How Assassin's Creed Unity weaponized review embargoes

Polygon:
"There’s always a meta-commentary to be had about the timing and execution of game reviews. If a review comes out a good ways before launch, such as the new Dragon Age game, it’s usually a sign of confidence. Strong reviews that far out can help boost pre-order numbers and lead to a larger launch at retail. A good, strong early review can have an appreciable effect on the business of launching a game.

The reviews for Assassin’s Creed Unity were held until noon, Eastern time today. The game will have been available to purchase for as long as a dozen hours before anyone could read whether it was good or bad, or if it suffers from technical problems."

[ArchangelMike]

Wow. Excellent article from Polygon. I was in two minds about gettig Unity. Now I'm getting GTA V and Far Cry 4... oh and Dragon Age 3...

Yeah Unity can wait.... if I ever get to it...

[SCW1982]

I will wait on Far Cry just for the fact that Ubisoft doesn't deserve any sales for there practices right now. I hope more people will follow suit. No matter how much we want a game if a company uses these kinds of practices the company needs to be put on red alert.

[NewMonday]

or people can just stop buying games Day1, wait for the masses to try it out if someone is on the fence.

because of Gamergate websites are lying low from the usual score mark-up they sell to publishers, hope this goes on.

[Mikelarry]

@ new monday

"or people can just stop buying games Day1, wait for the masses to try it out if someone is on the fence"

lol if everyone takes your advice then how will anyone know if its shit or not :).

OT: with ubisoft I will start waiting for reviews and a few weeks after launch before buying their games as i have noticed a trend with them this gen

[jebabcock]

Ironically most of the reviews from polygon are crap clickbait anyway. I can see their strong desire to not have embargoes. Having to wait 24 hours after a game to release is just unacceptable. Think of all the clicks they are missing! And all those people who pre ordered the game...poor souls. If the review had come 24 hours earlier they would have read the polygon review first definitely as we know everyone who rushed out to buy it day 1 looks for the reviews first...

Let's not kid ourselves here. An embargo forces reviewers to potentially play the final game in its actual live state before dumping a number and a sloppy set of comments out there.

As a consumer if I have questions about a game I am willing to wait a day to read a proper review. Aside from that, all those mcc reviews that were 9s and 10s obviously didn't warn anyone of the server issues there....

[Findingcrybabies]

Yeah you need to worry about Farcry too. Thats a Ubishit game as well. I'm not saying don't get it, I'm just saying it would be best to see a few articles on it before spending your money.

[caseh]

I've a feeling FC4 will be fine, it hasn't been reduced to a one year cycle just yet, not far off though.

[Pozzle]

Far Cry 4's review embargo lifts a few days before the game's release, so it will be interesting to see what sort of scores it will get. Ubisoft seem more confident with FC4's quality than the new AC games.

[2cents]

This practice should be outlawed.

Its fine to hold till release if there are elements of the game being revealed that would ruin the fun for the reader but to force silence after the actual game is available to purchase on shelves is just disgusting.

Ubisoft, this generation seems to be defining you as an EA wannabe. Stop beings so stupid, and respect your client base. We, collectively do have the power to make you fold.