Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 doesn't even officially launch until 9th September on PS5, but judging by the very healthy number of players who shelled out extra for Early Access, Saber Interactive has a bonafide hit on its hands.Through the ever-illuminating use of SteamDB, we can see Space Marine 2 quickly racked up an impressive 134,302 concurrent players on PC alone, and that was day one, mid-week.
These devoted servants of the God-Emperor dutifully handed over either the $89.99 asking price for the game's Gold Edition or the $99.99 demanded by the Ultra Edition, which, in addition to other goodies, grants four days of Early Access. While this isn't our favourite new industry trend, it's clearly here to stay.
Admittedly anecdotal, but this humble servitor has been playing a bunch of PvP, putting the fear of the Imperium into more than a few unfortunate heretics. Overwhelmingly, the players we've encountered were on PS5, so we'd be willing to bet that a similar (if not greater) horde has assembled on console.
Did you treat yourself to a cheeky bit of Space Marine 2 Early Access? What do you think so far? Hold fast in the face of overwhelming odds in the comments section below.
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Im not even a Warhammer fan and I want to play this
I will never pay extra to play early. It's idiotic to play something this day in age early where most games don't even function properly on release that they require a huge day 1 patch. Star Wars Outlaws being a pure example of this.
Just finished downloading it, got the Ultra edition so i shell be playing later on today.
@Nepp67 Well a lot of people might have also got the Gold/Ultra version because it contains a season pass.
Also the Outlaws thing was overblown. Anyone who got the game digitally wasn't impacted as the patch was included in the download. It was only disc players who got the game way too early that were impacted. Day 1 patches are never really day 1 anyway as they are added to the game before release date.
@DennisReynolds @Nepp67 I agree with both of you on this..I'll never pay extra to play early (it's not that important in the grand scheme of things) and the day one fixes,updates etc whilst annoying are one of those things the modern gamer just has to accept and learn to live with..
Isn't PvP separated between consoles and pc?
Yeah I really don't Like this trend of an early access premium, however it's something I can just avoid it for the slimey thing that it is. People will pay it however, and that's why they do this and any of the additional $ extraction schemes.
This got me thinking though: I wonder how much of the population that is buying into these Early Access premiums are actually streamers and content creators or whatever they want to call themselves that have an incentive to be able to get their videos out earliest. Like what if this is just a way that devs and Publishers formulated a targeted plan to nickel and dime that crowd(in addition to reg gamers willing to fork it over), because they know that they'll pay to get stream views and review videos out because it equates to more views from the masses that are eagerly awaiting the release and seek out that type of release window content.
"Early access" is ***** marketer speak. The game is out, you're simply not allowed to play it yet if you 'only' bought the standard edition.
I just spent way too much on games the last month, but man does this look like pure gaming bliss. In a month or so. Hope everyone has fun. I went with Astrobot and Bakeru on Switch. We still have Mahvel next week too, and I need to get a few copies of that one!
@DennisReynolds Games sometimes come out at the beginning of my work week. I'd pay to get a big game I am anticipating on my weekend.
Definitely getting this at some point.
Never tried one of these before but this has my interest
Shame on PC it forces you onto the epic games store without ever mentioning it 🙄.
Idk guys, that's only 56 times as many players as Concord's beta managed at its peak 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Stickleman Stop with this nonsense misinformation. the game uses Epic Online Services which is one of the best enablers for cross-play on PC.
Epic Online Services has literally nothing to do with EGS other than the fact they’re made by the same company.
Agree with @Northern_munkey and the others. Glad the games doing well and it looks great but i wouldnt ever shell out more to play a few days early. Its a scum bag tactic.
"heres the release day but if you pay us more you get a special release day"
@ChrisDeku How's it misinformation when they don't say anything about epic but I'm forced to make an epic account and installing whatever without ever mentioning it. Couldn't give a toss if it's one of the best online services.
Much how many hated the fact HD2 tried to force people to make a PSN account
@Stickleman You haven’t actually played it have you? I’ve literally never had to create an account to play any game that uses EOS for crossplay(Returnal has it too for example).
You can also delete EOS if you want but you won’t have full cross-play enabled.
Do games that use Unreal Engine warn you that you are installing something made and owned by Epic? Do you just not buy any games made on UE or what? Is it only bad if it has Epic in the title? What’s the deal exactly?
I would never pay for an early access but i'm glad the game doing well.
This isn't a new trend, early access by paying a premium became popular in the mid 2010s. Every day you leave me scratching my head. And we pay for things in pounds in the UK, not dollars.
I paid for early access but will play when it expires
@KundaliniRising333 Early access has been around for years. I can't understand why a journalist thinks it's a new trend and gives us that impression. It wasn't a promotional push by publishers to tempt streamers into playing it because back then there wasn't a huge streaming community like now.
It was purely to take advantage of people with the will and the way to pay extra for early access. And we've been doing that for decades with the postal service.
Oh look! Another single player game done well which is going to sell by the bucketload without gouging players for tat. TAKE NOTE, SONY.
@Johnnycide they already have with Astrobot.
@riceNpea There was some early access before for games that were online games, but nothing like we have now. It’s now common for games that are primarily single player games(or with a significant single player portion) to have 3-5 day early access when the game is basically ready to be played for everybody and people are forced to wait a few days longer if they dont pay extra. The first examples of this modern style is probably the Microsoft games starting with Forza Horizon 5.
Edit: Also of note is that Steam Early Access has been around for a long time but that is real Early Access where the game isn’t actually finished
@ChrisDeku Metal Gear V and Deux Ex did it to name a couple. There are others.
The point is it's far from a new trend. I don't know how a journalist can say that and make it public. It just not true and stirs up controversy. It's an old argument. There was a big fuss when Deux Ex did it. We've been down this road, I'm baffled how it's being presented like it's new.
@riceNpea I have no recollection of MGSV being widely available for early access, and when I google it I can’t find any. Are you sure this was full access to the whole game?
From what I remember of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided it was a very different scheme where access was based on overall pre-order numbers and the whole scheme was very complicated with lots of editions. That also got scrapped after a fan backlash and they never went through with it.
Even if there are some examples thats clearly not the same as what’s happening now where it is now a fully embraced and accepted part of the system. There will probably be something like 20+ examples of this early access this year. That never happened regularly before the last couple of years.
Pvp is fun yet disappointing. Sluggish gameplay with only 3 maps and 3 game modes, 2 of those being fairly similar. A new pvp game mode and pvp arenas will be added in season 3 in 2025. Lackluster season 1 regarding pvp
@ChrisDeku i may have misremebered, could've been prerelease bonus content. Fair enough, apologies for that. How about Gears of War 4 Ultimate Edition? The point stands that this is not a new trend, it all started back then and has grown into what we see now. I agree with you that it is more prevalent now, that's for sure.
@Killionaire genuinely curious...I don't own the game yet, isn't PVE its focus? As someone who plays it, is the end game not substantial enough to stay with PVE and not be that bothered about PVP? I hope thats not the case. I was like that with Destiny. Didn't care much for PVP which wasn't all that at first, and the PVE keeped me hooked well past the point where PVP had more meat on the bone. Can I consider this the same?
Well worth it, game is amazing. The huge numbers of aliens on screen and the up and personal fighting feels so good. And the graphics and sound elevate it even further. The cherry on the cake is the great story and voice acting.
Price you list is wrong Gold is 99.99 and Ultra 109.99
@Silbermetallic I'm sure the Pro would improve it even more, yes.
@Sveakungen it is and yes you can. Space marine (2011) pvp was meaty and a big deal. Here it's operations that will keep you busy for a while
@Victor_Meldrew Not really as the game will get new modes, maps, enemies and weapons for free. There's no MTX either so the season pass is a pretty fair trade off for the amount of free content this game will get
@Silbermetallic Kannst du kein Englisch? Ik ga hier ook geen vragen in het Nederlands beantwoorden lol
Have to admit to be somewhat miffed. I paid the most of the lot; £225 for the Collector's Edition, and it still has not arrived. Bearing in mind I paid a further £25 on top of that for the privilege of courier delivery, it's particularly poor of Focus Entertainment for them to not to have dispatched it early enough for it to arrive in time for the early access...
Warhammer 40.000 space marine 2.and astro bot are instant hit.2 different games.and both are awsome video games.word up son
Never played a Warhammer game outside of pc games my brother had like 25+ years ago ...but I have pre ordered this one(standard) ...thought the game looked good and seemed to offer a nice package of content for multiplayer and single player....don't seem to get that as often nowadays
Call it what it really is - it's "artificially delayed access" for regular consumers.
@Johnnycide Soooooooo... Astro Bot? Which is coincidentally not charging players extra to access it before others like this is.
@Silbermetallic I can see that but why?
I absolutelly hate the early access crap theyre pulling off. And ofcourse the “real release” is on ***** monday.
Its never gonna change, i know, but i couldnt bring myself to dishout 30 euro extra to be able to play it.
Thank god AstroBot doesnt do any of these shady practices and it makes the wait way sweeter. Had no problem paying for digital deluxe these.
@Loamy I’m gonna pick it up! How are the trophies? Are there some based on multiplayer and or cooperative play?
Put a few hours into it and so far its been fantastic. Pretty tough mind you and had to crank down the difficulty to normal from veteran. Can see the influences from World War Z with how they do the swarms and despite the sheer number of enemies on screen the 60fps seems to hold.
@Rjak I believe it tis
@MrPeanutbutterz we don’t have sales or preorder numbers on Astro bot, which is why I didn’t mention it. I’m sure it’ll do well, hopefully exceptionally so.
@Killionaire why not? Maybe his English isn’t at the level he would like before commenting.
Only playing the campaign on PC at the moment, but loving every minute.
So refreshing to have just a solid single player experience with a good story.
@Silbermetallic it's an english site. A lot of people don't understand german.
Can you answer my question now?
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