In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the rise of Kickstarter and a subsequent surge in games being sold in an Alpha or Beta state. It began slowly, as most things do, but has now become almost the norm when it comes to indie games development. Steam hasn’t helped matters with its lax enforcement on Greenlight and Early Access; these two services have contributed to an environment that almost actively encourages releasing games before they’re ready.

While I’m not against pre-purchasing or pre-ordering in and of themselves, we have to be careful how these services are used, promoted and portrayed. No amount of disclaimers are going to keep the masses from spending their money. Early Access warnings are the equivalent of End User License Agreements, Terms & Conditions and whatnot: we’re all supposed to read them, but very few of us do. Up until now, this has been a purely digital affair, but developer Uber Entertainment has changed all of that this week. Its upcoming title, Planetary Annihilation, has been spotted by a Reddit user in a brick and mortar store.

It’s an early access title that’s already got a physical release. The developer have confirmed it and don’t see any problem with it. To be clear, this is a physical copy of a game that isn’t even finished. Let’s talk a bit about why this is not OK.

So we’ll begin with the concept of the pre-order, which has been around for a while now and is generally accepted. The general idea is that a game is going to be released in the near-to-mid future and pre-ordering will guarantee you a copy on release day. This has a few advantages, whether it be a physical or digital pre-order, especially if you can pre-load the game. If you’re really excited about a game that you know you’re going to enjoy, then there’s no reason not to pre-order. A lot of people will say that you’re an idiot or you should wait for release to find out what the reviews and critics say, but that doesn’t always apply.

Take Aliens: Colonial Marines, for example. People should not have pre-ordered that game, because there was very little guarantee that it was going to be something great. A very vertical-slice trailer and not exactly a great pedigree: people got burned, but it was avoidable. But if you’re looking at, say, one of the Professor Layton sequels for the DS? I pre-ordered the shit out of all of those, because I knew I loved the first one and that the next games offered more of the same. It was a guaranteed win.

There are other benefits to pre-ordering, especially when you take into account special or collector’s editions, which may be in short supply. I’m not talking about stupid bonuses like a different coloured jacket or in-game weapon; the best incentives are physical items, but digital content can be acceptable if it’s substantial enough. But if it’s a particularly popular game, even the standard edition might be scarce. I remember when GTA IV was released, it was impossible to find any 360 copies for at least a week after release, so those who pre-ordered were right to do so.

The general rules of thumb to follow for pre-orders, as far as I’m concerned, take into account all of the above. Only pre-order games you are super-sure you’re going to love; even then, only do so if there are compelling reasons to do so. What does and doesn’t count as compelling is a personal decision with subjective conditions, but at no point should a pre-order be something done without consideration.

So what makes Kickstarter or Early Access games so much different? Put bluntly, quite a bit. When you pre-order a game, in the vast majority of cases, you are guaranteed to get that game. There are very few games that reach the pre-orderable stage that don’t go on to a full retail (or at least digital) release. But with Kickstarter and Early Access, you don’t have that “guarantee”. Admittedly, Kickstarter is the worse of the two, since you’re often basing your donated pledge on nothing but a few pieces of concept art and a developer’s dream. With Early Access, you typically get something that’s at least in a respectable Alpha state, but that still doesn’t come close to the sort of “guaranteed” product you get from pre-orders.

If you’re careful with how you pre-order, you can be fairly certain you’ll get a good – and more importantly, complete – game come release date. With Early Access, you’re not given that sort of guarantee. In fact, even Steam is going to lengths to make this clear nowadays. There’s a very good chance that these games will be delayed and/or changed significantly over the course of their development. Some might not even make it at all. Just look at Towns, a game that was greenlit and made available through Steam. It was even part of various sales, before all of the super-clear disclaimers came into place. It stayed in pre-release for the entire duration of its existence and now is no longer being developed.

Now, if you felt that your purchase was justified in the experience you had with the Alpha or Beta build of a game, then that’s fine for you. But a lot of people wouldn’t be. This goes doubly so when the packaging (in Planetary Annihilation’s case) explicitly states that there’s a full game waiting for you at the end of it. They’re purporting to offer the same guarantee that you’d get from a pre-order, but with none of the clout to back it up.

Now it’s very unlikely that Planetary Annihilation is going to go tits up or that Uber Entertainment will wander off into the sunset with all of the money its made. But the important thing to take from this is that is sets a dangerous precedent. Now that this line has been crossed, other developers will do the same. We’re going to see more of these physical Early Access titles and the more of them that “succeed”, the more people are going to feel like this is acceptable or trustworthy. When one game comes along and fails / abandons their project, they’ll be able to turn around and say “We never promised a thing”. It might not hold up in court, but good luck trying to get any of that money back when the company you’re trying to sue has declared bankruptcy.

It reminds me of that show on Channel 5 here in the UK, Cowboy Builders. Sure, the vast majority of tradesmen will do a good job or at least make the effort, but there are some that will abuse that trust, and trust is something that gamers seem very eager to give; it’s going to end in tears. By showing such nonchalance towards their physical release, there’s a good chance that Uber Entertainment have set off an avalanche that might take a while to pick up the pace, but someone’s going to get hurt.

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