“Xbox Live and the ability to download new content is not a crutch to ship crappy software. And too often on the PC–I’m going to be blunt here–in the PC gaming space, games get out that developers know have problems because they know they can patch them later. They know they can force updates. And the act of playing [games online] becomes a pain in the ass, because you put the disc in and then you gotta download the patch and you gotta download the service pack and you gotta download the security hot fix, and then you gotta apply those things and reboot your machine. That’s not an entertainment experience. That is not fun.” – Jeff Henshaw, Group Program Manager - Xbox, 2010-10-06
I mean in the context of AAA games, especially on PC.
Most games that spend a few years in early access get many of the bugs ironed out.
Early access in the rest of the gaming space is like 72 hours over weekend for $10 extra.