#Alpha console backers are now S.O.L. why, exactly?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

versed aurora
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I've been playing the game since Alpha came out. Haven't played in the past week or two so I was excited to fire up and check out all the new shiny stuff for Early Access. Come to find out I'm locked out for 6 months or more simply because I want to play on my Switch?? I thought the whole point of being an early backer and paying the extra money was to get to play the game, rough as it was, until it was finally released in full, including on consoles. Why on Earth are only backers who selected Steam keys allowed in during Early Access?? Surely there is a killswitch option to disable certain keys once console access is finally released. The fact that choosing Switch meant I would be locked out of the game for half a year or more was never adequately explained when I backed the campaign and I'm really confused and upset. I sincerely hope the devs walk back this decision and open the game back up to everyone who PAID to access it during this time because this feels grimy AND utterly unnecessary.

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Alpha console backers are now S.O.L. why, exactly?

stone lynx
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Are Early Access games even allowed on the Switch? I was under the impression they only allowed Demos and completed games.

runic isle
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I don't think the suggestion is to play early access on the switch (probably not possible because of the development timeline) but rather about some option to continue playing on pc until console is possible - like special early access keys for PC which are disabled when the console keys are released?

stone lynx
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Ahhh, okay. I misunderstood, sorry.

versed aurora
topaz rose
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  1. this is strange to me as I purchased both steam and switch keys as it seemed pretty well communicated that unless I did so I wouldn't be able to play until full release as the early access portion would only be on steam?

  2. you got an early bird price for the game. On full release, the price will go up. What you paid for was an extended pre-order essentially, I guess.

tender igloo
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if you look into the faqs on kickstarter you can see that console release would probably be at least 6 months after the pc ea release

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also the dev and community managment team have been telling this to all backers for the past two months here on discord to anyone that asked and that is why some people switched their initial order when this issue arised before the ea release

near bloom
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While I don't imagine it's a satisfactory answer, there are two main factors here:

  • Stairway is developing one game, not four. One game, that must be functional on one platform, before they can promise it for the other three. It's not as simple as pressing a button or writing one line of code. Dividing their focus to make four games, not one, will only slow their progress down, and by a not insignificant margin.

  • There were things that Stairway, admittedly, did not know back when they made their initial kickstarter campaign. All three console platforms told Stairway, after their campaign had concluded, that they would not be able to offer or provide early access on their platforms.

runic isle
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Yeah, but they aren't asking for early access on consoles but for being able to play the EA on the PC until the console releases (and then getting the key deactivated like for the alpha). If that's technically possible via steam, I think it would be fairer than locking the console players out completely? Just like the alpha keys for PC which console players got too, afaik.

(I don't own consoles, so the issue doesn't concern me, but I understand the frustration - maybe i overread it, but I haven't read "if you get the alpha key too, you can play the alpha, but afterwards not the EA until the game releases" for console players on the kickstarter page)