Apparently Square Enix limited access to Forspoken review codes
- Thread starter dex3108
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Here's another one for you: SE commit to invest more on NFT in 2023.
Have you been in any of the Forspoken threads in the past year?
Totally, I'm shilling for a game I'm not buying any time soon.
Inconsistent pricing models, multiple moneyhats, NFTs. I like square (I've probably bought like 80% of all their releases the past few years), but there's loads of reasons to at least side eye them. Mediocre pc ports and inconsistencies on which ones are good, let alone great, are good reasons to be cautious of them in that space too.
What absolute nonsense is this? This is a big deal because the more major outlets who review the game before release, the more informed the end consumer is. It's a pretty major deal if outlets who always get review codes suddenly don't.
And we have consumers defending the publisher basically soft-censoring pre-release feedback on their games.
People also complain when games have release-day review embargoes. It's disingenuous to pretend people are only speaking up because they want this game to fail.
Doom 2016 was mentioned a bunch earlier. It's not unheard of. Hell, wasn't FE Engage like earlier this week or something?
Have you seen any of the forspoken threads in the last year? There's clearly some unjustified hatred towards this game.
Yes, many. Review embargo day before release is typically standard and not exactly atypical. It's not usually reflective of quality of the product. Review embargo many many days in advance of release usually indicated confidence in the product though. The more sus thing here is seemingly no PC codes, and far more limited reviewers, though Square has done this before with games even like KH3.
I don't think it will be that dramatic but I definitely forsee some internal consequences or ill thought conclusions.
It's not. There are alot of people shitting on the game at every moment and they want the game to fail and using this as justification of anything negative.
There's nothing wrong with waiting for reviews and should square give copies out earlier. sure that would be great but it doesn't seem like they are so people should just wait and see.
With a new final fantasy coming out?
This will be bomb but square will be fine
Some people wanting the game to fail does not mean it's not bad that Square is intentionally excluding certain major review sites before release. Conflating everyone who criticises this move with chuds is some BS.
Criticising this kind of thing is not new, nor is it limited to Forspoken either.
Maybe it is some misunderstanding between key distribution and reviewers. I wouldn't conclude yet that the game tries to conceal reviews or something. Always remember gamer rule number one: never preorder and wait for reviews. If it takes a little longer, well so be it.
This is just one single game. Luminous Productions doesn't seem like they have that many employees compared to other AAA studios. Even if it fails, they'll just close that studio and life will go on for them.
What I don't understand is... if you have delivered a demo prior to released date, have let people try the game why suddenly be affraid of reviews?
People that are skeptical about the game and have played the demo aren't going to ignore this, and people that will buy the game no matter what reviews won't matter for them. Even so, you have to be pretty confident the ones you gave reviews code will actually do a decent reviews about your game.,
I recall something related happened when CP2077 launched, and yea many reviewers gave the game 9-10 but there people hadn't played the game a bit, now you have a demo available (at least for PS5), what is the point?
People that are skeptical about the game and have played the demo aren't going to ignore this, and people that will buy the game no matter what reviews won't matter for them. Even so, you have to be pretty confident the ones you gave reviews code will actually do a decent reviews about your game.,
I recall something related happened when CP2077 launched, and yea many reviewers gave the game 9-10 but there people hadn't played the game a bit, now you have a demo available (at least for PS5), what is the point?
With FFXIV, nope. They can keep releasing bomb after bomb (dunno why), FFXIV will keep them afloat
Luminous is indeed pretty small compared to other studios. I was genuinely taken aback by how short the development staff credits were for XV. At something like 150 employees they're like 1/2 to 1/3 the size of many other AAA studios, and like 2-3% of Square Enix's total workforce.
Because they are not releasing bombs after bombs. They are releasing a lot of games of varying budgets and some of them are bombs. I doubt Balan Wonderworld and Baylon's fall or Chocobo GP had budgets even close to big enough to sink SE. Even Forspoken probably has a lot of its risk mitigated by being in a PS exclusive deal.
I want this game to be good but this is making me glad my parents are coming in the day after it comes out so I'm going to try to withhold buying it until they are gone (they already threatened to take away all my devices while they are here... course I for my part want to child lock Fox News from them). So I doubt they would be happy if I gamed at all while they are awake so it would just torture me anyways. So maybe by a week I'll cool down or I'll get definitive impressions that will get me to cool off the game (Even the demo's combat annoying me hasn't made me not want the game... I just keep wanting it to be somehow I'm just not getting the hang of it).
Pretty much every game Nintendo published over the last few years had embargo dates set at best 2-3 days before launch. Also as otheers mentioned Rockstar usually has very late embargo dates and that even included GTA V on PS4 / Xbox One back then despite everyone knowing the quaility of the game before thanks to the PS3 / 360 versions.
The confirmation bias is strong in this thread.
That said I feel for the devs. The PR and marketing for the game has not been great with many unforced errors on their end. Like as if those teams are purposefully trying to tank the game. I know I would not be thrilled with the marketing and PR if I was working on the dev team.
Which is a shame because everyone who has gotten their hands on the game are kinda singing the games praises and having a good time with the game. Hell, many of the impressions from people who got it early say they are enjoying even the story a ton and intrigued with the world and lore.
That said I feel for the devs. The PR and marketing for the game has not been great with many unforced errors on their end. Like as if those teams are purposefully trying to tank the game. I know I would not be thrilled with the marketing and PR if I was working on the dev team.
Which is a shame because everyone who has gotten their hands on the game are kinda singing the games praises and having a good time with the game. Hell, many of the impressions from people who got it early say they are enjoying even the story a ton and intrigued with the world and lore.
From what I remember, Luminous Productions was established independently from the company so all they would do is reshuffle the studio back under them properly and probably make it a write off or something.
I'm sure the game will be decent. A 7/10 that fullfills a niche for unique magic combat and cool traversal.
Yeah reading between the lines, you may want to hold off purchasing the PC version. It's always better to wait for reviews anyway…
Doom 2016 had an embargo until the day of release and people were convinced it was gonna be dog doodoo. Then it came out and everyone was like "holy shit this slaps"
Although I guess that's maybe a weird one to count here since Bethesda had that whole thing where they intentionally refused to give reviewers pre release copies of any of their games for a while until enough people yelled about it
Confirmation bias vs personal bias. Feels like both are butting heads here.
I know you feel a lot of loyalty to this studio because you worked on FFXV but I really don't think the marketing team is sabotaging anything. It's fairly standard marketing for a larger title by SE's standards. Overall SE needs a marketing overhaul because they don't know how to market games, period, but larger titles like this have been given the best they could.
And many of those "tons" is a handful of people from my observations. I'm sure there are plenty of people excited for this game but writing off criticisms and standing on the opposite end of the spectrum of absolute praise isn't really fair for this game that has gotten a mixed bag of reception by people who have played the demo. Allow people their opinions, bad or good or wherever they fall.
The fact of the matter is that SE has limited reviews for this game. Why they have? Who knows. It could be to control the narrative when the game releases, to get ahead of potential bad reviews, or because they genuinely just lagged on getting copies to people. It's worrying, though, so people will extrapolate based on past experiences and history. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that when it's a practice typically associated with a company's lack of trust in a game's performance.
I feel like this may just be some weird situation at Square, since it's not uncommon for them. The demo was definitely in rough shape and still kind of a weird way to represent the game after the patch, but I doubt the delay in sites getting keys is strictly them not having faith in the product. There is enough marketing and support for the game for them to at least get review copies out for an embargo that is already basically launch-aligned.
Really fucking annoying that some people act like racism and sexism suddenly just don't exist.
You can't be serious with this reply. Go look at threads on almost any forum, reddit, twitter, even comments on instagram / youtube for this game.
Really fucking annoying that some people act like racism and sexism suddenly just don't exist.
Same way Atlus expected Soul Hackers 2 to become a new pillar for them. Great minds think alike.
lolSame way Atlus expected Soul Hackers 2 to become a new pillar for them. Great minds think alike.