It's funny that so far the only Early Access games I've been disappointed with (this one and Planetary Annihilation (which Uber may still fix)) are from mid-sized companies and not small first-time developers. I've bought somewhere around 10-15 Early Access games and been very happy with most of them. Prison Architect has been particularly good, but Door Kickers, Dungeon of the Endless, and Gnomoria have also been good experiences.
I think Double Fine just fundamentally failed to provide customers with enough information. It was never clear that the game was entirely funded by Early Access money and that development would only continue working on it if it kept selling. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that if Double Fine committed to making a game and started taking money for it that they would finish that game. It makes me think they are either terrible with financials and radically underestimated how much their planned features would cost, or they weren't confident in the project in the first place. Did they really expect a whole bunch of people to pay $25 for a game that barely worked? If not, then why didn't they secure funding before selling it? Early Access is not a crowdfunding platform.
On a related point, they were also terribly slow with updates. Some projects get updated every week, others every month, but Double Fine was doing well to put a small update out every two months. That hardly inspires confidence in prospective buyers.
I understand that games get cancelled all the time and not every feature planned always makes it into the final product, but they aren't even close to what they set out to make and they already have the customers' money. Again, Double Fine isn't a small indie studio. They have been making games for many years and they should have been more transparent about the costs and where their money was coming from. They know how much employees cost and they should have provided a breakdown of their expected costs on the Steam page if everything was riding on Early Access. If they expect customers to replace investors, then they need to be upfront about the risks and be much more transparent with their financials.
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