Valve has just announced a new section to Steam’s extensive game library – Early Access. Early Access games will allow players to purchase a game, before its release, and immediately start playing the unfinished title. Rather than wait for the occasional alpha or common beta test, Steam now allows developers to put out even early copies of the game.

At the same time, when you purchase an early access game you are paying the full price upfront. There are a handful of games providing early access right now, including Arma III, StarForge and Kinect Void, and others. This proved to be a very successful strategy for Minecraft when it was early in development, but how well will it translate on Steam? 

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