Steam Early Access

[ignition365]

Unreleased (But official) or Official Release?

I suppose the question could be worded as such, if a game has an open beta or open alpha, and you can only get into the open testing by preordering the game (a la The Division), when you are taking part in the open beta, would you count that as owning the released game, or owning the unreleased (but official) game.  I think that would be Unreleased (but official).

But on the other hand with Steam, early access is treated like an official release in the sense that you own the game, I don't believe they make you download a whole new game once it releases, whereas an open beta would have you download a whole new game with the full feature set.

I feel like this is a stupid question.

[desocietas]

Nah, not a stupid question.

If it's an early access item that has not officially launched, i'd say keep it "unreleased (but official)." This would be the case for something like Road Redemption, for instance.  You can still add it to your collection; it won't stop you from doing so. Hell, people preorder physical games and add them to their collection prior to release, so I don't see a difference with digital stuff.

Once the item is released, someone just has to edit the record to "official," but that's it.

Are you asking about free betas, though? I know some games allow you to download the game as a trial version to try out before purchasing the full version.

[ignition365]

Nah, not a stupid question.

If it's an early access item that has not officially launched, i'd say keep it "unreleased (but official)." This would be the case for something like Road Redemption, for instance.  You can still add it to your collection; it won't stop you from doing so. Hell, people preorder physical games and add them to their collection prior to release, so I don't see a difference with digital stuff.

Once the item is released, someone just has to edit the record to "official," but that's it.

Are you asking about free betas, though? I know some games allow you to download the game as a trial version to try out before purchasing the full version.

No, Road Redemption is a perfect example.