Endless Legend 2 Developer Shares Insights on the Evolution of Early Access After Nearly 15 Years: ‘Players Can Be Quite Harsh’

Amplitude Studios made waves with its 4X fantasy title, Endless Legend, over a decade ago. Now, the sequel is gearing up to exit Early Access on Steam just a year after kicking off its post-launch development. Player expectations have shifted significantly in that time, a challenge the French studio faced while crafting Endless Legend 2.

“Looking back 10 or 15 years, players understood that they were engaging with an unfinished product,” said CEO Romain de Waubert de Genlis, one of the studio’s cofounders. “Today, if you launch an unfinished game in Early Access, you’ll face backlash… ‘I paid you 50 euros, and this is what I get?’ Expectations have changed dramatically.”

Endless Space, the studio’s first foray into 4X sci-fi strategy, was among the pioneers of collaborating with fans to refine a game during its development. De Waubert de Genlis noted that back then, players and media often avoided titles still in Early Access. Now, the Early Access launch is seen as the main event, while the official 1.0 release is viewed as just another significant update.

Endless Legend 2 had a promising start a year ago but fell into the modern Early Access pitfall, with some players expecting a more polished experience and others hesitating due to concerns about the game’s initial state. Even now, some Steam users are wary of the September 17 1.0 launch date. While the strategy game boasts impressive worldbuilding and a distinct identity, issues like a clunky UI and limited content have raised eyebrows.

“Initially, I viewed it as an opportunity to experiment, and experimentation allows for mistakes because creativity involves risk—sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” de Waubert de Genlis reflected on Endless Space 2’s Early Access experience. “You learn and improve, ultimately creating something solid, but the journey can be bumpy. Without risk, you end up with something flat, which is a tricky balance to strike.”

It appears that the team’s efforts across numerous patches and major updates were more focused on addressing player feedback than on bold experimentation to shape the game’s future. “Players can be quite unforgiving if something isn’t perfect in one of these updates,” he remarked. “It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re trying new things. We’re working on it.’”