What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “VR is still very new, so we want to work together with players to figure out what works best, what people really want to play, and generally how this genre should evolve.



We hope players will help us make a really cool community, so that as more and more people get into VR there's a vibrant and fun multiplayer community waiting for them!” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “No ETA” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “The full version will be a continuation of the Early Access Version. We plan to add new activities, features, and customization options. We plan to keep working on the game, adding and tweaking in response to player feedback, as long as there is an engaged player base!” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “Rec Room is fairly mature - there is a rich multiplayer ecosystem of games to play (like Paintball, Laser Tag, and co-operative "Quests"), an evolving set of tools for players to create their own multiplayer rooms, a token economy where you can buy items to customize your avatar, and a companion website (rec.net).” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “Early Access will be free. We plan to add at least one (entirely optional) feature to test out the payment pipeline.



After launch, we plan to add some premium features over time that cost money (examples might be scheduled tournaments, or special avatar items). But our current plan is to always have a free tier that lets you get into the game and have a great experience. That could change depending on how the VR market develops, but that's our current thinking.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “We will be active in the forums (here on Steam, and on Reddit and Discord) to listen to feedback from players. We also have a feedback site:



https://recroom.canny.io/



In some cases we make work-in-progress activities available to players, clearly marked as "time limited Alphas" so the reduced quality won't be unexpected.



We post concepts, GIFs, videos, etc., of work-in-progress features so we can get feedback on whether people like the direction.



We have some (anonymous) telemetry and analytics in the game so we can do things like track session length, activity preference, etc. We want to be able to ask questions like "do people play activity #1 or activity #2 longer?"”