A little more than a week before Prey's official release date, and some disappointingly expected news has arrived. Bethesda's hired Public Relations company has confirmed for GameRevolution that their policy regarding early review copies won't change for Prey. Bethesda will not send out early review copies for their upcoming sci-fi title.
When reached via email by GameRevoltuion regarding review copies, PR replied "Per your question, Bethesda's previously outlined policy on distribution of review copies is still in place".
This policy was officially announced last year, in between two Bethesda releases, Doom and Dishonored 2. It created a lot of controversy among the "pro-consumer" crowd, who saw it as a dodgy attempt to mislead consumers as to their game's quality. But, as we discussed last year, a lack of early review copies doesn't necessarily mean low quality. Both Doom and Dishonored 2 were game of the year candidates, appearing on more than 40 year-end lists.
That being said, Dishonored 2 was Bethesda's most recent high-profile game to release under this policy, and it's PC port was something of a complete disaster. And, what everyone can't get their heads around is Bethesda's reasoning for this. They say they want everyone to experience their games at the same time, but they didn't say exactly how this benefits gamers.
Prey will release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on May 5, and we will have our review up as soon as we can after receiving the game. A demo is currently available on all platforms.
