SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 — The modern update of a retro classic, “Planetary Annihilation” is available in stores despite its status as an early access product with an unknown final release date.

It’s a spiritual successor to real-time strategies “Total Annihilation” and “Supreme Commander,” royalty in a PC gaming genre that was ascendant throughout the 90s and early 2000s.

It smashed its own Kickstarter target with a US$2.2 million (RM7.04 million) take in September of 2012, and — despite the game’s intimidating title — has cultivated and maintained an enthusiastic and supportive community, understanding of issues that can hamper in-development projects.

Up to 40 players build and deploy a complex of structures, resource gatherers and military machines in an effort to wrestle control of each match’s chosen planet or even its solar system.

The game has received good feedback, though some fans urge caution due to online networking issues, while still praising “PA” for its achievements and potential.

Sophisticated economic modelling, a wide range of intelligent units and base buildings, varied planet types and the prospect of planet-to-planet combat help give the game a unique appeal beyond the impressive graphical spectacle.

And staff at Uber Entertainment are clearly interested in pushing retail as well as gameplay models.

The Mac, PC and Linux work in progress was delivered to Kickstarter backers and made available for purchase on Steam in June 2013, but where normative alpha-funded titles tend to start low-priced before rising to a market standard (see “Minecraft,” “DayZ”), “Planetary Annihilation” reversed the trend.

Pricing high to stay in line with Kickstarter benefits, “Planetary Annihilation” was made available at US$90 via digital download site Steam in June 2013.

Since then, it has gradually dropped to its current level of US$49 for the digital download, even dipping temporarily to US$17 during Steam’s June 2014 sale.

December 2013 saw studio Uber Entertainment team up with publisher Nordic Games, with the aim of bringing “PA” to market — something else in common with word of mouth success “Minecraft” — though without revealing that it’d be quite so soon in the game’s development cycle.

But that’s not stopped Nordic from sending “Planetary Annihilation” to retailers before it’s feature complete; a Reddit user snapped a photo of the boxed product inside a branch of UK retailer GAME, marked up at £39.99 (RM219), and sporting a clear Early Access label.

Indeed, Uber had announced a retail release on June 20; Game Informer dutifully followed up by asking for more on the thinking behind the move.

“We had planned to do a retail release all along and the early access box came about as part of our experimental attitude. The real question is, why not?” responded game director Jan Mavor. “After all, they are getting the same game, just earlier. It’s a changing world and we hope to continue trying out new and innovative ways to make games.” — AFP-Relaxnews