One style of game development has emerged over the years, and it has proven quite popular. Instead of buying a game after it is finished, some developers have offered very early versions of a game they are working on for a cheap price, and those who buy into the project early get all the updates for free. This method of development became well known after Mojang implemented this strategy with their popular game Minecraft.
Valve has recognized the popularity of this development style by adding an Early Access section to Steam. Normally these games in early development would be purchased from the development teams website, giving the game less exposure and accessibility to a large market. Since these early access games are on Steam now, they will be seen by millions of gamers every day, increasing the awareness of these smaller games.
Some of the first games in the Early Access program are Arma III, Under the Ocean, Kinetic Void, and one of my personal favorites, Kerbal Space Program. As of right now, Kerbal Space Program is the eighth best selling game on Steam. For the small development team at Squad, that is a huge accomplishment.
It has not been announced how the revenue from purchasing these early access games will be split between Valve and the indie studios, but it is not hard to imagine that Valve will give a very large chunk of that money to the developers. One trait of this development style is that as new updates are released, the price goes up, so those low prices you see on the Early Access page will not be around forever. If a game looks interesting to you, it would be wise to go ahead and purchase it now for a low price, and get all the updates for free.
This is a really great move for the gaming community. There are some excellent games out there that do not get noticed because of resources or the lack of a big name publisher / developer behind the project. The Early Access program on Steam will now allow great indie games to reach a PC market that grows every day, and give it the exposure it needs to succeed.
