I wouldn’t hold my breath. Right now, it’s “fixed” enough to keep new players buying the game engaged enough for 2 hours so they can’t refund the game on Steam. I wouldn’t rule out perhaps a small hot fix or a patch for PS4 to get it back up again, but I wouldn’t be counting on seeing anything until the next major patch at the end of June.
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I can’t comment on the way the devs communicate what they’re working on, I don’t know what they’re planning.
I do know that they are constantly taking feedback from the forums and discussing ways to implement improvements. If you feel like they don’t communicate enough, I’m sorry for that. I know that can feel like they’re ignoring you, but they’re not.
So much whining. If they did put “Early Access” on the cover, what would that do for you? Would it fix the bugs? Would it make you a better player? Get you a refund or discount?
“Early Access” by definition means pre-launch, you know, before the official launch. We are already past that. You can’t make it pre-launch post-launch.
Yes, the game has issues. Most new releases do. Most new games get patched over and over as the Devs become aware of problems that they didn’t catch in beta, or because a patch fixed two things and broke three others. It happens… a lot.
Some companies get the game out without a ton of issues. Others, not so much. That’s where Forum Feedback and Reviews come in. A) to inform the Devs of problems, and B) alert potential buyers that the game has problems.
Asking to relabel a game solves nothing.
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Look at it from this perspective. I saw the game on a shelf three days ago and thought, “oh, I remember this trailer, this looks good.” I’m not some early backer, not some passionate crowdfunding community member, just somebody who crossed paths with the game box and thought “ok, it’s out, I’ll give it a try.”
I’ve been able to play it basically once in those three days because I bought it for PS4.
Putting “Early Access” on the cover would have prevented someone like me from buying it until it was actually a finished (or working) product.
Something that does not work is typically called “defective.” Defective products are labeled as such. Otherwise it’s simply dishonest to the consumer - that applies to any product sold in any market.
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Uhh, if it said early access maybe I would’ve held off a while, like I’m sure many others might have. Seeing how so many games are just getting released with the Early Access title on it, more just as an excuse for the game not to be finished. And I know tons of people who are quite sick of early access games, as that’s basically what it is, and excuse. “Here’s your game you’ve wanted, but it’s not done yet and most likely buggy as hell and we’ll fix it over the next several months”. I would read into the game more, cause I remember PUBGS early access, and the game was near unplayable for the first several months. Then again, they pushed updates weekly… so now there’s a lot of people who saw the game, like this reply above mine, and I’m the same way. I watch some reviews but mostly gameplay and people tend not to show the really bad parts. I mean, a lot did for this game, but it was all mostly how repetitive and boring it is, running through the same houses, and I thought that it didn’t seem that bad compared to the gameplay. So now I, and many others alike, see this game, advertised as a finished game, full release, and then end up with a damn near unplayable game, not knowing what I was buying at first in terms of how much work still needed to be done to it, and now these guys have boat loads of unhappy customers, which may not have been the case had we known it was still in Early Access… THAT is what putting Early Access on the game would’ve done.
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If I bought a jar labeled pickles and it was full of cucumbers, yes I would like them to fix the label or refund me for the product that they’re selling. What it solves? Truth for all the future potential buyers. There is a grey area for releasing games with bugs. What’s acceptable and what’s not. The state of this game? Clearly wasn’t ready for full launch. They should be held responsible and forced to label their game as early access. Period. If a developer doesn’t want to warn people that a game is a work in progress and that you may experience more technical problems than usual, then shame on them.
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Early Access is not just a “label” that can be changed quickly, you’ll have to forget about that idea as it will never happen. You’re unhappy with the game, the devs are working on making you happy. That there are no refunds is not their fault, and the things that ARE their fault, they are working on fixing
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Let me put this a bit differently with an example:
The fact that save files can get irreversibly corrupted has been known since at least late March (earliest forum post I can find relating to this is from March 30). We’ve just now gotten backup save file functionality, almost two months later. Even if it didn’t have the ability to automatically load the backup, that should have gone out as a hotfix within 24 hours of the devs confirming that it was possible for save files to get corrupted, irreversibly or not, together with instructions on how to use it to recover if you ran into corruption.
Yes, the community is probably being a bit harsh here. I’m guilty of it myself. That said, as I mentioned, I too am a developer, and I really do understand that big issues take a long time to fix. Despite that, I find it hard to believe that they have enough team members to not only keep working on the honestly ridiculous number of existing issues and still make all these QoL fixes that few, if any, players actually care about. I will admit that the most recent update’s change-log does indeed look more promising than the previous one, but it’s still got a lot of stuff that seems to be more focused on making the game look nice and have a ridiculous level of difficulty than things that are actually keeping people from playing right now.
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Myself and probably most of the community greatly appreciate Avalanche putting their heart and souls into fixing this game. That goes a long way. I would love to see them succeed. However, doesn’t change the fact that someone (individual or group) chose to release GZ before it was ready. Which is ok to do …but with clarification with the consumer on what they’re purchasing. That is why there is so much backlash. Yes, people are unhappy. They have every right to be when this game is basically in its beta stage and the devs are pretending it’s not. Addressing known issues and fixing them is a step in the right direction, but not a proper apology to the players.
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@D8_ASI well I really hope all these examples have made it clear for you as to what putting early access on the game would’ve done.
@SR_Carni and as for it not being easy to put Early Access on the game, I ask why? They could just keep the normal cover art, shrink it down about a 1/2 inch on the top, and throw up an Early Access logo right on the top. At least, this would work for digital copies, and not so much for hard copies. Game art can be changed throughout the development, again I reference PUBG, when it was in early access and I had the digital copy, it switched completely upon the day of its full release. And if it’s going to take them months, maybe even a year to get this game running properly, I’d say it really shouldn’t be out of the picture, if they want anyone to buy the game in the future. There still will be those who only see the developer made trailer and go and buy it, but then I’m sure they’ll get just as disappointed as most of us are, and want a refund.
@SnowyDaze You don’t seem to understand what I’m saying. You can’t just change your cover to say “Early Access” on a released game. Early Access is a state of development before release where developers decide to let players in before release. You’re trying to shove a newly born baby back into the womb because you’re not satisfied with the way its face looks (sorry for the graphic metaphor). It’s just not possible and we’re gonna have to deal with it now.
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@SR_Carni I think a better way to make your point here would be to mention that at least Steam (and I’m pretty sure the XBOX and PS4 storefronts too) does not allow you to do this. It’s perfectly possible after a release for the developers to say ‘Oh ****! We screwed up and this really should be relabeled as a beta!’, it’s just that it almost never happens, and the storefronts simply don’t support it for that reason (and because of the possibility of deceptive marketing) as a result.
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I got the game about a month ago but glad I read the website before starting. From reading the dev updates I realised immediately this was probably a stealth early access game, I’m glad I noticed this and waited until the May update before getting started. There’s definitely room for improvement still, but at least the devs care and are listening to community feedback 
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