WikipediaEarly access (often as EA, “ee-ey”) is a stage of the game where, the game is not “done” yet, but the publishers (or sometimes, the developers themselves) release it for public purchase in order to help drive funds for development, or for general user feedback.
A game leaves early access once it does its 1.0 release. Most games usually hide end-game story content, and a number of features before the release.
Examples
- Minecraft is a prominent example. Development and its “EA” (wasn’t called at the time) started in 2009 and only did a release by 2011.
- Officially, Timberborn is still in EA at the time of writing. It has been in EA for four years, since 2021.