Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

Just two days away from Starfield's review embargo, Eurogamer is still to receive a copy of the game from Bethesda.

No publisher is obligated to provide a copy of their game to us, but it is important we are able to be transparent with you, our readers, about the delay this will have on the Eurogamer coverage you expect, especially as it has become clear that copies of the game are abundant elsewhere, and in particular in the US.

Access to the game appears to have been heavily restricted in the UK, where Bethesda has also not provided copies of Starfield to other websites and YouTube channels owned by Eurogamer parent company Reedpop. Meanwhile, some other UK outlets have been provided access through Bethesda's US arm.

Lastly, a note on Digital Foundry. You should expect to see relatively prompt coverage of the game by Rich and his team after a separate delivery of Starfield code was provided to them. However, this was provided alongside instruction to me by Bethesda that no other parts of Eurogamer were granted access. 

Eurogamer and Starfield | Eurogamer.net

This is petty, it almost sounds like Bethesda UK arm is settling some scores if the UK sites are gaining access through the US arm. Zenimax corporate in general has always been pretty trash though. They may have beef with ReedPop but ReedPop owns about a dozen websites so they're punishing innocent people, including ones focused on Xbox such as PureXbox and OutsideXbox.

Has to be leaks related, Bethesda is extremely aggressive if anyone leaks their stuff and will blacklist them for years but this collective punishment is unfair and causes unnecessary bad press, ReedPop also owns other sites like Rock Paper Shotgun who have made some absolutely stupid negative Starfield articles in the past year, something like this may cause them to double down on dumb stuff like this.

Does Bethesda UK have beef with all UK companies? Lol. Stupid.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 29 August 2023