Early Game Copies Should Be Played (But Not Reviewed)

From EquityArcade, this article refers to how it's okay for players to dive into broken street date games early, but not exactly okay for reviewers to review them.

[NapalmSanctuary]

Unless you signed an embargo agreement, there is no iffy moral ground to reviewing games early. The fact that early reviews may not be representative of the final product is all on Sony and Hello Games. The fact that, in modern times, games don't ship in proper condition and require early patches is a serious problem in the industry and if either the games or devs & pubs that put them out there suffer for it, they can blame themselves.

"I mean, is it possible to sue for damages? That would honestly be a good question to look into."
Its a free speech issue. You can only sue if the allegedly damaging comment (or exhibition, in this case) was dishonest. Any early reviewer would have to lie about the content in order to be sued.

[Chaos_Order]

"The fact that, in modern times, games don't ship in proper condition and require early patches is a serious problem in the industry and if either the games or devs & pubs that put them out there suffer for it, they can blame themselves."

THIS. So much this. Especially in a day when content gets locked to pre-order only, people want to know about the game before it gets released. And now people are shamed for playing a game "before it's ready?"

And people wonder why I love the Vita so much. Only on extremely rare occasions do I have to deal with any of this crap, and I feel much more comfortable buying games day one.

[Perjoss]

Outlets that take their reviews seriously and not just rushing them out for clicks will want to review the version that the majority of people will be playing, it just makes sense. Sure there are a few gamers that do not have internet access so the day 1 patch does not apply to them but lets be perfectly honest here, that's a very small percentage.

"The fact that, in modern times, games don't ship in proper condition and require early patches is a serious problem"

there is a window of time between the game going gold and it actually landing in the laps of gamers, the devs decide to use this time to improve upon the games rather than say f--- it and take a holiday. I don't see a problem with this at all.

[NapalmSanctuary]

My point is that its on the devs and pubs. There is always a risk of broken street dates. If they print the disc before they're done with the game they can't blame anyone but themselves for reviews that don't represent the final product.

[RosweeSon]

If you barely got the game a day ago how can you even review it anyway.

[PSN_ZeroOnyx]

Not reviewing games early (pre day 1 patch considering all games literally have them now) would mean no reviews till after the release date. Would likely mean better reviews but too many people want a review to decide whether or not to make a day 1 purchase. I know what games I want way before release yet still check scores in case reviews are overwhelmingly bad.