Ubisoft has gone ahead and let customers know that there won't be any launch day reviews for the release of Tom Clancy's The Division next week. Similarly to how Bungie handled the launch of Destiny, Ubisoft won't be sending out pre-release review code to press outlets, instead, everyone will get access to the servers at the same time when they go live on Tuesday.
“It's impossible for us to populate the servers in a way that would adequately replicate playing The Division on launch day,” Ubisoft said. Therefore, “reviewers will start playing the game along with everyone else when it's released.”
The Division is an online-focussed MMO style game like Destiny and as a result, it is best played when the servers are populated. Giving press early access to empty servers wouldn't necessarily give a fair representation of the game after launch.
Sites will likely be posting early impressions in the days following the launch of The Division and we will be posting an analysis of the PC version ourselves.
KitGuru Says: While usually holding back review codes would be seen as a shady move, The Division is a game meant to be played online while the servers are populated, so this is understandable for sure. That said, some may see it differently. How do you guys feel about Ubisoft holding back codes for The Division?
Usually I would suspect something going on even if the excuse is valid but we got access to the closed beta about a month before release then the open beta about half a month from release. If some shady changes have been made after 6.whatever million people have already tried the game so close to release I would genuinely be surprised
My 1st instinct is that the reason given for no reviews is only part of the truth. I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that the game is going to be seriously lacking a wide variety of content and will get tiresome fast, perhaps even fast enough to show in a week of review code, but not so much in a few days of new player forum hype in what may otherwise be a good game.
Yes, there was a lot of good in the beta, but we only saw a very narrow slice of content. My fear is that what’ll be on offer at release won’t actually be much more substantial and will end up feeling lacking for a $60 purchase.
I can only hope to be proven wrong, but as a pc-centric gamer, my faith in Ubisoft is rather…. non-existent.
I hate Ubisoft. (PC gamer obviously) . This time, they did launch a public beta. So its not as if they were hiding the game. I will give them a pass on it. (One time only π )
Fairy muff…