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Are you sure those AAA games released early because of the Early Access trend? Keep in mind they did not release as Early Access, but as full release. A much m

Are you sure those AAA games released early because of the Early Access trend? Keep in mind they did not release as Early Access, but as full release. A much more fitting theory is simply that such AAA games are absolute monsters in terms of cash expenditure and as all software developments are, very hard to estimate in advance; so they probably ran into cash flow trouble and managers decided to just release it and fix everything else after release, which has a VERY long tradition.

Zikes 11y ago
I think it's a little of column A, a little of column B. The consumers are desensitized to the bugginess of early access, and therefore more forgiving of companies releasing games that aren't yet finished. Companies have been releasing buggy games for a long time, but are pushing those limits further every year.