I was concerned about this business model from the onset and my worries have proven accurate! Buying the game while in early access would’ve given them more funding to work with instead of going with a free to play with cosmetic only purchases. I hope the affected developers are going to be okay in this layoff heavy year. 😭
Personally, I don’t think 7DTD is ready for a 1.0, there are stability and performance issues still plaguing this game. It’s possible the Fun Pimps could fix those glaring issues before 1.0 in June, but stability and performance have been a recurring issue in every version of their Alpha releases. Sure, the game at least has enough content to mostly qualify for a 1.0. They could always add new things via updates (if they don’t abandon the title post-1.0).