What started as just another promising Steam Early Access game, the story of Earth: 2066 has quickly become the poster boy of what’s wrong with the Early Access system.
Valve has officially removed the ability to purchase the game from the Steam storefront. Full refunds are being sent to those who purchased the title, but the stigma now further added to Early Access is still there. Earth: 2066 joins other titles such as Guise of the Wolf in an unpleasant trend of bad developers promising grand titles, then failing to deliver–but still available on Steam.
For those of you who missed the initial controversy, Earth 2066 was a $19.99 first person mess of free Unity Store assets, with barely any functionality to speak of. Still, that alone was not enough to garner the kind of hate Earth: 2066 has received. The developer deleted complaints and relatively all messages left by users in his game’s Steam Forum, stirring up discontent on Steam. By any means possible, the developer has censored any complaints and made it clear he will not endure any criticism.
Unfortunately for Bishop, instead of silencing complaints and making money off of a broken game, the PR fiasco came to light when Jim Sterling of the Jimquisiton happened on the title. With damning evidence of false advertising and abuse of Steam developer rights, Valve has finally put the matter to bed for this title. However, there’s still plenty of concern about whether or not Greenlight should continue in operation, considering the influx of bad quality titles to Steam. What do you think about all this? Let us know in the comments below!
