The Rogue Prince of Persia developer Evil Empire doesn’t believe it’s worth entering early access in the current climate unless your project is at least 90 percent complete.
Speaking to Game Developer at Gamescom 2025, studio marketing manager Matthew Houghton and art director Dylan Eurlings shared their thoughts on the state of contemporary early access campaigns and suggested the system is becoming increasingly risky.
You might recognize Evil Empire as the studio that has spent years helping Dead Cells developer Motion Twin expand the franchise with DLC and free updates. Since May 2024, however, the studio has also been shepherding The Rogue Prince of Persia through an Steam Early Access campaign that culminated in an official launch on August 20.
Yet, due to a variety of factors including shifting player expectations, the team had to tweak their pre-release strategy in a bid to lure in players. As a result, the studio has become more wary of early access in general.
“To be honest, the way I see it now is that unless you’re coming into early access with a 90 percent complete game, don’t do it. Because players, they don’t see it as early access, they see it a game to play,” says Houghton.
He adds that players are entitled to express their views because they’re often paying money to play early access titles, but he feels that sifting viewpoint means consumers are less willing to follow games on an early access journey that will often result in significant changes.
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Eurlings echoes that point and suggests that a perceived lack of polish and content can now be a “huge issue” during early access campaigns. He explains that Evil Empire was even forced to rethink their original roadmap after the earliest versions of Rogue Prince of Persia failed to meet internal expectations.
“Initially we wanted to do quick updates. Very fast. In the end, we took a bit more time to ensure that each update would be a bit more chunky,” he adds, noting that pivot resulted in a steady cadence of monthly updates that each packed a fair bit of clout. That shift came after the team conceded that early access numbers “weren’t great.”
Houghton explains the project initially attracted just under 1,000 peak concurrent users (CCU). After they flipped the script, the title started to pull in around 4,000 CCU.
“That’s why we wanted to prioritize chunky content—there would be an impact every time,” says Houghton, before acknowledging the title still hadn’t quite met the team’s CCU expectations even after that switch-up.
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“Of course you listen to the feedback and take the ideas [on board], but you have to feed them through a filter.”
It underlines the risks that come with early access, and Houghton specifically wonders whether some developers who can’t hit that 90 percent completion benchmark before launching into early access might instead be better off conducting beta tests through Steam instead.
If you’re curious as to where Rogue Prince of Persia was when it entered Early Access, Houghton suggests the project was roughly 60 percent complete. Eurlings, was slightly more conservative, and claimed it was more like 50 percent. We suggested they meet in the middle.
“Steam has evolved now. You can do beta tests and playtests through Steam. I think that’s become more like Early Access. People aren’t paying for it and your project might be a bit janky […] but that’s okay because they’re still going to give feedback and it’s not going to be a disaster if it’s not great yet,” continues Houghton.
When asked whether Evil Empire would consider revisiting Early Access in the future, Houghton isn’t so certain.
“I don’t know. I’m going to be honest. I’ve been put off by it, because especially now people are so used to games coming out and then doing live ops for three, four, and five years—so why go with early access and have to deal with the stigma that’s around it? I think I would do playtests and then just release,” he explains.
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Houghton adds that teams who are still convinced early access is right for them must have complete conviction in their creative vision—otherwise they might risk being derailed.
“Of course you listen to the feedback and take the ideas [on board], but you have to feed them through a filter, otherwise you’ll have too many cooks. […] You’ll have people who are super enthusiastic who think you can’t do anything wrong, and then you get the people who are just super negative and people who are just throwing ideas at you that you know won’t work in the game.”
It’s a situation that can feel overwhelming, with Houghton explaining that Rogue Prince of Persia’s game director found the onslaught “too much” at times. “You have to stick to your vision,” says Houghton. “Listen, but just cherry pick [your feedback] carefully.”
Game Developer attended Gamescom 2025 via the Gamescom Media Ambassador Program, which covered flights and accommodation.