Bethesda announce withholding review copies as official policy

DarthTokira · 14時間前

patientgaming intensifies

ceslek · 14時間前

It’s about fairness, you see. They just want “everyone, including those in the media, to experience our games at the same time.

That's an embarrassingly bad excuse for withholding review copies.

Geers- · 12時間前

If the statement were spinning any harder, it may have been a viable source of alternative energy.

Give this guy a trophy.

XTacDK · 14時間前

And I announce that I am going to withhold buying Bethesda games before the review copies.

Boom.

NekuSoul · 14時間前

They just want “everyone, including those in the media, to experience our games at the same time”.

Sure, that's totally the reason why they did this. What a great benefit for us regular gamers! /s

m29a · 13時間前

So they feel that reviews do not lead to positive sales.

But they want it both ways.

On the Dishonored 2 steam page, they've got a section for "reviews" that they're showing:

“Winner, Editor's Choice, E3 2016” Gamespot

“Editor's Choice, E3 2016” Eurogamer

“Winner, Best Multiplatform Game” Game Informer

catchinggriffins · 14時間前

Bethesda just keeps on getting more and more shitty. Wonder how far they will go.

Susarian · 12時間前

I am announcing a new, official purchasing policy in regards to Bethesda games: a one week waiting period after release. For fairness to my wallet.

my__name__is · 14時間前

I am sure I will get murdered here for this, but here we go:

Their aim is for prospective buyers to see nothing except marketing material prior to launch, and rely on customer impatience

Why is gamer patience some unattainable virtue that companies exploit so effortlessly? This entire issue seems like a bad joke. People are so utterly poor at waiting and controlling themselves, that we are supposed to get up in arms over a company not facilitating early reviews. Holy shit! Just wait a week! Pretend that the release date is a week later. Do you have nothing else to play? Are we so starved that a few days make all the difference? What possible difference does this announcement actually make? The game comes out, people review you, you decide if you want to buy it. Pretty straight forward.

KryptykZA · 12時間前

"We don't want people to know that we reskinned the Skyrim engine again for our latest games until it's too late"

WolvesCDQ · 12時間前

Not like this bethesda :(

FourOfFiveDentists · 11時間前

So what? It's not like we can't just wait till it comes out and see what people think.

If you preorder and then it turns out to suck that is your own stupid fault (for being a sucker).

Gamers should learn some patience.

McSeptim · 14時間前

I love their games...but I can't disagree that the company is taking a nosedive

Six_Foot_Turkey_64 · 14時間前

Preorder now! ^{^{^{^{^{^{^/s}}}}}}

rebuilt11 · 10時間前

not surprising after fo4 i am worried for next elderscrolls... ;(

totallywontstabyou · 10時間前

Just for clarity, this isn't Bethesda Game Studios, the developer of Skyrim and Fallout. This is Bethesda Softworks, the publishing arm of Zenimax Media. They publish games like Dishonored, DOOM, Skyrim, and Wolfenstein and are a different company than Bethesda Game Studios.

Iamnotyourhero · 12時間前

The lack of confidence they're showing in their brand's product is only going to be reinforced when they inevitably have a super-hyped release that ends up being a bug-riddled mess. Sounds like a good way to ruin an already shaky reputation.

LoneGhostOne · 13時間前

As much as i trust bethesda, and have always pre-ordered their RPGs without being disappointed, this makes me think twice about it, especially after the NMS ordeal...

CMDR_QwertyWeasel · 12時間前

Right after the NMS debacle, Bethesda announces "no review copies"... Opposite of a good decision.

I don't buy games as pre-order, I wait until I know what my money will get me before I buy, so personally, I don't care. But still, promoting pre-orders without review copies seems like a terrible decision.

Cartossin · 9時間前

This is really bad timing right after the whole No Man's Sky thing.

untide · 9時間前

In other words "we are taking a new direction, one that will make us more money at the cost of the quality of the product."

mattcruise · 8時間前

Works for me, as I have a 'don't purchase Bethesda games that aren't on sale policy'

MumrikDK · 13時間前

It's kind of funny.

In general they're probably one of the companies (as a dev) that easily can get away with this. If it says ES or Fallout, people will preorder and day-1 buy in the millions regardless.

For me personally they were already so suspect that I'd wait, not only for reviews, but for streams and forum discussions before considering buying a game from them.

__LordNibbler__ · 10時間前

Well that's fine. Just wait a bit longer. You don't have to buy games as they come out.

Suparockr · 10時間前

I'm reminded of how often people say Bethesda games start off strong, but turn to mush quickly. I'm super worried they're going to take advantage of reviewers getting like 8 hours of gameplay before being forced to write a review for tomorrow's launch, and giving a game that widely sucks a 9.5 because the start was really good.

And the thing is, this is what I expect from the litigious, greedy, lazy cast over at Bethesda. Once again, no preorders people, it's a dice roll where the house is stacked against you.

__________-_-_______ · 13時間前

But i assume still heavily promotes preorders

pyth15 · 12時間前

Yeah I don't pre-order anything. Mostly because there is 0 reason to. Digital games don't tend to run out of copies. I don't need to reserve physical media with a pre-order so I can play it release day. We're not living in 1997.

Read the reviews on day 1, buy it on day 2 if it isn't shit. Fuck buy it 10 hours post release if it isn't shit, it will be reviewed by then.

purplesmurf_1510_ · 11時間前

Really bad for consumers

mrgrim1138 · 9時間前

In 2016 we have witnessed game companies release games broken for example Batman Arkham Knight and Mortal Kombat 10. So if Bethesda cannot guarantee a finished quaility product until right up until release, than as the consumer we need to Not buy the game until it has been reviewed. We need to stop rewarding laziness and hold off until we know for sure if the product is good or not.

zoramator · 9時間前

That is sketch AF

I suspect they are using the old engine, it will have tons of bugs and they don't want anyone to know

spergery · 8時間前

Good. Seems like a great way to get people to stop preordering.

uzimonkey · 8時間前

You're confident enough in your product to take preorders, but not confident enough to let reviewers play it before release? Riiiiight, OK.

Salt_Mines · 4時間前

ITT: People who apparently bought games based on the information people with review copies gave gave them

patatepowa05 · 12時間前

I actually don't really care about review copies, I think it gives an unfair advantage to established reviewer who also tend to "play ball" with the publisher. With no review copies, small reviewers who don't hesitate to bash a game if they don't like it will be on an even footing with IGN.

With the presence of very liberal refund policies nowadays, even those who buy before any reviews are out will be able to get their money back. Not to mention that those refunds are really painful for publishers as they cost more money to process than the game is worth often.

There is an issue with games where the enjoyment of the game diminishes the further from launch date you are, for example any MMORPG. I think that for those games it would be in the publisher's interest to have the game reviewed by press before launch, so that players don't have to wait (and potentially lose enjoyment), by waiting on reviews.

Merigould · 14時間前

Doesn't really matter. Review copies or not, Bethesda titles are guaranteed to be buggy as shit.

nicknacc · 11時間前

Bethesda is planning on shittier and jankier releases than before?

wtfburritoo · 12時間前

What a complete and utter crock of shit.

Cranmanstan · 11時間前

It makes zero difference. All the "top" reviewers are paid off and are going to give great reviews to the big AAA games anyway.

The smaller reviewers/regular people don't get advanced copies to begin with.

And even then, companies like Bethesda and EA flood review sites and forums to argue against any criticism of a game.

I never get any new games now. I wait roughly 6 months, at which point the paid reviewers and forum trolls all go silent, and then check user reviews, general reactions, etc. Also helps that at that point the games tend to go on sale and have massive discounts, also a lot of times if there are DLCs and such they will get packaged in.

I haven't trusted the game media for a solid decade plus now.

R3DT1D3 · 11時間前

Bethesda announces it's next sequels are going to be even buggier and more broken but they want you to pre-order anyway.

3rdVisage · 6時間前

I'd say Bethesda took entirely the wrong idea from Doom, but it's obviously just a paper-thin pretense to justify securing that lucrative pre-order and day one dosh.

Doom succeeded in spite of, not because of, the lack of early reviews because it was a genuinely good game. In fact, after the multi-player beta and the announcement of no early review copies, I'd already written it off as a failure in the vein of Arkham Knight. After launch, I practically did a double-take when it was showered with praise and only started believing it after several different reviewers I trust gave it great reviews.

Now, several months down the line, I've bought it, 100%'d it and enjoyed every second of it and until today I was still bewildered by the "no early review copies" decision, but it finally makes sense. By releasing one good game with no early reviews, they'll now use it for justification for doing the same with games that maybe aren't as good.

Long story short, I think what we should take away from this announcement is to be extra dubious of upcoming Bethesda games. Skyrim: Ultimate Edition and Dishono(u)red 2 might be great; in fact I hope they are, but Bethesda's business practices are manipulative and they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

gufcfan · 11時間前

gufcfan announces that keeping his fucking money is his new official policy.

StargateGuy · 11時間前

Heh, Bethesda. Can't let people know your games are riddled with bugs too soon.

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