So Many Early Access Survival Games

I don’t know which game got the ball rolling on the whole survival game genre (I actually think it was DayZ), but it seems like every single one of these games launches to enormous fanfare and success on Steam. When Tree of Life launched on Steam into early access, the game garnered some 100k+ sales in the first week alone! It quickly jumped onto the most active games list by concurrent users and continues to perform well. I have nothing against Tree of Life, and actually think it’s one of the better survival games, but it’s just crazy how popular the genre has become. Unfinished games like H1Z1 and Rust launched into Early Access and BOTH cost money to play, but both are rocking the top most played games list on Steam. The funny thing is, H1Z1 is supposed to be “free to play” but during early access it costs $20 to purchase. What a weird world we live in – it costs money to beta test an unfinished game, but when the game launches, it’s supposed to be free to play. What does closed beta mean anymore if we have to pay to test the game? Has the world gone completely bonkers?

Rust Gameplay Screenshot

Aside from H1Z1 and Rust (both of which are still Early Access), another rather popular survival game launched (into early access of course, because launching as a finished product is apparently too much to ask for) called Ark: Survival Evolved. I’m not sure what the big deal is with Ark, because it just seems like another generic survival game, except with dinosaurs. I guess launching the game around the time Jurassic: World came out was a great marketing decision, because Ark: Survival Evolved is selling extremely well on Steam. It’s just weird to see all these early access games charging money. I can see why Unturned is free on Steam. It’s a survival game (a popular one) in Early Access, but they don’t charge any money. It just seems dishonest to charge money for an unfinished game, especially one like H1Z1 that plans on going free to play at launch anyway.

Unturned Gameplay Screenshot

Lego Worlds is yet another early access game on steam that’s rocking it, but this one isn’t a survival game. It’s a building game similar to Minecraft. The only buy to play games worth buying in my opinion are finished non early access products. I recently bought Natural Selection 2 and I absolutely love it. Can’t believe I haven’t heard about it before. Well worth the $20 or so it costs (it can be had for much less if you’re patient and look for it on a humble bundle package). Chivalry is another game well worth the purchase. If you missed it on the Steam Summer Sale, definitely keep an eye out for it on sale because it’s well worth the purchase. I’ve been playing it for hours one end. I’m looking forward to trying a lot of these hyped up survival games, but I’d rather wait for them to get out of buggy early access and launch as complete products before paying for them. But that’s just me.