Confirmed: Sega are not issuing review codes for Sonic Forces

[Badnik Mechanic]

From IGN's Review editor.

Do yourself a favour, cancel your pre-order, assuming anyone still has one by this point.

 

[Jetronic]

It's Rise of Lyric all over again.

 

edit : oh, someone did get a code, guess it's not the complete case then. Hope it's just communication error(s).

[Badnik Mechanic]

Polygon's review editor also confirming no contact from Sega.

 

[Lucid Dream]

Well, that's promising. Really promising. 

It's possible that Sega just decided to not give IGN a pre-release review code because of the "sonic was never good" fiasco, but that would be really petty. It could also just be a communication error on Sega's part.

I mean this guy apparently got one

 

[Mad Convoy]

Reviewer Ken Dippel confirms that he's already gotten the review codes. I checked his twitter and he is a video game reviewer and Youtuber.

Maybe Sega is focusing on indie reviewers this time around (I know a ton of press passes got pulled after people violated the stay on giving info about Sonic Boom-- maybe their review codes were revoked too). Maybe this is petty revenge for the whole Sonic was never good thing.

Some people are also speculating that this has something to do with the entire game being leaked making it pointless to have reviews out before launch.

[Badnik Mechanic]

That is utterly pathetic if they are giving codes to random YouTube personalities sorry... influencers as Sega calls them... but not actual review outlets.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Mad Convoy said:

Some people are also speculating that this has something to do with the entire game being leaked making it pointless to have reviews out before launch.

If anything I'd say the opposite, it's pointless to hold back professional reviewers when any random guy can already blare his opinions on the game across Youtube or whatever.

[Blue Wisp]

4 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

That is utterly pathetic if they are giving codes to random YouTube personalities sorry... influencers as Sega calls them... but not actual review outlets.

Haven't you heard Mr. Hogfather?

The reviews outlets world is coming to an end. 

So where would you rather stay?

In IGN?

Or in a Youtube channel asking for likes, smash that subscribe button, tick that bell button, donate to be sponsored and appear in the channel for one frame of the 10 minute video?

Assuming this is true, this doesn't surprise me. Youtubers get a better word of mouth than review outlets do at the moment. 

[Mad Convoy]

1 minute ago, Mayor D said:

That is utterly pathetic if they are giving codes to random YouTube personalities sorry... influencers as Sega calls them... but not actual review outlets.

I don't really see how its pathetic.

Its a valid marketing tool. I remember when Scott Cawthorn gave out codes for early access to Five Nights at Freddy's 2 to popular gaming Youtubers like Markiplier in order to promote and hype up the next installment. It was successful and people loved it, plus you got footage that showed what the average person would experience in the game as opposed to what marketing guided professional reviewers (and that a lot of Sonic fans tend not to trust anyway) to see. Same principle here.

2 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

If anything I'd say the opposite, it's pointless to hold back professional reviewers when any random guy can already blare his opinions on the game across Youtube or whatever.

Perhaps, but I think the fact that any random guy can blare his opinions means that there's no point in having reviews come out before the game. People are already looking at others impressions and basing they're opinions on that-- the only market for professionals left is for the cautious people who are waiting to see how Forces is received post-release before coming to a conclusion or getting it.

[Blue Blood]

SEGA asked me, and I assume anytime else with SEGA Press access, if we wanted review codes for the game a few weeks ago. It was the same for Mania. I don't have an audience, so SEGA wouldn't give me one if I said yes, but they are definitely issuing codes. No idea why Polygon and IGN don't have them.

@Mayor D I would have assumed that SEGA offered you a code.

[Indigo Rush]

It's okay Sonic Team. Take the L, heat up some sake and post some new job ads on Craigslist. I'm sure you'll get it right next time.

[shdowhunt60]

11 minutes ago, Mad Convoy said:

Reviewer Ken Dippel confirms that he's already gotten the review codes. I checked his twitter and he is a video game reviewer and Youtuber.

Maybe Sega is focusing on indie reviewers this time around (I know a ton of press passes got pulled after people violated the stay on giving info about Sonic Boom-- maybe their review codes were revoked too). Maybe this is petty revenge for the whole Sonic was never good thing.

Some people are also speculating that this has something to do with the entire game being leaked making it pointless to have reviews out before launch.

That sounds more like SEGA is releasing review codes to people that they'd know would give a positive review.

Which is pretty disgusting, and I sincerely hope that's not the case.

[Badnik Mechanic]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

 

@Mayor D I would have assumed that SEGA offered you a code.

I never check my @SonicStadium email so if they've asked I've not seen.

You can request a code from their press site but never done it myself so not sure how successful that is.

[Blue Blood]

1 minute ago, Mayor D said:

I never check my @SonicStadium email so if they've asked I've not seen.

You can request a code from their press site but never done it myself so not sure how successful that is.

It's not difficult. I suggest you give it a go. Worst case scenario is that they say no.

[Badnik Mechanic]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

It's not difficult. I suggest you give it a go. Worst case scenario is that they say no.

Wait what email do you use for access? Mine is an @sonicstadium domain but I thought that they would auto reject a standard freemail type address?

[Mad Convoy]

6 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

That sounds more like SEGA is releasing review codes to people that they'd know would give a positive review.

Which is pretty disgusting, and I sincerely hope that's not the case.

Me too, but honestly. Forces is no Rise of Lyric. Its not like Forces is a shattered graveyard of glitches and lag and the game we thought we were going to get turned out to just be a PC build with the real game looking much, much worse. What is the point of doing that?

Sega has nothing major to hide here unless they've been sabotaging the game from the start (doubtful, but Hogfather's leak mentioned that SoA and SoE were NOT happy when SoJ showed their original concept for Sonic Forces, so its not out of the realm of possibility that they've been trying to make Forces look as bad as possible to prove some sort of point to SoJ).

[Dr. Egguman]

I think this is just for IGN. On this, I'm with SEGA, they don't like Sonic so there's no need to send review codes just to play a Sonic game before it's release. Also, some youtubers got the review code of Sonic Forces, even little youtubers with -500 subs. I don't think this is gonna be a "Sonic Boom" all over again (at least, in terms of send review copies).

Edit: I don't think send codes for youtubers is a bad thing, the marketing of this game is just terrible, send codes to youtubers it's a good way to marketing the game to his public but before send those codes, SEGA should see the channel. 

Edited October 30, 2017 by Dr. Egguman

[Milo]

1 minute ago, Dr. Egguman said:

I think this is just for IGN. On this, I'm with SEGA, they don't like Sonic so there's no need to send review codes just to play a Sonic game before it's release.

One of the replies to the IGN editor was Polygon editor saying they haven't gotten a review code either.

Also, IGN gave Mania a 8.7/10 a few months ago. They gave positive reviews to Colors and Generations too.

[Badnik Mechanic]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Egguman said:

I think this is just for IGN. On this, I'm with SEGA, they don't like Sonic so there's no need to send review codes just to play a Sonic game before it's release. 

Explain why theres no need to send out review codes before release?

Also http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2017/08/14/sonic-mania-review 

8.7/10.

http://m.uk.ign.com/games/sonic-generations

8.5/10.

http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2010/11/08/sonic-colors-wii-review

8.5/10.

 

 

[Indigo Rush]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Egguman said:

I think this is just for IGN. On this, I'm with SEGA, they don't like Sonic so there's no need to send review codes just to play a Sonic game before it's release. 

I dream of a day where people understand that IGN is not comprised exclusively of prejudiced Sonic haters, especially when this very site's founder works for them.

[Tracker_TD]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Egguman said:

I think this is just for IGN. On this, I'm with SEGA, they don't like Sonic so there's no need to send review codes just to play a Sonic game before it's release. 

What if they just don't like *bad* games?

Even then, if you had to like Sonic just to get a review code, then reviews would be fucking useless. 

[Milo]

48 minutes ago, Lucid Dream said:

I mean this guy apparently got one

 

 

43 minutes ago, Mad Convoy said:

Reviewer Ken Dippel confirms that he's already gotten the review codes. I checked his twitter and he is a video game reviewer and Youtuber.

Dippel just admitted he was joking.

 

[Patron]

Sonic Forces you to wait for the release date.

[Dr. Egguman]

1 minute ago, Mayor D said:

Explain why theres no need to send out review codes before release?

Also http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2017/08/14/sonic-mania-review 

8.7/10.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Yeow said:

One of the replies to the IGN editor was Polygon editor saying they haven't gotten a review code either.

Also, IGN gave Mania a 8.7/10 a few months ago. They gave positive reviews to Colors and Generations too.

I don't mean that there's no need to SEGA send review codes for Sonic games before the release, I mean that IGN don't deserve because of the "Sonic was never good"... I know, they gave Sonic Colors, Generations and Mania good scores, but it's hard to be okay with guys who are talking about how we love making sex with big the cat. I'm fine if SEGA send or not. Also, I did not know about Polygon, now I'm worried. 

[Mad Convoy]

2 minutes ago, Yeow said:

 

Dipper just admitted he was joking.

 

Ah, I see. This is weird.

Another theory is that they are planning a day-one patch and so do not want reviewers reviewing the pre-patched version of the game. If that's the case.... ugh.