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Pros and Cons: StarCraft II Launch Day Reviews

By james_fudge

Kyle Orland's GamesBeat explores who gets hurt by Blizzard's decision not to allow launch day reviews of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and surprisingly it seems to be critics. It obviously doesn't hurt consumers, who based on reputation and expectation decided to pre-order the game in droves and it certainly didn't hurt Blizzard, who analyst say will make a killing off the sequel to the popular 11 year old original strategy game.

It is critics who ultimately feel the sting of an embargo that makes them, just like everyone else, wait to play the game - and the scramble to get a review up quickly may in fact hurt their credibility; after all, who wants to read a half-hearted hastily written review on a game? Consumers (if they don't they should) demand an honest and thoughtful process, particularly on AAA. Finally, it's important to note that well known and much loved franchises could follow the precedent set by Blizzard. After all, why take a chance on bad reviews impacting launch window sales? Read More

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on July 28, 2010 (boomark / email).