No Rest For The Wicked Dev Says Going With Early Access Paid Off Well

Coming out just a little over a week ago in early access, No Rest for the Wicked is a promising new RPG that’s advertised to “reinvent” the genre as a whole. The title’s Steam rating dropped to “Mixed” on launch, but has now quickly recovered in the wake of Moon Studios tending to persisting in-game issues.

Taking to X, the Creative Director of the title and CEO of the studio Thomas Mahler has talked about the early access effect at length, defending the system and exemplifying with Dark Souls and how it could’ve benefitted from this type of release. Apparently, releasing No Rest for the Wicked in early access has been “one of the best decisions” of Moon Studios. 

We’re not even a week into Early Access and it’s already pretty clear that going with EA is one of the best decisions we could’ve made. I see some people are still irked about why games like Wicked, Hades 2, Larian’s new game, etc. launch into Early Access even if the studio ‘should have the funds to finish the game and release it then’. But that’s looking at a complex problem through a way too simple lens,” said the developer. 

Additionally, Thomas talks about some titles that could’ve actually used the early access period to hone themselves before coming out for a full release, putting the central focus on the first Dark Souls to add weight to his point. 

Imagine Dark Souls 1 would’ve been in Early Access – Instead of From rushing to ship a boxed product in a somewhat unfinished state, they probably would’ve been able to look at the second half of that game and still fully form and polish the less polished areas like Lost Izalith, etc.“

No Rest For The Wicked’s Early Access Period Is Currently Indefinite

In all honesty, I see a lot of potential in what No Rest for the Wicked is hoping to accomplish. It draws just the right type of inspiration from mega-hit franchises such as Dark Souls, Diablo, and, of course, the Ori series, that it ends up creating a mixture that’s novel and high-quality in its essence. Oh, and the fact that the title is exempt from featuring microtransactions and Battle Passes is just the cherry on top. 

No Rest for the Wicked was released on April 18, 2024, for PC in early access, and will come out on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation as well when it’s finished developing.