something bad enough to get you a global Google network ban would also result in you losing access to a lot of stuff on your Android phone. The moral here is don’t do anything bad on Twitch because you could lose a more than just your ability to chat on Twitch.

Google+ could change everything. Google owns a number of services that aren’t highly utilized. Google Hangouts (replacing Talk) and Google+ could revolutionize the way we watch and interact with Twitch streams. Though rumors of a step back from Google+ is already underway, an integration with Twitch could transform Google+ into the largest gaming social network in the world. Additionally, Google Hangouts and some type of Android tie-in could really revolutionize the entire game streaming industry.

AdSense is not without controversy. Many of the most popular Twitch streamers make a living off what they do, but there’s also a much larger section of streamers that just use it to make some extra cash. Google is taking a lot of heat lately for the insider leak that claims Google has been stiffing AdSense members for many years, even going as far as to ban them right before payout time to pocket the money. In fact, at least one lawsuit has been filed and it’s a safe bet to expect a class action lawsuit to be forthcoming. If true, that sort of stuff is very bad news for Twitch streamers that earn a bit of cash doing what they do.

YouTube users are complete assholes and could destroy Twitch. YouTube probably has among the worst users among any major internet service, save for maybe the comments section of any national news outlet. Due largely in part to YouTube’s policies of the past allowing nicknames instead of real names, the comments for just about any video ever is horrible, cruel, and just completely foul. Connecting YouTube to Twitch could just spread the disease further and make streaming a game live a pretty terrible experience for the streamer and viewers.

Twitch benefits from and is hurt by Google’s security. Google has among the best automated and optional security systems in the world. If your Gmail gets hacked from China they usually catch it before too much damage is done, 2-step authentication is (almost) seamlessly integrated in the entire Google portfolio. As Spiderman says, “with great power comes great responsibility”. If your Twitch account gets hacked now you might lose your Twitch account, if your Twitch account gets hacked once the merger happens you could lose everything. It’s important to remember to change those passwords and setup 2-step authentication, but those tips could also apply to the entire internet.

You may not want to connect your Twitch account with Google Apps for Education and Business accounts. If you’re a college student or somebody that works in a large corporation you may already be familiar with Google Apps for Education and Business. Google sells its services to businesses and universities to use for their networks. Your university or employer may issue you an account, yourname@yourschool.edu for example,  that works like a regular Google account and functions exactly like Gmail does. Losing access (getting expelled or fired) to these accounts is probably bad news in general, but it would also likely mean losing the Twitch account that’s tied to it.

Music copyrights are going to be crazy on Twitch now. Record a video of you dancing to a popular song, upload it to YouTube and see if you can monetize the video. Chances are Google’s automated systems are going to flag it for a copyright violation before it’s even live. Twitch is still largely the copyright wild wild west, but a merger with YouTube might also bring some very strict copyright rules along with it. It’s not crazy to envision music streaming being tied to a mandatory Google Play Music integrated system.

Google could help e-sports in a major way. YouTube is a seriously legitimate brand, they even teamed up with CNN for the U.S. presidential debates in 2012. Twitch and YouTube have been very instrumental in the rising popularity of e-sports as well. Both services teaming up could really push the whole industry to a new level. YouTube has some partnerships with the big cable networks already, it’s possible they could work out a deal to get some games on national television.

Twitch Plays could be crazy with Android integration. Google’s already has Ingress in their stable of products. They’ve also created ROLL IT, a web game that you play using an Android phone as the controller. Google isn’t opposed to creating unique games with the cool technology they make. With Google in control of so much cool tech that also happens to already be in the hands of a billion people worldwide, Twitch Plays Pokemon type games could utilize some pretty crazy features if you built an app for Android.

Google did us a huge favor, things could be way worse. After reading all of these concerns it’s easy to say we completely hate the idea of Google buying Twitch. The truth is there’s probably not other company on the planet that has more potential to take Twitch to the next level. The last thing we need is for a company like Microsoft (who was also bidding for Twitch) or Facebook to gobble up Twitch and use it as a weapon to screw over their competitors. Google probably has the least desire to be completely evil with this acquisition, and it also means Twitch in some form or another will probably live on for a very long time to come.

A quick look at the publishing history of Microsoft Studios reveals a drastic decline in first party titles being developed and released by the developer. With the original XBox being released in 2001, it’s not a huge stretch to imagine where Microsoft’s gaming focus went. It’s quite sad really when you look at the caliber of titles that Microsoft has produced for PC in the past. Popular, even genre defining, first party titles have been produced by Microsoft in years past.

The PC game publishing history of Microsoft is quite vast. On top of making great games, Microsoft’s dedication to PC gaming in the past has been a driving force behind many technologies such as dual-monitors, cloud support, and of course DirectX itself. We’ve put together a wishlist of our top 10 games that we’d love to see Microsoft bring back from the dead, or at the very least port to the PC.

Not all of these will be PC titles, all of them are first party titles published by Microsoft Studios though. We specifically tried to look for titles that would fit well with current PC game trends and also could be considered dead.

Why should PC gamers be upset about all this? Forza 5 is not coming to PC. Why port a console exclusive game to PC that you’ll never release to the public? The Forza 5 DirectX 12 demo is  just another in a long line of Microsoft’s recent blunders. It really makes you wonder why on earth they would show how possible this is while at the same time denying fans the chance to play it.

There’s a big reason racing games tend to debut around the same time as the console launches, racing games are console sellers. Gran Turismo is largely responsible for Sony’s success with PS2 and PS3. The GT series is so influential in fact that it was credited with bringing the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution to the United States. The Forza Motorsport series as well is a huge console seller for Microsoft. While it’s pretty clear that Microsoft has a working copy of Forza 5 ported to PC it may just be a fancied up tech demo and not the full game itself. A quick check at the sales charts for the Xbox One suggest Forza 5 is Microsoft’s 3rd best selling game (at time of writing). It’s also important to note that Forza 5 is the only next-gen racing simulator available on either the PS4 or Xbox One. Microsoft has sent a clear message that if you are a racing sim fan you need to buy an Xbox One.

Obviously Microsoft stands to lose more than they gain by porting a popular console exclusive to PC. The more you think about it the more it just sounds insane. Why on earth would Microsoft port Forza 5 to PC just to show off that they can? It just comes across like a big kick in the teeth for fans of the series that won’t be buying an Xbox One. Microsoft has earned a lot of mistrust in the eyes of gamers in the past year. This stunt at GDC should serve as an example to other developers of how to create bad blood with people who weren’t likely to be your customer. You don’t see Apple showing off how easily their iPhone could run the more powerful Android OS. Square Enix went to great lengths to show fans what a Final Fantasy VII port for PS3 would look like. The end result was fan disappointment when the port never materialized. Microsoft should have never shown off Forza 5 on PC. Fans know now that it’s a thing that could happen easily, and we want what we can never have.

Shame on you Microsoft for teasing me with the game that I want to play but never will because the entrance fee is just too steep to justify for one game.

If you’ve given up on that dream of playing a Turn 10 game on PC, you can grab a copy of Forza Motorsport 5 for Xbox One on Amazon.com.

A quick look at Steam reveals a total of 93 games currently available on Early Access. A number of these games are highly anticipated, and almost all of them are selling for full price. Sure there are a select few running sales like Epigenesis which recently ran a free weekend, or Paranautical Activity which was included in a weekly Humble Bundle. For the most part these 93 developers are successfully funding further development through crowd sourced investing that directly equates to sales and doesn’t require them to spend time or money fulfilling Kickstarter rewards.

Talk to almost anyone with a  successful Kickstarter campaign and they will confirm that the worst part about Kickstarter is how much it costs in time and resources to handle reward tiers. There’s really no great solution to the problem either. Kickstarter backers are becoming increasingly demanding about what rewards they get. Take Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s Kickstarter as an example,  they actually had to revamp the rewards and even make a graphic outlining more clearly what exactly you get for backing the game. Going by the number of backers thus far they’d need around 6000 backers to successfully fund the game, at which point somebody has to sit down and figure out what 6000 individual people get. Asking strangers for $10,000+ dollars isn’t easy, especially for theoretical video games. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has gone as far as to promise them lots of stuff including paid flights from anywhere in the US, Brad McQuaid taking time to sit for a phone chat, and dedicating time for multiple staff members to create unique in-game content for especially generous backers.

When it comes right down to it Kickstarter for games is just plain crazy. Sure maybe there are a few notable success stories, but for the most part Kickstarter just makes a lot more sense when dealing with physical products and limited reward tiers. When you’ve got to fly somebody around with the money they paid you, and invest possibly hundreds of man hours of development time to fulfill the rewards for just a single investor you’ve got a serious logistics problem that isn’t going to be fun solving.

Steam Early Access on the other hand throws all of those headaches away. The only downfall is that you need to have a (somewhat) playable game to release to the public. If you can get your game to Alpha stage you’re ready to sell on Steam and call it Early Access. People who buy your game on Early Access have a vested interest in the continued development of the game and will generally monitor your dev blogs, watch for and try out new updates, and tend to just be more engaged community members for your game. Let’s not forget the best part, you don’t have to offer steep discounts on Steam.  Players have to pay full price for the opportunity to try the game. Forget reward tiers, forget flying people around the country and mailing thousands of trinkets. Players are begging you to just take their money right now and let them Alpha test your game.

Steam Early Access is not without risks though. As Ashe’s Cricket 2013 showed us late last year, some games are just not ready for the critical eyes of Steam users. While many of the Early Access games are somewhat polished and playable, others are simply not. It’s entirely possible to kill a game’s chances at success by releasing too crude of a playable Alpha. Even if the final version of a game is fantastic a developer runs the risk of scaring off the buying public due to poor initial impressions. The other threat developers face is losing their players interest too early. Introversion’s Prison Architect has been a smash success on Steam Early access. It’s arguable their continued popularity post Early Access launch is due in large part to their dependable update schedule which sees a new content updates every month or so. Developers that release too little content could see their player base lose interest and simply not return to see what the finished product is like months down the road.

It’s important to think of the long term future for Steam’s programs such as Greenlight and Early Access. Much like Greenlight is turning out, can there simply be too many Early Access games? Will Sony or Microsoft take note of Early Access and release a similar feature for consoles? How soon until AAA developers get on board and start flooding the market with alpha builds of big budget titles? These are important questions to consider that don’t have immediate answers.

Valve has consistently been a force for change in the gaming industry, and Early Access may be the next big thing. It’s possible we are in the beginning of a revolution in the way games are released to the public. Only time will tell for sure, but either way it’s going to be one hell of a ride.