Fallout 4 Reviews Have An Embargo On An Embargo

[HardOCP News]

Bethesda just sent out this little reminder to the press today that says there is an embargo date for talking about your embargoed review. Feel free to insert your own "Yo dawg, I hear you like embargos in your review embargos" joke here.

We hope you’re having fun exploring the Wasteland in Fallout 4. We know your followers are eager to hear more about the game. If you’d like to reveal when your review or launch coverage will run, you can share beginning this Friday, November 6 at 10 a.m. PST.

Please keep in mind that the embargo below is still in place.

All review coverage is under embargo until Monday, November 9 at 8 a.m. EST.

This embargo also includes streaming gameplay footage or posting impressions from your experience on social media, etc.

We do ask that you avoid including story spoilers in your review coverage.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

The Bethesda PR team

 

[zaniix]

To the corporate jackass that sent that out I say go fuck yourself. I hate PR people Concentrate on making the game bug free and worry less about someone talking about the game we are all waiting for.

 

[ShamisOMally]

>Embargo till less than 2 days from release

This shit? She be getting old.

 

[twonunpackmule]

My friend will be getting a copy tonight or tomorrw. I will demand he light up Youtube with streams.

 

[Alia Nexis]

There are plenty of places that gladly give the middle finger to embargos on previews/videos if you look.

 

[odditory]

Popcorn in-hand, ready for "what are they afraid of" conspiracy theorists that don't understand every company does this.

 

[Shalafi]

They also did this with New Vegas and Skyrim if memory serves. Nothing unusual here.

I am not worried anyway, Bethesda does not release crap games.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Popcorn in-hand, ready for "what are they afraid of" conspiracy theorists that don't understand every company does this.

SOP for companies releasing product now...nothing to see here, move along.

 

[NickJames]

SOP for companies releasing product now...nothing to see here, move along.

Unless you're the developers of shadow of mordor and let reviews out over a week in advanced because you're incredibly confident in your game.

 

[Wildace]

In the case of fallout i can see a tight lip on reviews because they will likely have spoilers of some kind so ensuring they dont go up too soon can make sense, the people that already own it wont care about the review and will be playing instead of reading it and possibly being spoiled in some story element.

while those that care to wait for a review before buying can still wait to do so, its not like they are missing out on any important in game pre order exclusives so a day or 2 to look over reviews even as the game is launching is not that big of a deal.

 

[Wildace]

The only people it hurts are those that are on the fence but pre ordered any way, in the off chance they would want to cancel it after they read a review.

And if that is the case then maybe they shouldnt of pre ordered the game and just waited to get it on release or after release. their self control is what gets them in trouble not the review embargo.

 

[jojo69]

well shit Steve, you went and told us so you broke the embargo on the embargo on the embargo

 

[Babbster]

They can do whatever they want. Professional reviewers have to get advance copies in order to generate their content in a timely fashion. Publishers, on the other hand, don't have to provide those advance copies. With a game like Fallout, and based on their track record with the franchise, they really don't need game reviewer goodwill.

Let's not forget that the contractual strings attached to these games constitute the entirety of what these reviewers are paying to play the game.

 

[collegeboy69us]

Seriously though -- embargo for reviews? I like fallout, but this makes me not interested in any of their shit. It's a big red flag to me that says "something is fucked about this game, we don't want people to find out though till we've already gotten our bag with a $ on it"

Anyone remember the days when companies would give out free copies of a gimped game and hope people would talk/share it with everyone? Good ole days of Shareware.

 

[odditory]

Unless you're the developers of shadow of mordor and let reviews out over a week in advanced because you're incredibly confident in your game.

Doesn't mean Bethesda lacks the same level of incredible confidence in their game. Different companies have different PR strategies for maximizing buzz and hype. Fallout 4 is a much bigger deal than SoM with many 50-100x the revenue at stake so things are obviously going to be very calculated. Just things to consider.

 

[odditory]

It's a big red flag to me that says "something is fucked about this game, we don't want people to find out though till we've already gotten our bag with a $ on it"

You do understand that Steam Refunds exists now, yes? There won't be any "bag of $" if this launched in some terrible state.

 

[Talyrius]

Seriously though -- embargo for reviews? I like fallout, but this makes me not interested in any of their shit. It's a big red flag to me that says "something is fucked about this game, we don't want people to find out though till we've already gotten our bag with a $ on it"

This is business as usual. There is nothing out of the ordinary about having a review embargo as long as it's lifted prior to release.

 

[Zepharus]

My god people love to bitch. literally bitch about nothing... christ go put your energy into something productive....ill be playing when it comes out on Tues.

 

[Exavior]

This is normal. Nothing to see here

 

[Cobalt35]

My god people love to bitch. literally bitch about nothing... christ go put your energy into something productive....ill be playing when it comes out on Tues.

This.

If people put as much effort into living their lives as they do bitching about things I think everyone would be happier and more productive.

 

[chenw]

I'd have an issue with them if the embargo is only lifted ON the day of the release (see AC:U), but this embargo ends BEFORE the actual release (even if a day), I see no major problems. Unless you are relying on pre-ordering physical copies, in which case I don't think it would matter all that much.

It IS unfortunate that they are only ending the embargo on a monday though, would have preferred saturday or sunday.

Still, I'll be more interested in the performance review rather than content review, so chances are I won't see them until sometime after release

 

[Weenis]

I don't think its unreasonable to have reviews delayed until right before. The longer period copies are floating out there, the more likely one is to get leaked and end up torrented. It also creates a long period of time where the only reviews are the 'professional' reviewers. Honestly I take almost all reviewers who make money off of reviews with a grain of salt. I only generally take away information in regards to what would be backed up with facts. Opinions on games are ridiculously subjective.

I personally preordered Fallout 4, because I have faith in Bethesda. Me preordering means its cash to invest, which helps them build money and to work on future projects. I honestly only think preorders should be done when you not only know you want the game day one because of standing history, but also want to help the developer. Those instances are pretty rare these days, but if everyone followed this it would bring quality out to the top.

 

[Bladestorm]

 

[Nolan7689]

I feel like people saying this is normal are lacking in comprehension.

It's normal to have review embargoes yes, but an embargo on the embargo? Really, you people think that's normal? Seriously, what's the harm in a reviewer telling someone their review will be up on Monday today as opposed to tomorrow? Doesn't sound like SoP to me. That's just a dumbass policy some asshole in PR came up with so it looked like they were being useful and didn't need to be laid off.

Well shit I guess it worked though so maybe PR isn't such a dumbass even if they do dumb shit.

 

[HFBallad]

I wonder if part of the reason for the embargo is to prevent spoilers from coming out.

From what I understand, some reviewers have began posting plot/endings for the game.

 

[scojer]

Aren't they being a little hypocritical telling people about an embargo on an embargo?

 

[Shalafi]

I wonder if part of the reason for the embargo is to prevent spoilers from coming out.

From what I understand, some reviewers have began posting plot/endings for the game.

I agree. Some Asssassins Creed: Syndicate reviews talk about the lackluster final boss and ending.

 

[rat]

Unless you're the developers of shadow of mordor and let reviews out over a week in advanced because you're incredibly confident in your game.

Exactly. Take any movie that gets released without a screening for critics. It's a stinker. They want to maximize their first weekend revenue before the reviews dissuade additional people from going to see the movie.

This is exactly how I view embargoes.

 

[nightanole]

Exactly. Take any movie that gets released without a screening for critics. It's a stinker. They want to maximize their first weekend revenue before the reviews dissuade additional people from going to see the movie.

This is exactly how I view embargoes.

Vs who gets the review out first?

Yes if its a POS you want as many preorders as possible.

However what about quality of reviews when its all about who posts first. Some review sites might take days and be back and forth with the publisher. Vs "Bill" who played it for 15min and immediately just posted screen shots and try to make as much click bait as possible.

 

[AceGoober]

Are you serious? Honest question as I do not know.

To the corporate jackass that sent that out I say go fuck yourself. I hate PR people Concentrate on making the game bug free and worry less about someone talking about the game we are all waiting for.

Tensions will run high during the days before release of a popular series. I recognize your valid point yet I do not realize the benefit of implied jackassing due to previous games.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

I'm not a big fan of this type of embargo. I think 1 week pre-release should be the norm. Or at least the Friday before launch.

 

[MavericK]

I'm not that worried about the quality of this game, but these types of embargo practices are bullshit and should stop.

 

[Shalafi]

Please inform me of the last Bethesda game that was terrible.

I will be waiting a long time on that one. As I said, they did the same thing with Skyrim and other games and those turned out just fine. It is more to keep the plot under wraps than to hide bad scores.

 

[Loose Nut]

The problem is someone was streaming the game last night (11-4-15)
links were posted all over the steam fallout 4 forum.

The ending got shown, and that was posted all over the steam forum, not just in the threads
but in the thread titles... so it was in your face whether you wanted to read it or not.
kinda like someone running up to you and kickin ya in the nuts.

The Fallout 4 PR team had no moderators on the steam forum...
game got streamed, ending got shown/told, torrents got made all from the press copy of the game.

so PC gaming as usual, that's why PC gamers can't have nice things

 

[Wildace]

pretty sure the first leaks were coming from console versions, so saying it is a pc problem is a lie.

 

[Wildace]

console versions first*

 

[chenw]

It isn't a lie, PC leaks = PC problem, but it's not exclusively a PC problem, just they tend to get dragged into the spotlight.

 

[Wine]

All the review copies should have been the PS4 and Xbone versions of the game since the PC disc supposedly does not have all the data and it shouldn't be downloadable from steam.

 

[Loose Nut]

as far as the PC problem , I was talking about copies, torrents,
I don't think someone can make a copy of a xbox, ps game

 

[Loose Nut]

the live stream was PC copy in HD, no Y button options, no triangle button.
menu was all mouse, keyboard options on screen.
watched about 5 min of it before I left the stream