The above link chronicles the extensive steps that Microsoft is taking to ensure a consumer-friendly approach to the release of Forza Horizon 2. This includes sending out review copies two weeks before the game launches, facilitating multiplayer calendars for reviewers to ensure they have people to play with online, allowing (and encouraging!!) one hour of live-streaming prior to the game's launch and - MOST importantly - a review embargo that lifts a full WEEK before the game launches.
I think that this demonstrates quite clearly just how much of a fiasco, and just how anti-consumer, the launches of Destiny and some other games have been. The notion that people should pre-order a game to secure bonuses but that they cannot gain a reasonable impression of the quality of a complete title prior to finalising their purchase is among the most anti-consumer behaviours we've seen from gaming companies over the last decade.
The article itself notes that not all games can have a launch as well-planned as FH2's. But in the case of games like Destiny, with their enormous budgets and resourcing, it is most certainly possible, and I think that same day review-embargo's in particular are an incredibly cynical development.
(full credit to Ryuu, who found the article).
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