Ubisoft's Not Sending out Early Review Copies For Steep

Ubisoft announced today that they will not be sending out any early review copies for their sports game Steep.

[PhoenixUp]

Uh oh that doesn't sound good

[k2d]

There's been two betas. One of them open to the public. If you hadn't played one of them, and you can't be bothered to wait a couple of days, what are you complaining about?

[UltraNova]

Exactly.

[JD_Shadow]

The reasons are simple: betas are known to have bugs in them because they are actively testing the game out in a real-world setting. In other words, a beta should NEVER be viewed as a direct representation of what the final product will be like. The beta is there to make sure that the final product won't have what you expect a beta to be. Reviewing a beta version of a product is counterproductive for a variety of reasons, all of which common sense would prove true.

What REVIEWERS would get is what the final product would be like. As in, what you would go to a store to pick up off the shelves, or download as something that they are going to sell to you full price. This is what they will be presenting to the general gaming public, and this is the product you would expect to be free of bugs, glitches, or problems. This is called making sure Ubisoft gets those preorder sales figures up without having to worry about reviewers (and yes, there ARE some very honest ones still) telling people to wait a second before preordering. They don't WANT that to be out there, and this is not something they overlooked, but rather why they even did this.

And thus, a LOT of reasons to complain about it! It's VERY anti-consumer, and it's so obvious to see why!

[Goldby]

@JD Shadow

While that is true for most games, the Beta's for Ubisoft Games have been a large portion of the full game themselves.

Division you could get to level 8 and have 10% of the map available to you.
Steep is the same thing. and people realized that without friends, Steep is Boring. i was really looking forward to the game, but it doesn't hold attention and feels like its relyign too much on the community to keep content up

[TheOptimist]

Oh I get it now, those companies that are famous for trash ports aren't sending Review copies. Gret going, great going indeed.
PS: I am getting 33 fps on WD2 with GTX 1070 and i5-6500, apparently the game using 100% of the CPU due to which such low frame rates

[kevnb]

poor optimization period, I tried assassins creed unity on ps4 and it was unplayable for example.

[TheOptimist]

Lol?
I don't understand why they are giving away copies of Watch Dogs 2 with GTX 1070 when Pascal is having problems with the game

[Hoffmann]

Because of this crap I never buy Ubisoft games before they are at least a year old and patched multiple times...the nice side effect is that there are often gotc editions with the dlc and sold below 30 bucks

[TheOptimist]

It's good I didn't buy the game lo, got it with the card.

[Chexs1990]

So you won't buy Bethesda games before they are 1 year old anymore either i take it?

On a serious note though, i'm beginning to fear that other studios will pick up the Bethesda rule as a permanent deal. That would kinda blow -_-

[Goldby]

@chexxus

It would put alot of reviewers out of business.

[zivtheawesome]

actually the bad performance seems to be only on the 1000 series, will probably be fixed on an update.

[TheOptimist]

I hope they do, it is a fun game otherwise.

[INMATEofARKHAM]

I played the beta, a little not a lot, on PC and never had frame issues... It's an extremely beautiful game.

It's issue, I suspect, is that it seemed to lack soul... Or that's what I walked away thinking. (I'll likely pick it up on sale at some point but it's going to have to get way cheaper.)

[CPTN MITCHELL]

Day one for me...play both close and open beta and i really like the game

[Nevers0ft]

I was in both of those betas as well and agree that the game played well, I really got into the "exploration" side of things... But I think I'll hold off buying it day one, even Ubisoft don't appear to have much confidence in it so I'll probably hang back a week or two, see how the launch goes.

[Goldby]

same as you N?ever. i like it, but can justify speding 90- bucks on it

[Benoski]

It's like The Division.

Steep's mainly mean't for online, so Ubisoft wants to hold back review copies until they open the servers.

[Allsystemgamer]

That's why you send out enough review copies to get it populated. Or organize slots for reviewers.

[Goldby]

no its like division in that after the main events are done, it will be a very boring game unless they figure a way to not rely on the players to create that content, and make solo riding more fun

[morganfell]

Good. More companies should take this approach. These parasitic blogs and websites that leech off the industry when they are simply loud mouthed opinionists need to engage in actually journalism or else find another job.

[Princess_Pilfer]

1) The companies making the games are the single least trustworthy source of information about the game, they have multi million dollar steaks in selling as many copies as possible. Thus, the only trustworthy information is 3rd party.

2) It's all opinions. The whole point is that they can provide the actual facts about the game and their experience with them so that you can use that to determine if you might like it. You aren't supposed to take reviews on blind faith, believe it or not.

3) Because they keep pushing pre-orders that actively punish people for waiting for that information to make an informed decision, any "just wait" argument is invalid. They're deliberately setting up a system with the specific intention of not letting any of their lies/misrepresentations/design aspects people don't like/performance problems be exposed and turn people off buying the game, and if you don't buy into it then they punish you.

[morganfell]

Except they do not provide facts. These so called reviewers are often quite wrong. They have no standards and no real editor in chief to keep them on an even keel. They are free to execute their opinion driven agenda. I can read plenty about a game and watch enough videos before release, before reviews to determine if I wish to buy it. I do not need basement Billy to tell me what to do. Neither do you if you would exercise a little control and conduct some research. And companies are not the only ones that lie. Plenty of these so called journalists do wither through intent or by simple incompetence.

So what if they push preorders? Are people so incapable of resisting the temptation to buy? Why should these milktoasts get to blame someone else for their own inability to control their impulses? This crap society where someone else is to blame for you lack of self control is beyond ridiculous. No one is forcing you to buy day one or day ever.

Just wait.

If more people did that these companies would alter the way they make games. They would in the end release better titles. Titles with more offerings to get you to buy. Less buggy games. If companies are to blame for your lack of purchasing control then the public is to blame for these companies rushing out incomplete games. Its a two way street. I don't buy into either one of those ideas but if you buy into one then the other applies as well. Grow up, be an adult, watch the previews, and exercise patience.

[Princess_Pilfer]

They DO provide facts. They detail gameplay systems, graphical settings, performance on their hardware, details about the story and characters and specific failings or high points, ect.

News flash, part of that research is reading/watching reviews (which, btw, is usually the only trustworthy gameplay footage pre-release.) In fact that's most of the research.

They've set up a blatantly anti-consumer practice where you buy on blind faith and gamble your $60 or you have to spend extra money on getting the whole product. That's what. Believe it or not, I don't pre-order games or buy on day 1 wether their are reviews or not, that doesn't change any of my points, so maybe stop being condecending long enough to address my actual points.

No, companeis are to blame for their ****y behavior as they try to actively deny accurate information to consumers and punish people for making smart decisions. Responsibility begins and ends with the people who made the decisions.

[morganfell]

Those are not the facts most gamers are interested in. "Is it good" That is the fact they want. And that is a fact only they can provide for themselves. Graphical settings and the like are not something one needs a reviewer to provide. Performance on their hardware? If you are talking PC then it is now machts nichts due to all the variances in everyone's PC. Impossible to calculate. Failings and high points are again subjective. Story and character are something to be found in plenty of previews unless you like spoilers. If companies are to blame for their behavior then lack of ability to do preview research and control one's buying habits are the fault of the consumer. You can't have it both ways. All buyers have to do is wait until after the game launches. Then they can be led around by the nose and told what to buy AND they will likely get the game after the first patch drops.

Acting as if reviewers are some bastion of truth and honesty is not only blind following but it is laughable. I am loving this no reviews before launch trend.

[Goldby]

@Morgan.

Reviewers are supposed to look at what ever product they are reviewing objectively. not holding any bias towards or against the product.

For Video games, those reviews should be including a few things.
1)game mechanics and how they operate
2) brief introduction to story of game (equivalent of a recap for people just starting)
3)any issues with performance
4)glitches or bugs
5)fun to play?

Thats really all that needs to be looked at when performing reviews. The reason why Ubisoft and Bethesda are getting shit up to their knees about this is that in the past, both have released some bad games. Ubisoft, has a worse track record lately. and if Honest Reviewers are given the opportuntity to inform the gaming community of the issues with games, then no one is stopping the companies from not delivering on that "fun" aspect.
Division was fun for about 5or so hours. after the story finished it was boring. would you rather someone inform you of that before the games comes out so that you know not to pre-order or even purchase day one?

IF we are having to waiting weeks or even a month for reviews before games end up getting purchased, companies will through in more useless DLC for pre-orders, special items that become super weak or non existant after the first 1 hour of gameplay.

We need the honest reviewers to keep the companies in check to make sure they aren't ripping us off as much as they feel they could

[ShottyatLaw]

This practice only benefits the publishers, and does nothing for you.

You may want to focus on the reviewers, bloggers, and YouTubers who are only out for clicks, but what about the ones who legitimately assess and review products to inform the purchasers?

If this practice continues, the "actual journalists" will push back and begin to refuse to produce preview coverage for these games. Can't blame them. It's the publisher's right not to send these copies out, but it will only lead to more ass kissing and press release regurgitating churnalism.

Many reviews have saved me $ at the electronics store or the movie theater. I cannot see how this is a positive to consumers at all. Yes, consumers should wait to purchase, but instead of criticizing the gamers who are eager to play an anticipated title, criticize the companies pushing preorders only to hide from critics in order to take advantage of hype.

[Perjoss]

Thanks Bethesda

[IamTylerDurden1]

Steep looks fun, but not visually impressive. I can see it getting mediocre reviews.

[Goldby]

its only fun when theres friends playing with you

[Crazyglues]

It's because that game is garbage, I was in the closed beta... it sucked..

[InMyOpinion]

I was in the open beta. Lots of wasted potential.

[Kokyu]

Hahahaha because they know its boring as hell.

The maps is over complicated to navigate and find events. The events start points are sometimes hidden and then they dont do a very good tutorial on things like the parachuting events.......hahaha pretty soon it will be no review copies sent out by anybody because it hurts sales.

[Relientk77]

This game doesn't even look good

[annoyedgamer]

Pretty much done with ubisoft games at this point.

[NicSage]

Game is not AAA it's very budget feeling.