Square Enix might be afraid of what video game reviewers might be saying about its latest RPG, particularly those who have a tendency to be brutally honest. According to tweets from various publications, including VGC and Windows Central, the publisher behind Final Fantasy hasn’t sent out Forspoken codes to multiple reviewers yet, something that seems alarming, particularly with it being a big-budget, triple-A, and highly marketed game. Naturally, critics of Square Enix are claiming that this is because the title is no good.
“It looks like VGC sadly won’t be publishing a Forspoken review on Monday, since Square Enix has decided not to supply us with code,” reads a tweet from Andy Robinson, owner and editor of the website. “That’s an extremely rare occurrence for us, so read into it how you like.”
It looks like VGC sadly won't be publishing a Forspoken review on Monday, since Square Enix has decided not to supply us with code. That's an extremely rare occurrence for us, so read into it how you like.
— Andy Robinson (@AndyPlaytonic) January 20, 2023
“Have now heard from (or about) 7 major outlets/reviewers who did not get review code for this,” reads another from Skill Up, a YouTuber and podcaster. “As always, no outlet is entitled to code but this ‘limited code’ is a huge red flag. I also haven’t heard of any outlet having access to PC code yet (but can’t confirm this).”
Have now heard from (or about) 7 major outlets/reviewers who did not get review code for this. As always, no outlet is entitled to code but this ‘limited code’ is a huge red flag. I also haven’t heard of any outlet having access to PC code yet (but can’t confirm this). https://t.co/XXAs3MYgxE
— Skill Up (@SkillUpYT) January 20, 2023
An entire hour of Forspoken gameplay leaked yesterday, although it’s unclear how exciting that is being that a demo of the game has been available to play on the PlayStation 5 for a couple of weeks now. Square Enix never said why it didn’t release a PC demo, but Raio Mitsuno, Forspoken’s creative producer, confirmed earlier this week that the PS5 demo has been updated, presumably to better match the final state of the game. Forspoken will launch simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and PC (STEAM, Microsoft Store, Epic Games Store) next week on January 24, 2023.
Discussion (8 replies)
Join Discussion →Well it does send up red flags when a company refuses to let reviewers touch their games before launch. That's usually cuz they don't want reviewers hating on the game and reducing launch-day sales. If you're proud of your game and want people to see how good it is so it sells, you won't try to hide it, and hope people pick it up blindly.
I don't need this as proof that the title is bad. It was obvious since they first revealed any in game footage that this will be a disaster, unless they fire the entire development team and start again from zero. Asset flip quality. No coherent visual style, a game developed to placeholder quality.
They have released a demo some weeks ago on PS5 so they don't seem that scared, but I see that some publications have a tendency to destroy/hate everything so they get more traffic to their site.
Won't blame companies if they try to avoid such companies, as long as there are multiple reviews available for the public to check out.
Who are you talking about? Which sites (in plural) hate everything for traffic? I don't think they'd last very long if they posted phony reviews.
You would think - but it seems outrage gets more clicks than fawning.
For the streamers in particular: Anything they can find to stir up shit really. I don’t watch a lot of them so that may be why, but I can recall a bunch of “OMG this sucks” and not a lot of “OMG this rox”
I mean... what games are you talking about? I know your opinion is colored by your own experience. But I find even the articles I read about a game talking about what they got wrong, spend a fair bit talking about what they got right and in many cases still call the game good overall.
But lets not kid ourselves. Square Enix has been shitting the bed lately for quality games. Demo's haven't helped them either.
Streamers are not outlets where people go for reviews. The OP specifically mentioned "site" so, what site does this? In my experience they do the opposite, upsell everything fearing the wrath of fans, which I can see why, see my next paragraph bellow.
Exactly, this seems to be recurring issue, a review has even a slight critique some people start yelling from the sidelines "why do you hate on it". I particularly often get accused of hating everything. When in reality my reviews are quite top heavy score wise. Meaning I rated almost 90% of all games I reviewed either good 6/10, very good 7/10, excellent 8/10, great 9/10 or transformative 10/10.
I only gave a 1/10 score once, and funnily enough it was for the demo of Outriders, a Square Enix product from not so long ago.
That's because outsiders is bad. Very bad. I played the free version demo thing and it wa so very bad.