Destiny review copies being sent out one day before release, impacting review dates

J

jbug617

Banned
http://www.polygon.com/forums/desti...-reviews-editor-no-release-day-destiny-review

Hello friends. Unfortunately, I have some sub-optimal news: Destiny developer Bungie and publisher Activision have decided to ship out review copies for their game for arrival on Monday, Sept. 8. As the game launches on Sept. 9, there is no practical way for us to have a Destiny review in time for its launch at midnight on the 9th in your territory of choice.

Our reviewer — in this case, Phil Kollar — will be jumping on ASAP and will work as quickly as possible to get the game reviewed, but it's difficult to pinpoint when that will be. In the interim, we will be streaming quite a lot of Destiny as the review process unfolds.
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Don't know why Activision are sending review copies so late.

Also don't know if they are holding back just on Polygon or is it the same for all reviewers.

[modedit]

Update: Urk from Bungie has commented:

urk said:
We'll talk more about this in the update, but we did explore simulating a vibrant pre-launch population by giving early access to some fictive group, employing hired resources, and/or raising an army of sentient, killer robots. Ultimately, given that most reviewers are going to need to spend time with Destiny in the real world, under real conditions, we opted to have reviewers play alongside real players.
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[/modedit]
 
Doesn't make a difference for me since I'm buying this regardless of the score but it does suck for those who rely on scores to help with their buying decision
 
Should be interesting to see when every publication posts their review and how rushed some of them will likely be in order to be among the first
 
Well, it's not like the reviews matters to me since I played and enjoyed the Alpha/Beta, so I trust my own judgment on this one.
 
Guys, I need help.

If you could link me one video that convinces me to buy this game, which one would you choose? I'm super interested in the game but I've barely watched any footage besides the E3 footage but that wasn't enough to convince me.

I'm an inch from buying it on launch. Now I just need a video to convince me.

Go.
 
I hate this with a passion. Yeah, gaming journalism is far from the greatest, but they still serve a purpose, and I hate publishers trying to get all the day 1 sales they can from people who can't wait to see if games are actually good or not. ugh.
 
Requiem said:
Doesn't make a difference for me since I'm buying this regardless of the score but it does suck for those who rely on scores to help with their buying decision
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Not so much that, but reading the reviews and seeing the scores is a major part of the pre-release hype.

I've heard different to the above - that the 8th is the embargo date, so fingers crossed.
 
I guess this is due to the fact that servers won't be up until launch day. I'm not sure why they wouldn't put them up earlier for critics since the general reception of the game has been great from the alpha and beta.
 
This isn't necessarily the best sign. But in fairness, the game is like 90% online, so reviews of pre-launch environment would be bullshit anyway. It's either a SIms 4, or a Battlefield 4 situation.
 
Can't wait to read all these reviews that don't properly assess the meat of the game's content.

Reviews being closer to or on release are better for games that require persistent online connection anyways.
 
Not easily influenced by reviews, luckily... so it doesn't really bother me. I think it's pretty obvious what this game is and what it isn't, after the Alpha and Beta.

Unfortunately, I think this will lead to more reviewers just rushing through the game to spit out a number as soon as possible... which isn't helpful information for gamers. Shame, really. The original reviews should only be SP content anyway, considering it's MMO-ish, and how could you judge the quality of the multiplayer without the community...? Just reviewers isn't enough to review raids/strikes/etc.

Honestly, reviewing the "raids," will be an enormously difficult feat for reviewers. If they are as they've said, and there's no reason to think they won't be, trying to do a raid with no strategies discussed among the internet and with random other reviewers... that seems very difficult.
 
Lasty95 said:
Don't think that really applies here does it?
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My point was that there is a SP campaign you can solo.
They could have given them time for that part of the game. MP could always be updated later.

Could they be keeping the reviews and servers down to keep secrets and spoilers to a minimum?
 
This kind of stuff just screams a lack of confidence in their product.

Compare Activision's most recent other big release - Diablo 3 UEE - which was sent out something like two weeks in advance.

Not good.
 
Dont think it matters.

I find the notion that a reviewer can get a detailed opinion of a full game within a days time ridiculous anyway

Should take atleast 50+ hours to get through all the content in Destiny, so thrown together reviews just for the sake of having it out first can't be fully trusted beyond just being a " first impressions " type opinion that could easily change.

These types of games, your feelings about a game from day 1 to day 100 could change drastically. Once you get your first legendary weapon equipped or spend the massive xp to boost weapon abilities and unlock the armor piece or weapon skilltree or unlock the secondary skill tree of a class and begin to level up in that. Your whole thought on the process could be completely different.

The game will sell 10,000,000 in the first week anyway, so do reviews matter all that much?
 
Guess my money won't be ready at launch either.

Seriously though, for some reason I feel like I need to wait a week or two on this one just to see what people are saying about the amount of content.
 
Can't wait to see what site/sites rush out a review for launch day.

I assume it is because the public severs won't be activated until Sept. 8.
 
...no digital review copies? What the hell? Are AAA games required to have physical review copies or something? I got a review copy of an indie game digitally a month in advance, this seems really bad.

If they could throw the servers up for the Beta I'm sure they could leave one or two on for a couple hundred reviewers.

TomShoe said:
Now I'm thinking about putting the Ki-bosh on my pre-order.

Should I do it?
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If mine weren't a Ghost Edition I'd be tempted to. If it's a regular retail copy you don't have much to lose.
 
The Lamonster said:
This kind of stuff just screams a lack of confidence in their product.

Compare Activision's most recent other big release - Diablo 3 UEE - which was sent out something like two weeks in advance.

Not good.
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Joke post?

They have had 2 extremely public demos...
 
ced said:
Servers won't be up early I assume.
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Bungie said servers will be live as soon as its 12AM somewhere in the world. While the servers are offline there is still a SP component that can be played until you can do MP / Co-Op related stuff.
 
Things like this is why reviews don't matter, and blows my mind why people still use reviews.

It's not like movies where critics get to watch the movie early. It's a 3 hour movie, it's either good or not. A video game requires far more time. A week isn't enough to make a proper review, let alone a day.
 
Sir TapTap said:
...no digital review copies? What the hell? Are AAA games required to have physical review copies or something? I got a review copy of an indie game digitally a month in advance, this seems really bad.
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Plenty of AAA games are sent in digital format - all of Nintendo's recent releases are sent via digital review code. This is just a decision made by Activision to send out physical copies for review.
 
Interesting. This clearly wasn't an accident. Anyway I might cancel my preorder anyway. The first weeks to a month of an online only game are usually plagued with problems.
 
Erm, isn't/wasn't this blatantly obvious?

How could you possibly review Destiny without A) seeing how the servers hold at launch, and B) the active community shaping the experience?

Just having the gaming media online, plus Bungie staff, friends and family, isn't exactly going to flesh out the experience, not to mention things like Raids.

If you played the Alpha/Beta, you'll already know if you're getting it or not.

If you're waiting for a review, well then a launch day review was never going to accurately reflect the entire product anyway.
 
malfcn said:
My point was that there is a SP campaign you can solo.
They could have given them time for that part of the game. MP could always be updated later.

Could they be keeping the reviews and servers down to keep secrets and spoilers to a minimum?
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Destiny doesn't work like that. Servers need to be working regardless of single player, multiplayer or any of the other modes.
 
They wouldn't have let basically anybody who wanted to play the game do so at two different occasions already if they didn't have confidence in what they were making.
 
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