Ori and No Rest for the Wicked creative director Thomas Mahler responded to community feedback on Twitter, where he showed great conviction in the decision to release the game in Early Access.
“It’s not even been a week, and it’s already clear that going into Early Access was one of the best decisions we could have made.”
“I see some people are upset about the release of games like Wicked, Hades 2 and the new Larian game in early access, and even say that the studio “should have had the money to complete the game and then release it.” But this is a very simplified view of a complex problem.”
Mahler says games are becoming more complex, meaning there will be more early access. There was no way the studio could release the full version of No Rest for the Wicked without player feedback, “and I'm talking about real players, not test groups.”
Furthermore, he said that even with twice as many employees, the studio would never have been able to release such a complex product without receiving feedback from early access. According to Mahler, other games would benefit from early access:
“Imagine Dark Souls 1 in early access, instead of rushing to release product in the box in unfinished form, they would probably look at the second half of the game and fully shape and polish the less polished areas like Lost Izalith etc.”
Mahler said that no amount of updates or additional content will allow what can be done in Early Access. Even if many people are annoyed by this, they should understand that it is something different and that it will probably become much more popular in the future.
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Cover author: Moon Studios. Cover source: YouTube