{"id":11447,"date":"2023-09-06T15:38:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T13:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/06\/pushing-buttons-bethesda-chose-not-to-give-us-early-access-to-starfield-and-its-readers-who-lose-out\/"},"modified":"2023-09-06T15:38:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T13:38:37","slug":"pushing-buttons-bethesda-chose-not-to-give-us-early-access-to-starfield-and-its-readers-who-lose-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/06\/pushing-buttons-bethesda-chose-not-to-give-us-early-access-to-starfield-and-its-readers-who-lose-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Buttons: Bethesda chose not to give us early access to Starfield \u2013 and it\u2019s readers who lose out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The studio is far from the first to restrict some critics from their games. But if only influencers and fans get early access, it\u2019s players who suffer most<\/p>\n

\u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Guardian\u2019s review of space exploration epic Starfield, Xbox\u2019s big game of the year, went live this morning<\/a> \u2013 almost a week after other outlets published theirs. This is because Bethesda did not give our reviewer an advance copy, as publishers usually do. Along with several others, including the greatly respected games publications Eurogamer and Edge, we were left waiting until the game\u2019s early access release last Friday to play it.<\/p>\n

Bethesda\u2019s reasons for cherry-picking reviewers are known only to itself, but it\u2019s far from the only publisher to do this. Sometimes, controlling early reviews is a way to manipulate a game\u2019s Metacritic average in the crucial first week of release. This happened earlier in the year with Hogwarts Legacy<\/a>, when Warner Bros distributed copies to certain outlets long before others; the result was an initial flurry of very positive reviews, with more measured takes appearing around or after the game\u2019s release, once critics had played for longer. When reviewers receive review codes close to a game\u2019s embargo or release date, they are often under pressure to rush, and that can skew their experience.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe studio is far from the first to restrict some critics from their games. But if only influencers and fans get early access, it\u2019s players who suffer most
\n\u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
\nThe Guardian\u2019s review of space exploration epic Starfield, Xbox\u2019s big game of the year, went live this morning \u2013 almost a week after other outlets published theirs. This is because Bethesda did not give our reviewer an advance copy, as publishers usually do. Along with several others, including the greatly respected games publications Eurogamer and Edge, we were left waiting until the game\u2019s early access release last Friday to play it.
\nBethesda\u2019s reasons for cherry-picking reviewers are known only to itself, but it\u2019s far from the only publisher to do this. Sometimes, controlling early reviews is a way to manipulate a game\u2019s Metacritic average in the crucial first week of release. This happened earlier in the year with Hogwarts Legacy, when Warner Bros distributed copies to certain outlets long before others; the result was an initial flurry of very positive reviews, with more measured takes appearing around or after the game\u2019s release, once critics had played for longer. When reviewers receive review codes close to a game\u2019s embargo or release date, they are often under pressure to rush, and that can skew their experience. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The studio is far from the first to restrict some critics from their games. But if only influencers and fans get early access, it\u2019s players who suffer most \u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The Guardian\u2019s review of space exploration epic Starfield, Xbox\u2019s big game of the year, went …<\/p>\n

Pushing Buttons: Bethesda chose not to give us early access to Starfield \u2013 and it\u2019s readers who lose out<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11447"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}