Ubisoft has announced that Steep: a social open world extreme sports sim; will not be handed out to reviewers until launch day. Nor will there be early access for players who pre-order the game; Ubisoft is only offering pre-load for the game for those who pre-ordered. Steep is a multiplayer-focused game, and so understandably Ubisoft would want it reviewed in a social environment.
“To ensure a complete experience, Steep reviews will commence when servers are populated with actual players. With that in mind, reviewers will receive their copies of Steep on December 2 when it’s released, enabling them to experience Steep’s essential multiplayer functionality with a larger pool of online players,” announced the publisher.
It will be interesting to see how this marketing tactic plays out for the game and Ubisoft.