good example: 7 days to die only recently came out of alpha into beta after almost a decade, and it's still more fun than most of the modern AAA dreck looks to me...

No, i'm not joking. this game has been in development that long. currently $45, but for a minecraft game in a post-apocalyptic setting with actual voxel phsyics and more realistic graphics than its inspiration, versus some prechewed garbage at 70 bones, i can't complain.