Early Access Is Not a Release Date: Reading Launch Labels
Storefronts are full of games you can buy today that are also "not out yet". The labels matter more than the dates, because each one promises something different — and some promise nothing at all.
The label decoder
- Early Access / Game Preview: a playable product that explicitly may never be "finished". Some evolve into greats; others marinate forever. Both outcomes are within the label's promise.
- Beta / Stress test: a gated window, often free, usually wiped. Not a launch — a rehearsal with data collection.
- Season / Chapter start: real dates for live-service content, but tied to a game you already need.
- 1.0 / Full release: the developers consider it done. This is the only label that means the calendar entry is about a whole game.
What belongs on your calendar
Calendars — including this one — exist so you can plan purchases and time. Early access launches belong on them (you are buying something), but treat their "roadmap" dates as fiction until storefront-listed. A roadmap promise is a hope with a quarter attached; a store page date has refund rules behind it.
Every entry in our games calendar carries its launch label for exactly this reason, alongside the confidence marking explained in our methodology.