StarForge is an excellent example of how early access games are ruining the industry. First they ran an Indiegogo raising $135,453 USD, then they ran an early access campaign on Steam.
While the game showed a lot of promise and had great initial reviews, the developers never even came close to delivering on what they promised. The game is
broken, absolutely broken. Just take a look at the Steam Reviews
Link This is exactly what's problematic about early access, the ability to cash in on promises without ever having to deliver. While I can understand that developing a game can be challenging and not everything will go as planned, there are definitely developers who abuse the system (either by delivering a vastly different product than advertised or abandoning the project all together).
This isn't terribly difficult to combat; distribution platforms such as Steam can offer some form of
investment protection for early access games similar to that of Kickstarter's
Link including detailing exactly how funds were used, what work has been done, and what prevents them from finishing the project as planned. In more extreme cases of early access problems, developers should offer refunds or explain how remaining funds will be used to complete the project in some alternate yet equivalent form. In severe cases of misrepresentation, fraud, and abandonment, developers should also be liable to legal action by those who paid for early access as well as be subject to repercussions such having their developer status being pulled from distribution platforms.
Again, this isn't saying there's an intrinsic flaw with early access games; in fact, I would argue that very often if not predominately these games do work out to both developers and gamers benefit in the end. There is a true value both in early funding and in user-developer interaction and feedback. That being said, protecting early investors will not only help prevent the plague of bad projects, but will also entice more people to invest in good projects.