It’s just hours away from the official launch of Starfield, the long-awaited and arguably the biggest Xbox game of this decade. However, the process of dishing out review copies is causing a rivalry between gamers in the UK and the US. While lots of US media houses got review copies early—including smaller bloggers and streamers—big media houses in the UK did not get any.
Eurogamer published a post titled “Eurogamer and Starfield: Why our review will be late” on Tuesday 29 August 2023 at about 4:30 pm UK time. After about an hour after the publication, they received a copy.
“No publisher is obliged to provide a copy of their game to us, but it is important we are able to be transparent with you, our readers, about the delay this will have on Eurogamer coverage you expect, especially as it has become clear that copies of the game are abundant elsewhere, and in particular in the US,” wrote Tom Phillips, the Editor-in-Chief at Eurogamer.
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Although the Brighton-based media got the copy less than 48 hours before the Starfield review embargo lifts, the UK media maintained that they would likely not complete their review before the embargo was lifted.
Starfield continues Bethesda’s weird review copy tradition
Paul Tassi, a senior contributor at Forbes, was not surprised by the erratic distribution of review copies. Instead, Tassi believes that “Bethesda’s Starfield review copy weirdness continues a longstanding tradition”. Tassi also mentioned that The Guardian, Edge, and MetroUK did not all get copies of the game.
There was a time Bethesda said they would stop giving review copies to press but “will continue to work with media, streamers, and YouTubers to support their coverage—both before and after release—we want everyone, including those in the media, to experience our games at the same time”.
Bethesda’s Starfield embargo ends on 31 August by noon while the game launches by 8 p.m. ET. Bethesda has been accused of having odd review embargoes which usually ends a day before the game or the day of the game—and there is no sign that the tradition will go away any time soon.
Bethesda also seems to have a weird tradition of blacklisting individuals and media outlets that report any information that the studio doesn’t want to be made public. When the Eurogamer controversy came up, Jason Schreier who worked at Kotaku mentioned that he was blacklisted for 13 years by the studio for publishing information about where Fallout 4 would be set in 2013.
Making a case for African game developers and media
While the UK and the US media fight dirty because of Starfield review copies, I would like to bring to the fore the jarring feeling I get when I remember that an entire continent of over 1.4 billion people is never mentioned during game releases. I was sick to my tummy when I realized that the continent generated $3.3 billion in 2020 alone from games.
There are lots of video game developers in Africa making amazing games that truly represent the continent. However, these games are never on the front banner of media houses across the globe. That is outright wrong! If we preach and claim to encourage diversity, the game industry should look beyond the United States, Asia, and Europe.
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On the other hand, I think African game studios should wake up and invest more in marketing to showcase their games to the world. I want to see African game studios stamp their feet at Gamescom and Comic Con, and even organize similar events on the continent.
In the case of Starfield review copies, I can bet that no African media got a review copy—and I am not expecting Bethesda to send me one like Eurogamers. Nevertheless, it appears that the studio has been more than generous with Starfield review copies, with so many copies going out two weeks early.
Some streamers claim they have been given the nod to start streaming 8 hours early
Starfield early access will be open to players who purchased the Constellation Edition or the Premium Edition of the game on August 31 or September 1, depending on your time zone. However, some streamers who got a review copy from Bethesda claim they can start streaming before the review embargo lifts.
One streamer who got that rare privilege was DansGaming who shared the news on X (formerly Twitter). The game is already available for preload on Xbox Series X|S and Steam. The size is a hefty 116GB. Those who pre-ordered the game but cannot preload are advised to reboot their Steam app.
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“I am allowed to stream @StarfieldGame Early, Thanks to @bethesda!” @Dansgaming wrote. “I’ll be live at 9 am (Eastern USA) on August 31st with a countdown stream, and can start playing at Noon! I’m going to be scouring that game for all the secrets. I can’t wait to share this experience with you all.”
Some players have already broken the embargo rules from excitement. Earlier, we reported that Darin Harris was arrested for sharing 40-minute gameplay footage of Starfield on his YouTube channel. He was charged with a felony.
Do you think handing out review copies is in favor of the developers and publishers or simply a waste of time? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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