Xenonauts on Steam Early Access?

[admiral]

So now Steam allows the sale of "early access" games, ie games that are still a work in progress:

http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Early%20Access/

How about putting Xenonauts up there, Chris? You already have a deal with Steam if I remember correctly, so you could distribute updates to the game through the robust Steam system and give out Steam keys early to those who preordered. I say give it a look, it's bound to be a lot better than Desura. It would also be a great way of getting some more sales.

[Max_Caine]

But is it stable enough? I mean, it's one thing to download it from Desura when Desura has ALPHAFUNDING!!!!! stamped all over it, so you kind of expect a buggy game that crashes a lot. My experience of the Steam communities is that alpha or beta, they'll jump all over the bugs and the crashes with the mournful, petulant wail of the overexpectant.

[thothkins]

yeah, my brief experiences with steam forums have been brief due to the sad levels of whining. Considering it's an opportunity to show the game off to possibly new users, it should probably be a bit more stable than it is now. But hey, it's not even Beta yet, so possibly premature anyway.

[Chris]

I will be getting in touch with Valve about this posthaste.

[GizmoGomez]

Awesome! That'd be awesome! (But keep the standalone available on Desura, of course. I still need that for wineskin until the mac version comes out.)

[PRiME]

Steam > Desura

Sorry to say, I have been involved with Stardrive testing and the Dev doesn't stop mentioning how much easier Steam is to use over Desura and everyone who uses Desura is always several days or more out of date (not good for daily release beta testing!)

Desura simply have not pulled their finger out, they should have a test branch option that lets devs upload updates real time with no middle man. But they don't! it has been requested of them for some time.

[Gauddlike]

The size and available funding is so much different between the two platforms that it is difficult to compare them really.

Desura may suffer when the greenlight and early access sections of steam really gather momentum.

They haven't traditionally fulfilled the same roles until recently though.

When there is this kind of overlap one has to lose out and I doubt it will be valve.

Maybe it will give Desura the kick it needs to push forward with requested features like the one you mention, who knows.