I think - to be successful - if they do steam early access they have to be prepared to respond to posts on the steam forum either daily or at the very least a couple of times of weeks. This is a much higher participation than we see here but that seems to be what is making blackguard quite successful. Silence tends to result in negative reaction (i guess people imagination run wild). Anyway I'm not sure that level of participation is required but it does seem to set folks at ease even if they don't like the answer.
