It wasn't a viral thing based on watch dogs premise? Like does the game use something like AC4 and there is an app loaded on it or something?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133734-Watch-Dogs-Preview-Event-Attendees-Given-a-Free-Nexus-7-by-Ubisoft

It seems they came preloaded with an app or some viral UI based on the picture in the article above.

Remember when MSFT gave 360's to everyone at E3 when the slim was introduced? Everyone got an engraved PS4 at a presser in NY.

Nothing to see here, in my opinion. Seems like the internet is trying to make Ubi the new EA. Peter Moore must be pleased.

That's depressing. I had to spend $300 for my Nexus 7.

yeah ubisoft, give the guys who play your game for free some gift. but fuck over the people who pay you money to play your games. i deserve a nexus from you ubisoft!!

It was mentioned a few times on Podcast Beyond and other sources (e.g. Forbes (see the sources within the article as it's just a blog)).

All companies do dirty tactics to sway reviewers, the one I hate the most is review events. Can you really formulate a honest opinion when a company is pampering you, giving you wine or beer and a super comfortable comaprtment while you "review" a game.

Shady? Yes. However, at this point, it's pretty much industry standard for big publishers to give out gifts like this. The enthusiast press just laps it up.

Yes. Ubisoft's actions are shadier than a palm tree on a cloudy day! Those bastards..

I don't see the issue. Many companies offer swag during events. Granted its odd they gave a Nexus 7 tablet vs something that is actually Ubisoft oriented. Unless the tablet had free Ubisoft games on it.

A lot of corporations (including journalistic publications) have a code of ethics that prohibits them from collecting gifts over a certain dollar value. Pretty certain not all of them could take it due to that code of ethics.

If you look at this;

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/xboxone?sort=desc&view=condensed

You see there is quite a disparity between commercial scores and user scores for most xbox one games. Now Microsoft are an aggressive company that hold a lot of power and influence and have been working super hard on a PR offensive to push the xbox one as both powerful and with well reviewed exclusive games.

However you click over to wii u or other formats and you see the commercial reviews and user reviews are far closer?

Why are commercial reviews so positive towards xbox one games when user reviews for the same games are so low.

It may not be Microsoft pressure, it may be dis-satisfaction with the performance of the console, or perhaps a lack of content on many new xbox one games like Titanfall and Forza. I don't know but the wii u looks much healthier with high commercial reviews often matched with high user review scores. There is something suspicious about xbox one commercial reviews.