No matter where you stand on its impact on gaming, it is very hard to deny that Early Access and its ilk, which allow, in theory at least, for developers to release games still in development to customers, and then update and develop them based on feedback, have had an impact on gaming. Most developers like it, because, as said above, it lets them respond to community concerns as the game is being developed, instead of scrambling to address them post launch via a patch, or DLC, or a sequel.
And now, Sony might be looking into bringing something similar to PlayStation as well. This is based on the newest job listing that Sony posted, which is very interestingly specific in what it seems to want. Specifically, Sony has said that the new position will be responsible for ‘monitoring external and internal environment for development of new services: TaaS, GaaS, Crowdsourcing, early access test efforts, etc.’
But do you think that a program like Early Access would work on consoles? With the continued rise of betas on consoles, it stands to reason that Early Access, or something like it, might take off on them too, but personally, I don’t think I’d be too much of a fan. You see, I like my games complete, as a finished product. Is that really too much to ask for?