Note: This topic is not about Early Access games on Steam, but about the recent (?) trend of games offering a few days "early access" as a bonus perk of sorts.

I'm not sure when this trend started, but we've seen a lot of games this year (Hogwarts, Diablo IV, Starfield, MWIII, maybe more) that include a few days "early access" as a bonus for buying premium editions or in some cases for pre-purchasing  and I've seen suprisingly little discussion about this practice, which basicly seems to say "we could just release the game earlier, but we'd rather make more money". To be fair, it's not exactly likely to affect me personally as I very rarely buy games at release anyways, but it does seem to me to be another in a long line of questionable ways to make even more money of AAA games.

It's framed as this nice bonus perk to be able to play "early", but really it just means the game is ready to be released, but they're locking it for a few days to only those who are willing to pay extra (in the cases were it's included in a deluxe/premium edition). In those cases it's kinda like selling early cinema tickets for a movie at a higher price. In the cases where it's a pre-purchase bonus, well, that is less scummy I guess, but also more pointless, because then it's definitely just a matter of marketing speak trying to make it sound like a big deal that you get to play the game "early" when really anybody that bought it can already play it. The only real difference is that it might only be available for digital pre-purchases, which again would be a way to make more money, by making physical copies less appealing (since really it's not that those digital pre-purchasers get the game early, it's that everyone else gets it late).

But well that's just my take on it, what are your thoughts on the topic?

I've always seen it for what it is: a ploy to get you to lock your money in as soon as possible. Similar to DLC, that's really all it is.

It's smart from a business perspective if it's legally ok. Tho I admit it's not something I like to see, and wouldn't blame people hating it. It goes into that discussion of legally correct, morally incorrect. It's a balance, a business is about making morally wrong decisions as much as possible for benefits. But yeah, all of this is to shift to the all digital future, which again, benefits these companies. Tho I would say the reason why many people don't enjoy games as much anymore is because they are adults now and understands how the world functions. Games used to be a way to escape from reality, but nowadays it's associated with real life more than ever. You need real money to get something or progress in-game. Games felt special because you were thrown into a world with other people at the exact same time. So then, all of your knowledge and skills resets and everybody tries to achieve the same goal from scratch. Nowadays, we have the internet for the best solutions and games have been stuck in a rut for a decade now. Modern games requires grinding, and spending time or money to get the advantage. So the problem with early access? Nothing, content creators gets them anyways. But these decisions does further damages the worth of gaming imo. 

Nah, IMO it's the best pre-order bonus possible. It doesn't lock away any content or anything, just lets you play early be pre-ordering.

Physical games used to work the same. I knew if I pre-ordered 9/10 I'd get the game at least 1 day early, sometimes 2 days. Because of that I'd always pre-order games I wanted from that retailer. I'm surprised it's taken digital games so long to catch up.

Ah, you mean this practice. Yeah, it is kinda stupid, if your game is release ready, then it can be released. That is different to classic early access, which is basically being part of the beta. This helps to get funding for a game in development abd gives much broader feedback way earlier. So that is good for indies. These few days for AAA games, it is pointless. Probably better though than an exclusive armor or something.

Pre-ordering digital games is what's BS. Yet gamers are very vulnerable to fomo and having to get it first thus marketing plays into that. Any smart gamer knows every game needs several hot fixes nowadays, even TotK and BG3 needed them. Waiting a few weeks for the real finished product is the smart way.

Well, it makes total sense for publishers. I guess the only reason it’s taken this long is because digital has now gained enough momentum.

I don’t buy at launch so I don’t care.

I see no issue with it tbh

If someone can pay more to play early more power to them I guess

I cringe every time I hear ppl near me parroting "I'm so gonna pre-order than on my PC/console, and it's almost always a digital copy, and I have to keep telling them that the digital copies aren't finite like the physical ones are, but they still don't get it, and I'm still flabbergasted. 

I'm glad I'm not reeled in so easily by fomo, especially with how bad battle passes are heavily inducing it for people out there. That and I don't really bother buying games day 1/week 1/month 1, and mostly just end up waiting a year or two (like I did when ESO just had a mega sale and I snagged the expansions I was missing for a much, much cheaper price). 

I find the AAA space a bit distasteful with how they've been watching what Indie devs are doing with their early access games and tried emulating that, only with big budget games that have no right in pulling an "early access", be it testing or viewing (this is why you're supposed to be hiring QoL test staff, not have us pay and be the guinea pigs). 

We used to have midnight launches for big games, also sort of early access. And yeah pre-ordering would be wise if you're going to stand in line at midnight lol. That was just 9 hours early access compared to normal people getting it the next day in the shop.

I don't know what the draw is with pre-ordering, pre-download, marathon play it, taking time off work to power through. Is it for clicks on you tube / twitter tok, bragging rights? I just don't get waiting for something, looking forward to something, then rushing through it. I like to take my time, hence still not finished TotK and avoiding games with season crap and limited time events.