Ubisoft is warning players to take early reviews of The Crew with a grain of salt as the game can only be “accessed in its entirety with other real players in the world” on a scale that the press just isn’t experiencing.
Ubisoft isn’t likely to win any “trustworthy company of the year” awards with its recent blunders and shady embargo tactics, but at least The Crew is in a completely open beta today for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC, so you can get some hands on time with it and play it for yourself.
The blog post goes on to explain why even the beta shouldn’t be considered a full representation of the finalized gameplay:
There will be absolutely no embargo on any type of coverage once the game is available for sale. While we fully anticipate that you might see some reviews immediately at launch – largely built around the preview sessions we facilitated during the past months or the limited content of the closed and open betas – they won’t be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game. We sincerely hope everyone will take the time to customize their ride as they progress through all five regions, explore every corner of the map solo and with friends, dive into our competitive and cooperative mechanics, race to the end of the main campaign, choose a Faction and compete with your crew in Factions Wars, and so much more.
It sounds a lot like they’re saying that players shouldn’t let experience in the beta or early reviews in the press weigh too heavily on their opinions until they’ve bought the retail game and experienced the ‘massive’ bit of the MMO portion of it. It makes one wonder what the point of these preview sessions are, if they’re such poor insights into the final product.
The Crew will be available on December 2nd on PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
