PC Gamer Show: Early Access pros and cons

DayZ

How long can you survive a post-apocalyptic world? A land overrun with an infected "zombie" population, where you compete with other survivors for limited resources. Will you team up with strangers and stay strong together? Or play as a lone wolf to avoid betrayal? This is DayZ – this is your story.

Last week's PC Gamer Show featured an Early Access game, which prompted a larger discussion around the PC Gamer office: how do we feel about the rise of paid pre-release? Since Minecraft made us more comfortable with the idea of selling incomplete games, we've seen dozens of PC games embrace paid alphas and betas as part of their development process—everything from MechWarrior Online to H1Z1 and Heroes of the Storm. But as studios benefit from early feedback and funding, are they giving back enough in return? Tom and Evan sat down to talk it over. 

Share your thoughts on Early Access with us in the comments.

The PC Gamer Show appears every Friday. Hit us with PC gaming questions in the comments, and we might answer them in next week's episode! Or tweet @pcgamer with a question using the hashtag #AskPCGamer.