They got bait and switched is my understanding. The game they played included the content from the micro transactions without them being informed they weren’t part of the base game.
This kind of behavior should be enough for outlets to blacklist developers. But since they don’t/wont/can’t band together to do that, they have no say in how games are reviewed.
Not mentioning micro transactions is equivalent to not mentioning the price. Why review a game if you don’t know if it will be $50 or $100 at launch?
Capcom basically asked them to review a game that doesn’t even exist, they asked them to review a dev build.
Anyone that reviews a game in advance of release knows they are playing a different game than the release version. The guy in the article even stated they told him exactly what he was getting, but he didn’t READ it. Then afterwards felt entitled to those things in another SKU and so wrote a hit piece that everyone, that also didn’t look at the store page, is now all fired up about.
This is only partially true. Reviewers know that the exact build and exact code aren’t final when reviewing, that is true and normal. The reviewer does however expect that gameplay systems, graphics, audio, and the rest are mostly complete with only minor tweaks needed. The game should be 99% done by the time reviewers have it.
Yet nowadays the game is not 99% done. This even applies to huge day 1 patches. Like great you patched stuff but also reviewers can’t assess performance and bugs properly for consumers that way. Same is true of monetization which is a huge factor for enjoyment in modern games.
This is misinformation. No “bait and switch” occurred at all. You have to go out of your way to even find the micro-transactions, and then when you do they are useless if you have actually played your way through the game. Reviewers got all of this in detail with their review keys, but adding time into your review to talk about something that is basically an afterthought and has no affect on the actual game seems like a waste of time. These people are all rushing to release content as soon as the embargo is lifted. So putting extra time into a review to talk about something 99% of people will never see does not have a great return on effort.
The whole thing is a scam. Their entire business model is dependent on receiving early access games so hype will drive some ad revenue. How many early access games will they get if they give bad reviews?
To stop this, gamers would basically have to union up and full boycott any developer who did not give early access to their union’s reviewers. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Yep, and to keep that access to games (and their livelihood) most of them have to talk well about games or risk being cut off.
I wonder if more games will go the Lost Ark route and make the massive paywall at the endgame. Then reviewers will play the games for 30+ hours and it’s still fun, but then hit that endpoint and if you don’t open up your wallet you don’t go anywhere.
I played it for a while and it is some of the best ARPG out there. The cities feel lively and the world was great, even got a boat. But then realizing with the endgame in order to get groups it was either farm eight hours a day or start spending money. Lots of money. No thanks
I always wait until the Steam reviews about a week after. Has kept me from making a few mistakes.
I still have Starfield a try since it is included in Xbox Gamepass and holy hell, if I paid $10 for that game it would have been a rip off. It was about as exciting as watching shampoo commercials after taking three tabs of Xanax.
What the fuck.
They got bait and switched is my understanding. The game they played included the content from the micro transactions without them being informed they weren’t part of the base game.
This kind of behavior should be enough for outlets to blacklist developers. But since they don’t/wont/can’t band together to do that, they have no say in how games are reviewed.
Not mentioning micro transactions is equivalent to not mentioning the price. Why review a game if you don’t know if it will be $50 or $100 at launch?
Capcom basically asked them to review a game that doesn’t even exist, they asked them to review a dev build.
They should automatically deduct 3 points from the publisher’s titles for “X” amount of time when they pull this shit.
Anyone that reviews a game in advance of release knows they are playing a different game than the release version. The guy in the article even stated they told him exactly what he was getting, but he didn’t READ it. Then afterwards felt entitled to those things in another SKU and so wrote a hit piece that everyone, that also didn’t look at the store page, is now all fired up about.
EDIT s/did/didn’t
This is only partially true. Reviewers know that the exact build and exact code aren’t final when reviewing, that is true and normal. The reviewer does however expect that gameplay systems, graphics, audio, and the rest are mostly complete with only minor tweaks needed. The game should be 99% done by the time reviewers have it.
Yet nowadays the game is not 99% done. This even applies to huge day 1 patches. Like great you patched stuff but also reviewers can’t assess performance and bugs properly for consumers that way. Same is true of monetization which is a huge factor for enjoyment in modern games.
This is misinformation. No “bait and switch” occurred at all. You have to go out of your way to even find the micro-transactions, and then when you do they are useless if you have actually played your way through the game. Reviewers got all of this in detail with their review keys, but adding time into your review to talk about something that is basically an afterthought and has no affect on the actual game seems like a waste of time. These people are all rushing to release content as soon as the embargo is lifted. So putting extra time into a review to talk about something 99% of people will never see does not have a great return on effort.
thats part of the reason why i stopped trusting reviewers
The whole thing is a scam. Their entire business model is dependent on receiving early access games so hype will drive some ad revenue. How many early access games will they get if they give bad reviews?
To stop this, gamers would basically have to union up and full boycott any developer who did not give early access to their union’s reviewers. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Yep, and to keep that access to games (and their livelihood) most of them have to talk well about games or risk being cut off.
I wonder if more games will go the Lost Ark route and make the massive paywall at the endgame. Then reviewers will play the games for 30+ hours and it’s still fun, but then hit that endpoint and if you don’t open up your wallet you don’t go anywhere.
Paywall at the end is some sociopathic behavior previously unknown to me. I have to respect the ingenuity of that, even though it is despicable.
It’s why Lost Ark fell off so hard.
I played it for a while and it is some of the best ARPG out there. The cities feel lively and the world was great, even got a boat. But then realizing with the endgame in order to get groups it was either farm eight hours a day or start spending money. Lots of money. No thanks
I always wait until the Steam reviews about a week after. Has kept me from making a few mistakes.
I still have Starfield a try since it is included in Xbox Gamepass and holy hell, if I paid $10 for that game it would have been a rip off. It was about as exciting as watching shampoo commercials after taking three tabs of Xanax.