I fucking hate how 90% of replies to this is “buy the studio”. Shit’s getting annoying at this point
Glad Phil is hyped for it, hope it comes onto EA play soon, cuz I don’t even think we’re getting a timed trial. But either way, game’s already secured several accolades, and a guaranteed family game of the year award for sure.
Sort of random but does anyone play Poker Club? Going through the beginning reminds me how boring poker actually is if you aren’t able to talk to your group and have fun during the down time.
There’s a pretty simple answer. As we grow, we are afforded better opportunities to produce content around games in time for embargos as agreed with publishers and developers. Microsoft, for example, has been great. Equally, so have Koch Media, and few other smaller publishers. EA is improving (I’ve just got code for It Takes Two) and Ubisoft really need to be persuaded to stop sending physical discs a week after launch. It’s an element that will constantly improve as we grow, so it’s a matter of patience.
Unfortunately, some publishers regard us as “too small” to warrant any advanced copies, meaning the team will either review after launch via a direct purchase. This has a couple of knock-on effects…
We often review games/genres we’re already fans of, because we were going to look at those games on a personal basis anyway.
As it’s often a personal purchase in a genre of interest, reviews will probably be positive. We’re not likely to waste personal money on games we don’t enjoy.
We can be limited in what we can do - often, reviews and interest are very frontloaded. It can be disheartening to work hard on content and then only 100 people watch it. The more obscure is the team pursuing personal interests and smaller games where developers have reached out directly for coverage.
We also try and tackle games that are new to Game Pass to help broaden the tastes in the community. If you have requests or games you’d like us to cover, we’re all ears!
On a personal level I love Indie games and generally play those the most (apart from my Yakuza addiction obviously.) I see too many great Indie games being virtually ignored in terms of coverage by other service providers so if we can spread the love and get these games a bigger audience (even if only a few of you pick actually them up) that has to be a good thing for the developers who work so hard to create them.
That not only answered my original question, but also answered my follow-up question: how is the site being treated by the publishers with regards to review keys.
It’s great to see the site being more recognized by the medium!
And if it serves as a consolation, Ubisoft Brasil is also infamously known for sending delayed physical copies for review
