Last year we saw the rise of Video game publishers offer a few days of early access to big AAA games at a great price. This year things are only going to get worse as it seems like all the major game publishers are taking games hostage and demanding a ransom from players if they play a few days early. But what happens when you pay $80, $90, $100, or even more for a game and early access to it and you can’t actually play the game? Well, that’s what we see with WB Games and Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
After numerous delays, Rocksteady – the developer behind the Arkham Games – finally launched its next big title (so to speak), Suicide Squad. But different than that Batman Games it has developed before, this new game is a Live service (yes, that’s it) Co-op looter shooter with iconic villains like Harley Quinn. As a result, many Batman fans were disappointed with the game’s reveal, and with each delay, leak, and further delay, things only got worse. Gameplay trailer and preview. And now the game is available to people who paid $100 (plus taxes) for the special edition of the game, a version of the game that offers some additional extras and a significant “perk”: three days of early access. Still, for most of January 29thPlayers were unable to play the game they had spent so much money on.
Technically, players in some time zones who purchased the $100 deluxe edition of the game should be able to start playing Suicide Squad Today. However, that wasn’t the case, due to a bug that caused some players to start the game and find that the entire campaign had already been completed. Oops! In response, Rocksteady shut down the servers and since the game does not have an offline mode (still), which made it unplayable.
Of course, the deluxe edition includes some additional cosmetic items and a free one-time token that you can use to upgrade a battle pass to the premium version. But if you check Twitter and elsewhere, it’s clear that most players bought the fancy version because they wanted to play the game early on. And now they can’t.
Normally I’d say: Hey, games are hard to make and servers are complicated to run, so let’s give everyone some peace while they figure things out. But not this time.
Sorry, but if you view early access to a video game as a premium marketing point – something you advertise endlessly and tout for weeks – then you need to provide that experience. Yes, I know there’s a blurb at the bottom of the store listing that says they can’t guarantee you’ll be able to play for 72 hours of Early Access. I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that WB was happy to acquire all of these players. $100 pre-orders and won’t be able to offer them what they wanted: early access.
And there’s no way to fix that. If the servers are still down for most of tomorrow, players will only get 24 hours of early access at best. WB won’t delay the game by two days for everyone else to ensure that people who paid more can play “earlier.” You’ll just get screwed and maybe learn a lesson: don’t pay those publisher ransom fees to play something early.
They don’t really play “early”
Remember that these games, like Starfield And Mortal Kombat 1, don’t really roll out early for people who pay extra. The game went through all the certifications, testing, audits and other hurdles required to release a game on consoles. This is the only way WB can sell you Suicide Squad in the Xbox Store or PSN. So all of these games are ready for everyone to play (assuming the servers are up and running). The publisher is simply delaying the game for a few days for those unwilling to pay an additional fee on top of the standard $70 price.
I know some people argue that this is a choice. If some people are willing to pay the money, why don’t they allow it? Because we shouldn’t allow corporations to be evil and greedy assholes just because someone out there is willing to say, “Okay, sure, I’ll pay.” Do you think the world is a bad place now? Imagine if companies could do whatever they wanted as long as someone, anyone, was willing to pay.
So yes, I understand. The market supports this. People will pay. Bla bla bla. But hopefully what today has shown is that paying for Early Access is a chump change, especially for online-only titles. You’re paying more for a potentially less stable and more broken version of a game, and the publisher can’t even guarantee that you’ll do that Strictly speaking You can actually play anything you paid for early on.
Hopefully you can. And if not then good luck and enjoy your extra digital hats or whatever I guess. Is this worth $100? I’m not sure.
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