I would argue that review embargoes are 95% pro-consumer AND pro-developer/publisher.
Without an embargo, there's a race to publish the first review. That first review is worth disproportionately more due to the increased visibility it will get. It'll get vastly more clicks, discussion, and notoriety. But that race is in no one's best interest, because it means critics and editors cut corners to publish their review first. The writing would be rushed and lower qua...
http://opencritic.com/game/...
OpenCritic posts embargo times for most major titles.
Yeah I'm not sure either. Probably one I'm waiting for sale on.
Hard to do that. CBS Interactive owns Metacritic, GameSpot, Game Rankings and Giant Bomb.
Going against Metacritic could backfire and result in a significant loss of coverage