Can AAA Publishers Just Embrace Early Access?

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I like Sid Meier’s Civilization VII a lot. It’s easily the game I’ve played the most of this year, and likely will be a game I play a lot of for the next several years. I appreciate the bold swings they took in adding the new Ages mechanic (a massive departure from Civilization games past) and requiring you to select a new, period-relevant civilization at the dawn of each age (a feature cribbed from fellow 4X strategy game Humankind but I think Firaxis Games implemented the feature with more refinement). It will definitely land among my Top 10 games this year, almost certainly within my Top 5.

A lot of folks agree with me. A lot of other folks…do not.