Most devs don’t really want to go Early Access, says the creator of the RTS hit Tempest Rising. Yet Broken Arrow shows why EA is sometimes a better choice

2025 is shaping up to be the best year RTS fans have seen in a long time. A genre many thought was long forgotten feels like it’s finally getting back on its feet, and Tempest Rising really kicked things off. Next came Broken Arrow, but its start wasn’t perfect. The devs went straight for a full release, but with some single-player content missing and the game feeling unfinished, many people saw it as a title that should have launched in Early Access. In a recent interview, Tempest Rising creator Frederik Schreiber noted that most devs don’t actually want to release their games in Early Access in the first place.

Early Access or full release? Broken Arrow shows it’s a tough call

Broken Arrow pulled in around 31,000 players during its Advanced Access launch, just a few days before the full release. Multiplayer was working well and got some praise, but the single-player side was underwhelming. The 19-mission campaign felt disappointing, with some missions even failing to load. Plus, the promised 1v1 and 2v2 skirmish modes vs AI weren’t ready at launch.

Source: Steam

Players called the release “unfinished,” so the devs quickly added the missing content and promised to keep improving the solo mode. Multiplayer has also struggled with cheaters, a problem that’s still around. Steam reviews are currently mixed, with recent ratings leaning mostly negative. For many, the game just feels rushed, but these are issues that might’ve been more forgivable if it had launched in Early Access.

In a recent Hot Seat episode with Felix af Ekenstam, Frederik Schreiber, director of Tempest Rising, talked about Early Access (starting around 28:02). To no one’s surprise, he says it’s usually a financial decision, and for service-based games, it can even be necessary.

Schreiber also pointed out that most devs who go through Early Access actually wish they had enough funding to skip it. He prefers using open betas or closed playtests to get feedback, instead of risking negative reviews on an unfinished game. He also warns that bad reviews during Early Access can end up hurting the full release.

Looking at Broken Arrow, though, things might’ve played out differently if the devs had gone the Early Access route instead of launching fully with missing content if they didn’t want to delay it again. Not everyone is quick to leave a good review for an EA game with lots of issues, but at least the Early Access label gives players some understanding that the game isn’t finished yet.

A look at Steam Early Access over the years

Steam introduced the Early Access program back in March 2013, with games like DayZ among the first to join. That one ended up staying in Early Access for about 5 years, and back then players weren’t that keen with the system, seeing it as being somewhat abused.

Source: DayZ; Developer: Bohemia Interactive

In the following years, more indie studios started using Early Access to fund smaller projects. Steam also introduced clearer guidelines so devs had to be upfront about their game’s status and what content players could expect.

By 2016–2017, the number of Early Access games had really surged, but that brought some quality issues. Many games were abandoned mid-development, and the program faced a lot of criticism. It wasn’t until 2018 that Valve added official “Early Access” tags with clearer release info, requiring developers to communicate the game’s current state, planned features, and expected launch timeline.

By 2020, Early Access had become a standard option for indie and smaller studios, but even bigger titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 showed how it could be used effectively by larger developers.

Since then, Early Access has continued to grow. Here’s a rough breakdown of new Early Access games on Steam over the past few years:

1. 2020: Approximately 1,169 Early Access games.
2. 2021: Around 1,314 Early Access games.
3. 2022: About 1,453 Early Access games.
4. 2023: Approximately 1,635 Early Access games.
5. 2024: Around 2,231 Early Access games.
6. 2025: Approximately 1,983 Early Access games released (and that’s just through the end of September!).

Early Access is still a key way for devs to get funding and feedback, but it also means some games end up sitting in EA much longer than anyone expected. Studios often promise a short stint of up to a year before full launch, but in reality, it’s more like 2–5 years, especially for sandbox games like RimWorld (4 years) or Factorio (2.5 years). Then there’s Timberborn, which launched in Early Access in 2021 and still has no official full release date. Even with regular big updates, fans (myself included) are getting pretty restless for the full launch. A similar case is Stoneshard (2020), which many players at one point believed had been abandoned.

Source: Timberborn; Developer: Mechanistry

At the end of the day, Early Access is a double-edged sword. It can give developers the resources and player feedback they need to make a game truly shine, but it also puts them under a microscope where unfinished content and bugs are instantly judged. For players, it can be exciting to get in early and watch a game evolve, but it also comes with patience — and sometimes frustration. As Broken Arrow showed, whether developers choose Early Access or a full launch, striking the right balance between readiness and community engagement is still a tricky challenge.

Broken Arrow

June 19, 2025

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• Overview

• strategy games
• Early Access