{"id":82051,"date":"2024-07-17T18:06:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T18:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/17\/video-games-no-longer-have-one-release-date-and-that-sucks\/"},"modified":"2024-07-17T18:06:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T18:06:51","slug":"video-games-no-longer-have-one-release-date-and-that-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/17\/video-games-no-longer-have-one-release-date-and-that-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Games No Longer Have One Release Date And That Sucks"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Last year, a growing trend saw AAA video game publishers offering early access to new games if you pre-ordered a pricey special edition version. I worried then that if some publishers were successful in locking games behind a ransom fee, many others would do the same in the future. And here we are, in 2024, and most upcoming games have multiple release dates now and it all sucks. <\/p>\n

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This Brutal Gothic Metroidvania Is Shaping up To Be Something Special<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While it didn\u2019t technically <\/em>start last year, in 2023 we saw an increase in the number of games offering \u201cearly access\u201d<\/a><\/span> for a price. Mortal Kombat 1, The Crew: Motorfest, Starfield, <\/em>Diablo 4<\/em><\/a><\/span>, and a few others all offered players an option: Pay the standard price to play the game at launch or pay extra to play a few days \u201cearly,\u201d assuming the servers are working properly. <\/p>\n

To me, it all seemed like an obvious ploy by publishers to milk gamers for even more money than they already do via in-app purchases, cosmetics, battle passes, and XP boosters. I hoped that people would realize that all these publishers were doing was holding back a game\u2019s release for a few days just to make some extra money. I hoped that gamers would see this was a scam and that these early access perks were worthless. <\/p>\n

I was apparently wrong. Looking ahead at the rest of 2024, it\u2019s clear that publishers big and small have seen other games making lots of money via early access launches and are following their lead.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of games scheduled to release in 2024 that offer early access via a pricier special edition, how much that version costs, and how early you can play:<\/p>\n