While cozy MMO Palia has seen a steadily growing following, its beta is having a harder time catching on via Steam… because it doesn’t say it’s a beta, and it plays as such, according to players.
Since Palia’s Steam launch on the 24th, a slew of negative reviews has shown up on its store page, ripping on the game’s quality. Steam reviews are often far more brutal than even the harshest formal criticism, but many are doing more work to warn players that the game is in beta (or early access) than the official page does.
At the present moment, there is no official verbiage at all on the Steam page about Palia being in any sort of pre-release version. This includes in the full description for the game itself, which boasts “cozy community sim MMO.”
It’s unclear if Steam actually requires Early Access specification if your game is in any sort of similar phase in game. However, as a consumer tool, it helps potential players know if their gameplay will be disrupted by or lesser for any progress made in development (or lack thereof), while devs can continue that progress and have more visibility for feedback purposes.
Meanwhile, Palia devs have sent out an update via the team’s official blog, clarifying that “the game remains as a title still in open beta.”
“We're aware that there has been feedback regarding our messaging and status on various platforms, but the emphasis is that Palia is free-to-play and available for anyone to try,” the post explains. “It is a continuous, ongoing effort, and we are committed to providing patch updates with new content, improvements, and bug fixes well into the future.”
Palia is in open beta on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Epic Games Store, and via an independent downloader for PC.
Thanks to Dualius for the tip!
