'No Rest For The Wicked' boss Thomas Mahler has insisted 'Dark Souls' would have benefited from an "early access" release.
Dark Souls
The CEO of developer Moon Studios has defended the decision for its new dark fantasy game to be launched in early access, despite players criticising the title over performance issues.
In a lengthy series of posts on X, Mahler wrote: "We're not even a week into Early Access and it's already pretty clear that going with EA is one of the best decisions we could've made.
"I see some people are still irked about why games like Wicked, Hades 2, Larian's new game, etc. launch into Early Access even if the studio 'should have the funds to finish the game and release it then'.
"But that's looking at a complex problem through a way too simple lens."
He insisted that "as games become more and more complex and sophisticated", the idea of "some form of Early Access" is being put in place more frequently.
The chief continued: "I think some games would've benefited from Early Access even before EA was a thing.
"Imagine Dark Souls 1 would've been in Early Access - Instead of [FromSoftware] rushing to ship a boxed product in a somewhat unfinished state, they probably would've been able to look at the second half of that game and still fully form and polish the less polished areas like Lost Izalith, etc."
Mahler argued that the feedback such a release system provides is invaluable, and couldn't be done with updates or DLC, while noting that if the team aren't already fully confident about certain features, they would otherwise need to be scrapped before release.
He continued: "So, even if you dislike the idea of Early Access: It's one way to allow developers to truly perfect a product over time, so please try to understand that there's value in that.
"I'm confident that we will see games being created through Early Access programs that would've never been made without EA."