Year 3: Research report: Dose early access negatively affect the longevity of its games.

Dose early access negatively affect the longevity of its games

In the document i will be looking into how early access can effect the longevity of a game. This is how long players stay interested in the game concept and keep playing. I hope to research into some examples of early access games and see if releasing a early game can negatively effect these games longevity.

 I will try and look into a wide range of genres all across the early access markets. Focusing from survival games to some of the more complex genres than contrast in games against each other and also referencing my own personal experiences were some of these games to then give hopefully a fact-based conclusion on the answer in this document and as well give a personal experience on the matter.

Early access games:

Ark: Survival Evolved

The first game I will be looking at is Ark: Survival Evolved even thou this game is only eight months old. I will be looking at the  statistics about layer total time on the game during his eight months and through looking at these facts and figures making a prediction on the future of the player base. To see a more comprehensive analysis of what the game is see my previous document called "Year 3: Research report: ARK: Survival evolved"

Players first managed their hands on Ark: Survival Evolved  in June 2015. As of the writing of this document it means that the game has been in player hands seven months which is quite a substantial amount of time for players who purchased the game it was first released. According to the steam tracking website "Steamspy" the game has sold as of the writing of this document "2,135,000 copies" Ark: Survival Evolved: Steamspy (2015) since release.  Looking into another website which tracks player activity on the game called "steam charts".

From June 2015 the game started with an average player activity of "42,870" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015) on average were on the game at a given time.  With the peak of the player base hitting over 80,000 players at one time. For a game starting out from new release this is quite a high level of traffic even on the release month.

June Avg. players: "42,871"
June % Gain in players: "first month no data"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

looking towards the next two months of July and August it started off strong in July for the game as the average player count on the game jumped upwards to "46,760" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015) which is a 9% increase from previous month. The peak player base bid dwindle to 72,000 in this month bought this is often due to happen as even for the most interesting games player interest will start to dwindle as months go on.  These figures are very normal for a game just released with the popularity of the average player rising as more players during the game due to influence from their friends  or with players becoming more familiar with the games features  their more employing more hours of the game.

July Avg. players: "46,764"
July % Gain in players: "+9.08%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

For the month of August the statistics begin to wind down with a reduction in 2% to the average player race going down to "45,050" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015). This is a drop from the previous month of 3.5% but the peak players did hit 84,000 Which is a raise of over 10,000 players from the previous month. this is often due to some of the first major updates being implemented into the game bringing certain players back for a certain amount  of days due to peak interest in the new content. This is a typical model of early access in its first few months with high popularity slowly dwindle books eventual spikes due to new content is being implemented.

August Avg. player: "45,057"
August % Gain in players: "-3.65%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

Going into the winter months starting with September the game losers a large majority of its average player base going from 45,000 players in the previous month down to "35,490" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015).This is a loss in the average player base of 21% this is a very significant amounts for the game and it's quite troubling  because the game is only four months into its release and it's of the program and still is already lost almost a quarter of its player base.  This is probably go down to waning interest in the game with players not spending so many hours on the game due to completing most of the contents and this is most likely to spike again in the coming months when more updates become available for the game.

September Avg. player: "35,498"
September % Gain in players: "-21.21%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

In the month of October the game did received  and increased its player base from the previous month. The average player counts when up to "38,000" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015) which is an increase of 7.1% rise from the previous month. as well as its peak player counts going from 60,000 to "64,514" this month not a significant increase. Usually rises in the play beside this will often be because of a sale of the game or maybe a three weekend that steam offers in which players can freely at a spring the game for a weekend and also get a special deal on the game.  it might as well be the upper game has received a significant updates and  but this is brought back some old members that exited the game to view this new content.

October Avg. player: "38,020"
October % Gain in players: "+7.11%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

Moving into November the figures for the game yet again take another dive. The month of November the game lost "5,158" average players which is a loss of 13.5% of its average players in this month. This starts is quite troubling when with other months yielding similar losses  the amount the game is losing an average players is more likely to slow down the smaller the player base becomes and possibly in a year from now the game will consist mainly of a core member base that will play the game on average over the whole year.

November Avg. player: "32,862"
November % Gain in players: "-13.57%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

Getting into the current month of December the game is still losing players bought it seems the rate in which they are being lost has reduced from the previous month. In the month of December the average player base for the game was "30,598" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015) a reduction from the previous month which was "38,020" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015). This is a loss of 6.8% of the average player base in this month compiling it with the stats from November this is two months of a streets player lost in the average player base for the game.

December Avg. player: "30,598"
December % Gain in players: "-6.89%"
From: Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015)

Looking to the future of the game is most likely that the average player race is likely to drop further in the future this will most probably slope off  and the reduction in the average player base will become less and less each month. Probably in the future there will be rise in players base due to the new concert updates that will be implemented. In the space of seven months for the average player base to go from "46,764" to "30,598" Ark: Survival Evolved: SteamCharts (2015) which is a loss in 27% is quite troubling in terms of the longevity of the game considering that the game is going to rely mostly on its future updates to keep player interest it doesn't seem to be off to a great start but it is most likely the rate of players leaving the game will reduce as time goes on.

After looking at all the statistics of the players from its release until now it seems that the player base has shrunk by 30% from its an initial starting play bass which was a
round 45,000 average players. Currently the average player base sitting around 30,000 players carrying on like this it could be estimated that the play beach would shrink by further 10,000 members in the next six months and then shrink more as time progresses. But due to content updates that may significantly change the game the game could make a resurgence and pull in more average players. It appears that early access may have an advantage over traditional games in this area as that with the constant arrival of new updates every month to be entice all players keeping an average player base high maybe something that nearly access games on more easily able to do than traditional games. More information on different game have to be compiled for this can be shown.

Average player increase/decrease average %: -4.855%

Ark: survival evolved: Summary

Overall average player increase/decrease %: -4.855%

Day Z

Day Z Is the one game on this list that has the most history surrounding it as well as some controversial events. Will begin with analyzing player statistics and average player counts on the game starting from the month of December 2013. The final more information on DayZ please look at the documents "Year 3: Research report: DayZ"

Day Z as a concept that has been available for many years through the mod for the game Arma 2. The game gone its own stand-alone release on December 16th 2013 being one of the first to be introduced on the early access steam program. As of the writing of this document the game is being released fora little over two years will be plenty of information to gather and our eyes about the audience given that there are two years statistics to review. As of the writing of this document DayZ has managed to sell "3.3 million Units" DayZ: Steamspy (2015). This makes DayZ one of the most highest selling early access games there is.

Starting at the very beginning on December 2013 because the game was released on the 16th of this month the stats may vary from the other months because stats on fully calculated for the whole month therefore this may offset its results. The game in its first month started off with an average of over 12,000 players even though it came out halfway through this month.

December (2013) Avg. players: "12,471"
December (2013) % Gain in players: "first month no data"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

From: January 2014 - June 2014

Statistics

January (2014) Avg. players: "23,093"
January (2014) % Gain in players: "+85.17%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2014) Avg. players: "21,764"
February (2014) % Gain in players: "-5.76%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2014) Avg. players: "17,548"
March (2014) % Gain in players: "-19.37%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2014) Avg. players: "18,665"
April (2014) % Gain in players: "+6.37%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2014) Avg. players: "16,855"
May (2014) % Gain in players: "-9.7%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2014) Avg. players: "14,518"
June (2014) % Gain in players: "-13.87%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +7.14%

From: July 2014 - December 2014

Statistics

July (2014) Avg. players: "15,121"
July (2014) % Gain in players: "+4.15%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2014) Avg. players: "14,872"
August (2014) % Gain in players: "-1.64%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2014) Avg. players: "11,731"
September (2014) % Gain in players: "-21.12%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2014) Avg. players: "10,708"
October (2014) % Gain in players: "-8.72%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2014) Avg. players: "13,324"
November (2014) % Gain in players: "+24.43%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2014) Avg. players: "15,307"
December (2014) % Gain in players: "+14.88%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +1.99%

From: January 2015 - June 2015

Statistics

January (2015) Avg. players: "14,447"
January (2015) % Gain in players: "-5.62%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2015) Avg. players: "15,007"
February (2015) % Gain in players: "+3.87%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2015) Avg. players: "13,846"
March (2015) % Gain in players: "-7.73"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2015) Avg. players: "9,274"
April (2015) % Gain in players: "-33.02%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2015) Avg. players: "6,524"
May (2015) % Gain in players: "-29.65%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2015) Avg. players: "8,800"
June (2015) % Gain in players: "+34.88%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -6.21%

From: July 2015 - December 2015

Statistics

July (2015) Avg. players: "9,016"
July (2015) % Gain in players: "+2.46%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2015) Avg. players: "8,835"
August (2015) % Gain in players: "-2.01%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2015) Avg. players: "6,889"
September (2015) % Gain in players: "-22.02%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2015) Avg. players: "5,521"
October (2015) % Gain in players: "-19.86%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2015) Avg. players: "4,378"
November (2015) % Gain in players: "-20.69%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2015) Avg. players: "5,249"
December (2015) % Gain in players: "+19.88%"
From: DayZ: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -7.04%

Dayz: Summary

Overall average player increase/decrease %: -1.03%

Dayz overall average player statistics is that overall in month intervals the player's goes down by an average of 1.03%. Dayz did manage to start off with an average player base of around 23,000 players and now two years on the  player base has shrunk to  around 5000 this is a shrink in play base of over two years of around 75% but Given that Dayz  has been available on steam for  two years the player base to be in decline in a manner such this is quite an impressive feat with a core audience still remaining the game and from this projection appears that the game could still have a strong average player base but even many years to come. It seems that keeping an audience Dayz early access program has managed to keep an audience interested and sustained for a long time though eventually looking at what these statistics show in future productions that the player base will  progressively shrink as time goes on at the rate the lists shrinking it could be viable for another two or three years. And for a game in the modern games industry to keep audiences attention to this long is quite impressive feat overall I would say that Dayz is quite a success story in that the game has me a lot of money and is Accordions for two years in all intensive purposes has succeeded.

Space engineers

From: October 2013 - December 2013

Statistics

October (2013) Avg. players: "1,192"
October (2013) % Gain in players: "first month no data"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2013) Avg. players: "786"
November (2013) % Gain in players: "-34.08%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2013) Avg. players: "595"
December (2013) % Gain in players: "-24.22%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -29.15%

From: January 2014 - June 2014

Statistics

January (2014) Avg. players: "1000"
January (2014) % Gain in players: "+67.92%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2014) Avg. players: "1,292"
February (2014) % Gain in players: "+29.22%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2014) Avg. players: "2,207"
March (2014) % Gain in players: "+70.80%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2014) Avg. players: "4,660"
April (2014) % Gain in players: "+111.11%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2014) Avg. players: "4,164"
May (2014) % Gain in players: "-10.63%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2014) Avg. players: "3,725"
June (2014) % Gain in players: "-10.54%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +42.98%

From: July 2014 - December 2014

Statistics

July (2014) Avg. players: "4,930"
July (2014) % Gain in players: "+32.33%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2014) Avg. players: "4,766"
August (2014) % Gain in players: "-3.33%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2014) Avg. players: "3.390"
September (2014) % Gain in players: "-28.86%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2014) Avg. players: "5,100"
October (2014) % Gain in players: "+50.44%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2014) Avg. players: "2,934"
November (2014) % Gain in players: "-42.46%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2014) Avg. players: "4,167"
December (2014) % Gain in players: "+42%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +8.35%

From: January 2015 - June 2015

Statistics

January (2015) Avg. players: "5,596"
January (2015) % Gain in players: "+34.30%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2015) Avg. players: "5,587"
February (2015) % Gain in players: "-0.17%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2015) Avg. players: "4,523"
March (2015) % Gain in players: "-19.05%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2015) Avg. players: "3,785"
April (2015) % Gain in players: "-16.30%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2015) Avg. players: "3,102"
May (2015) % Gain in players: "-18,05%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2015) Avg. players: "2,691"
June (2015) % Gain in players: "-13.23%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -5.41%

From: July 2015 - December 2015

Statistics

July (2015) Avg. players: "2,808"
July (2015) % Gain in players: "+4.34%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2015) Avg. players: "2,808"
August (2015) % Gain in players: "-0.01%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2015) Avg. players: "2,584"
September (2015) % Gain in players: "-7.96%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2015) Avg. players: "3,374"
October (2015) % Gain in players: "+30.55%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2015) Avg. players: "6,134"
November (2015) % Gain in players: "+81.80%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2015) Avg. players: "6,327"
December (2015) % Gain in players: "+3.14%"
From: Space Engineers: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +18.64%

Space engineers: Summary

Overall average player increase/decrease %: +7.082%

Space engineers may be the one game on this list that has managed to expand its audience and grow from its initial start. In October 2013 the game started off with around an average player base of 1000 players and now coming to the end in December 2015 the game is around 6000 average players. As someone who has researched into other early access games is quite a feat for a game over a two-year period to increase its player base by sixfold. I do note this down to the hard work and commitment of the developers of space engineers with their constant feedback to the audience and transparency around issues. I think this is how over time they have managed to increase their player base and entice others into buying their games and also sticking with them for a long period of time. So I'll average it appears that each month interval the game on average increases its player release by 7% which  corresponds with the average player base number overall. I think space engineers may be one of the most shining examples of early access at its finest and should be the staple of war early access game should be.

Godus

From: September 2013 - December 2013

Statistics

September (2013) Avg. players: "1,116"

September (2013) % Gain in players: "first month no data"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2013) Avg. players: "697"

October (2013) % Gain in players: "-37.51%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2013) Avg. players: "183"

November (2013) % Gain in players: "-73.70%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2013) Avg. players: "548"

December (2013) % Gain in players: "+199.15%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +29.31%

From: January 2014 - June 2014

Statistics

January (2014) Avg. players: "560"

January (2014) % Gain in players: "+2.18%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2014) Avg. players: "101"

February (2014) % Gain in players: "-81.85%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2014) Avg. players: "318"

March (2014) % Gain in players: "+213.29"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2014) Avg. players: "333"

April (2014) % Gain in players: "+4.63%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2014) Avg. players: "264"

May (2014) % Gain in players: "-20.81%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2014) Avg. players: "225"

June (2014) % Gain in players: "-14.51%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +17.155%

From: July 2014 - December 2014

Statistics

July (2014) Avg. players: "171"

July (2014) % Gain in players: "-24.03"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2014) Avg. players: "652"

August (2014) % Gain in players: "+280.09%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2014) Avg. players: "438"

September (2014) % Gain in players: "-32.70%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2014) Avg. players: "373"

October (2014) % Gain in players: "-15%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2014) Avg. players: "320"

November (2014) % Gain in players: "-14.11%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2014) Avg. players: "347"

December (2014) % Gain in players: "+8.56%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +33.8%

From: January 2015 - June 2015

Statistics

January (2015) Avg. players: "161"

January (2015) % Gain in players: "-53.51%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2015) Avg. players: "107"

February (2015) % Gain in players: "-33.60%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2015) Avg. players: "89"

March (2015) % Gain in players: "-16.92%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2015) Avg. players: "105"

April (2015) % Gain in players: "+8.56%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2015) Avg. players: "71"

May (2015) % Gain in players: "-31.53%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2015) Avg. players: "63"

June (2015) % Gain in players: "-11.02%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -23.003%

From: July 2015 - December 2015

Statistics

July (2015) Avg. players: "56"

July (2015) % Gain in players: "-11.13%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2015) Avg. players: "61"

August (2015) % Gain in players: "+8.07%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2015) Avg. players: "57"

September (2015) % Gain in players: "-7.13%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2015) Avg. players: "50"

October (2015) % Gain in players: "-11.56%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2015) Avg. players: "43"

November (2015) % Gain in players: "-13.03%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2015) Avg. players: "38"

December (2015) % Gain in players: "-11.68%"

From: Godus: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -7.74%

Godus: Summary

Overall average player increase/decrease %: +9.9044%

Godus undoubtedly is one of the worst titles to come out of early access being the polar opposite of a good area to stay with developers not promising or delivering features and if you shown in the reflection of its player base as well as its beginning size. compared to  or the early access games this games only started out with 600 players on average which is a lot smaller than any other game on this list.  then coming to December 2015 the average player base is down to just 40 players. the reason the overall average player counts shoes and 9% increase is because of erratic behavior over the lifespan of the game. With hundreds of people returning from single months and then leaving again  but to go from an average player with 600 down to 40  shows that for this game keeping an audience this game has failed. but I think this is mostly down to the developers ultimately giving up on the game and not listening to their community which will be counted in the factor of what affects against longevity.

Starbound

From: December 2013 - June 2014

Statistics

December (2013) Avg. players: "39.647"

December (2013) % Gain in players: "first month no data"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

January (2014) Avg. players: "13,926"

January (2014) % Gain in players: "-64.87%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2014) Avg. players: "12,716"

February (2014) % Gain in players: "-8.69%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2014) Avg. players: "5,367"

March (2014) % Gain in players: "-57.79%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2014) Avg. players: "3.174"

April (2014) % Gain in players: "-40.86%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2014) Avg. players: "2,826"

May (2014) % Gain in players: "-10.96%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2014) Avg. players: "2,704"

June (2014) % Gain in players: "-4.30%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -31.24%

From: July 2014 - December 2014

Statistics

July (2014) Avg. players: "2,422"

July (2014) % Gain in players: "-10.42%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2014) Avg. players: "1,918"

August (2014) % Gain in players: "-20.82%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2014) Avg. players: "1,554"

September (2014) % Gain in players: "-18.98%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2014) Avg. players: "1,660"

October (2014) % Gain in players: "+6.84%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2014) Avg. players: "1,754"

November (2014) % Gain in players: "+5.65%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2014) Avg. players: "2,989"

December (2014) % Gain in players: "+70.40%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +5.445%

From: January 2015 - June 2015

Statistics

January (2015) Avg. players: "4,884"

January (2015) % Gain in players: "+63.41%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

February (2015) Avg. players: "10,132"

February (2015) % Gain in players: "+107.44%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2015) Avg. players: "3,177"

March (2015) % Gain in players: "-68.64%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2015) Avg. players: "2,858"

April (2015) % Gain in players: "-10.04%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2015) Avg. players: "3,088"

May (2015) % Gain in players: "+8.05%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2015) Avg. players: "2,687"

June (2015) % Gain in players: "-12.99%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +14.538%

From: July 2015 - December 2015

Statistics

July (2015) Avg. players: "2,123"

July (2015) % Gain in players: "-20.98%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2015) Avg. players: "2,624"

August (2015) % Gain in players: "+23.59%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2015) Avg. players: "3,090"

September (2015) % Gain in players: "+17.74%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2015) Avg. players: "2,128"

October (2015) % Gain in players: "-31.12%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2015) Avg. players: "1,844"

November (2015) % Gain in players: "-13.37%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2015) Avg. players: "2,461"

December (2015) % Gain in players: "+33.47%"

From: Starbound: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: +1.555%

Starbound: Summary

Overall average player increase/decrease %: -2.4255%

Starbound initially started off with an audience of around 2500 on average back in December 2013 and two years on in December 2015 the audience is at the same level around 2500. But throughout the two years of its implementation the game has had many ups and downs in terms of players leaving and coming back most likely due to content updates but overall the average player count decreased by just 2.4% and a low number for an early access game.  It seems that seeing the results for this game as well as for the game Dayz but being an early access doesn't seem the have a negative effect on the average player base for a game.this

Besiege

From: February 2015 - June 2015

Statistics

February (2015) Avg. players: "3,675"
February (2015) % Gain in players: "first month no data"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

March (2015) Avg. players: "2,573"
March (2015) % Gain in players: "-29.98%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

April (2015) Avg. players: "1,383"
April (2015) % Gain in players: "-46.25%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

May (2015) Avg. players: "1.421"
May (2015) % Gain in players: "+2.74%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

June (2015) Avg. players: "1,017"
June (2015) % Gain in players: "-28.45%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -25.485%

From: July 2015 - December 2015

Statistics

July (2015) Avg. players: "1,077"
July (2015) % Gain in players: "+5.91%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

August (2015) Avg. players: "1,078"
August (2015) % Gain in players: "+0.08%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

September (2015) Avg. players: "817"
September (2015) % Gain in players: "-24.21%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

October (2015) Avg. players: "742"
October (2015) % Gain in players: "-9.10%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

November (2015) Avg. players: "794"
November (2015) % Gain in players: "+6.93%"
From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

December (2015) Avg. players: "908"
December (2015) % Gain in players: "+14.44%"

From: Besiege: SteamCharts (2015)

Average player increase/decrease average %: -0.991%

Besiege: Summary 

Overall average player increase/decrease %: -13.238%

Besiege though is only banal for not even a year's average player races in quite a mess. With the average player audience going from 3000 members down to just 900 in the space of 10 months. The average player base decreases each month around 13% which is quite damaging. It appears that this scheme is quite an anomaly as on the marketplace steam this game has overwhelmingly positive review and people saying good things about the game. But the player base however seems to be dwindling and decreasing acquire a rapid rate compared to other games. What could be the purpose of such a decrease I think it is mostly down to a case-by-case basis as this game is more of a simulated game in which players can construct objects and doesn't really have an overall goal or a just  to complete certain objectives and even if the game is praised being great job nevertheless that its job may only occupied players for a short amount time. This is quite a step forward in my research as it shows that early access alone is obviously not the biggest contributing factor it may actually be the and quality and quantity of gameplay in the game and  this is an important issue that has to be noted.

Early access longevity: Summary

Overall looking into these games and their average player races over the time they have been released of the things have become clear to me. One thing is that being an early access is not so much a determining factor as is is the game well made and has a lot of content. Also as well it shows that developers that use early access to their advantage in the fact that they release contents regularly that keeps the player base interested and refreshed actually managed to keep a large audience for a longer period of time. it seems that the defining factor on whether  and early access game sustains an audience for a long period of time is whether it is frequently updated and also as well  if the design of the game is well made with many different gameplay mechanics and a lot of content of the players to explore.

 I would say my findings in this document is that early access doesn't affect longevity of the game what does affect longevity of a game is the quality of the game.

Bibliography

.Ark: Survival Evolved (2015) Steamspy. Available from 

<http://steamspy.com/app/346110> [Accessed 11th of December 2015]

.Ark: Survival Evolved (2015) SteamCharts. Available from <http://steamcharts.com/app/346110#All> [Accessed 11th of December 2015].

.DayZ (2015) Steamspy. Available from
<http://steamspy.com/app/221100> [Accessed on 17th of December 2015]

DayZ (2015) SteamCharts. Available from
<http://steamcharts.com/app/221100> [Accessed on 17th of December 2015]

Space Engineers (2015) SteamSpy. Available from
<http://steamspy.com/app/244850>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Space Engineers (2015) SteamCharts. Available from
<http://steamcharts.com/app/244850>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Godus (2015) SteamSpy. Available from
<http://steamspy.com/app/232810>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Godus  (2015) SteamCharts. Available from
<http://steamcharts.com/app/232810>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Starbound (2015) SteamSpy. Available from
<http://steamspy.com/app/211820>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Starbound (2015) SteamCharts. Available from
<http://steamcharts.com/app/211820>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Besiege (2015) SteamSpy. Available from
<http://steamspy.com/app/346010>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Besiege (2015) SteamCharts. Available from
<http://steamcharts.com/app/346010>  [Accessed on 18th of December 2015]

Year 3: Research report: The start of early access

The start of early access

What is early Assess and where did it come from? Well to find out we have to go back abit before Steam popularized the early access program early access at the very shaky beginning. one of the most successful of the first early access games to ever amount was actually Minecraft. coming out in alpha on "November 18 2011" Wikipedia: Minecraft (2011) being in development for two years and seven months from "10 May 2000" Wikipedia: Minecraft (2011).

Once out of the game exploded in popularity arguably becoming one of the most successful games ever created  not only being well known in the game community but in popular culture with many different forms of media knowing what Minecraft is. The way Minecraft funding worked is by a simple way of purchasing the game from their websites really use of PayPal or a credit card  are very simple payment method. The game now has been fully completed  bought back when the game was in its alpha state the game was a little bit cheaper but could be purchased by anyone. This may not be in the first earlier this game bought was one of the most successful of the earliest. The game was constantly updated through its clients and new features are added similar to any other early access game. It could be due to the fact that this game was so successful that paved the way's early access games to flourish in the games industry or could just be a massive coincidence.

The next major step forward in the early access game model was from the websites kickstart. This website allows the community to fund various different projects and allows the community to donate as little or as much as they want to fund the project. as time went on kickstart became a centralised hub for small companies to get funding for their game projects this in a sense created the unofficial early access program. kickstart was so successful in fact  that it managed the fund a new console to be constructive called the "OUYA" which was a android-based console.

So with many different game ideas being funded in this way it seemed like early access was on the rise but had not permeated the main game community. This is where valve enters the picture with their early access program on steam launched on "March 20 2013" Wikipedia: early access (2013). with early access releasing with heavyweight titles such as Arma 3 released on "March 20 2013" Wikipedia: list of steam early access games (2013), games like Don't starve and prison architect. But this is where problems start to emerge with a lot of the games that are released initially being cancelled and are still not even finish to this day. 

To this day's theme is had many successes with its early access program  with games such as killing floor 2, Arma 3  and Ark: survival evolved gaining funding and progressing  and an amazing rate. You have to be quick not to forget some of the faults early access has had with a lot of the games being put on there being cancelled or abandoned.an article from Gameindustry.Biz  says that only 25% of the games to ever get onto  the early access program ever finish and become full retail games this taken from statistics from one half years of sales. 

Gamesindustry.Biz: Early access popularity growing,but only 25% have released as full games (2015)

it's hard to know where early access will go from here it seems that over the last two years it had a very rocky start coming from the foundations of some really good games it seems to be bringing a lot of bad games into the mix and it may only be a matter of time before the community loses faith in the programme and stops purchasing these types of games altogether but this in turn will also depart gamers from very memorable games that have used the early access system on honourably it seems to be a very difficult subject to tackle as getting rid of the system would throw away a lot of good games but also would deal with many of the bad ones creeping in I suppose the only real way people will work out if the game is good or bad enough they will have to research into them and not  just take the game on its face value.

Bibliography

.Wikipedia (2011) Wikipedia: Minecraft available from: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Version_history [Accessed from 8 November 2015]

.Wikipedia (2013) Wikipedia: early access available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_access [Accessed from 9 November 2015]

..Wikipedia (2013) list of steam early access games from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Steam_Early_Access_games [Accessed from 9 November 2015]

.Gamesindustry.Biz (2015)Gamesindustry.Biz: Early access popularity growing,but only 25% have released as full games available from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-11-13-early-access-popularity-growing-but-only-25-percent-have-released-as-a-full-game [Accessed from 9 November 2015]

Year 3: Research report: Analysing industry report

In the document I will be analyzing a research reports done by another students. I will be analyzing this and taking some points on board and how they have sell their documents and how they have structured the then apply this to my own research reports. I have cut down the documents into segments of the different chapters just to get an example of each chapter and then analyse that.

The first page:
the first page is simply laid out with most of the text centered on the screen.  at the top of the page the title is the first thing shown followed by midway down the page that type of research focuses an industry report. Then it lists the the person's name student number and access to his blog as well as the course name and year.

The Abstract:

This is a quick summary of what will be in the document explaining quickly certain phrases that  the reader may not know as well as  listing will be at the start middle and end of the document. an example for my document would be me explaining what early access was and how it has been utilized through steam and also what the purpose of this process is.

Contents:

The content page lists all be pages and titles of some papers and  what page you can find them on a very simple list allowing the reader to know where the relevant information is.

Introduction:

The introduction is very straightforward listing in a page or two what will be in the  documents and explaining some base concepts to the reader than elaborating on how you will be discussing these concepts and what your end goal by the end of the document the introduction is meant to be brief and informative allowing readers to have a clear view of what the document will contain.

Chapter one: Independent game to that moment

This is the start of the meat of the document it starts off with the first chapter which is one of four in the whole document. It is apparent very quickly that there are many quotes and references to different sources of information I knew this would be a part of the documents now I know the every point must be backed up and it's some of the keep in mind when I'm writing my research report. The second and third page contains an image related to the document I didn't know that images will alarm the document sports is obvious that the images must be directly connected with the document.

Chapter 2: AAA Game Development:

Moving onto the second chapter it clearly flows from the first to the second and where the chapters meets tries to me over as smoothly as possible.  As well as the start of the second chapter of the writer of the documents is given examples straight away clearly and concise about what that chapters about in this case triple-A game development carrying facts and figures of multiple different games.

Summary of chapters: 

it is clear from looking at this industry reports that the amount of quotation and reference has to be substantial and has to reinforce every single point made by the author. This will definitely have to be a feature that I employ in my document in order explained to the reader my points clearly.

Conclusion:
In the conclusion the author goes through all the previous chapters and sums up what all three chapters mean and how they interact with each other as well as using select quotes in order to reinforce the writer's point. It is obvious that the conclusion is meant to summarise and reinforce the point the Rovers making the something I will have to implement in my document.

Appendix:

This is where the writer has gathered is relevant text from articles that they are referenced in their work and because of the nature of my article I will definitely have to  include this at my documents because of the month of articles and websites I've reference.

Bibliography:

a simple bibliography referencing books, articles or other sources something I'm very familiar with and will definitely use.

Webography:

more often than not I have usually summed up all my sources into one bibliography but because of the amount of information that I have obtained from websites I will definitely use a webography  in my documents this was a tip I do not know.

Ludography: 

This term I had not come across before and because of the nature of my documents it is necessary that I will have to use one of these as I reference a lot of games is a good way to compile them in a professional looking way.

Year 3: Research report: Killing floor 2

killing floor 2

With the first game in the series killing floor one being a massive success with glowing reviews and massive amount of sales is suing the developers use the early access program in order to launch their next game in the series. Killing floor 2 was released on "21st of April 2015" Steam store: Killing floor 2 (2015). The game is a co-op survival game in which you and players up to a maximum of six player  had to survive up to 10 rounds until you have completed that level.  Outside of the survival aspect there is a leveling off system in which you level up as of this moment for classes that are in the game's classes are medics, support, commando and berserker. As you level up you gain perks which you can use to gain different advantages in the game to many different effects affecting all classes.

Over the recent years co-op survival games have become increasingly popular on the PC platform with games like left four dead 1&2, Payday 1&2 and the original killing floor. with a lot of the community claiming that the original killing floor started off this strength having a very good reputation among the community the original killing floor was liked by many so does killing floor to live up to the legend of the original of inward to find out is to look at the financial and community stats of the game.

looking at the total sales for the game going to the website steam spy according to them the game has sold "780,000" copies.  the game sells an average of $30 quickly calculate myself equals to $23.4 million in revenue the game has brought in over a eight month period. The cost of the development of novel released by the company bought given that Ark: survival evolved had a budget of $2 million to develop its it's not hard to imagine that killing floor 2 had a similar budget may be more evil way shows that this game moved a howl of a lot of money in profits.

So was killing floor a success of the community is much that was a financial one? Well the only way to know is to look at the community's reaction as well as reviewers. On the steam store page from killing floor 2 the game has "17,000" Steam store: killing floor 2 (2015) user reviews from its community. With 15,000 of these reviews being positive and 2000 the review is being negative show an overall a mostly positive reception to the game.

it seems like this game could live up to  the original killing for overtime as it still is  in early access and the game's only been out for a month and still has plenty of content updates that are still to come with many of the DLC for the game being released free to the community  it shows that the developers have a good attitude with community by giving this away to people who've bought the game before it is fully completes.  If the developers keep this mentality of this game could surpass the old one and become even better but only time will tell whether game and the company go.

Bibliography

.Valve (2015) Steam store: killing floor 2 [online] available from: http://store.steampowered.com/app/232090/

.Gamesindustry.biz (2015) Steamspy: Killing floor 2 [online] available from: http://steamspy.com/app/232090