Technically, this is a change in practice, even if the end result is the same, i.e. to hope they get people to buy a lot of games from a publisher which, let's face it, hasn't been putting out very many good products this year, before any unexpected problems go public. :)

It's a long way from garbage. It's a bit rough round the edges, but I haven't had any problems in 10 hours of playing

So in previous years we've been highly critical of reviewers who put out reviews of online games before the game truly goes live. Now we don't have review copies of an MMO and we're upset?

The game has been in fairly open alpha/beta for a while now. If you are desperate to know, go play that. If not, wait for reviews that will actually be worth something. There's very little point in reviewing a game like this under a publisher's control and everyone knows that

Ubisoft has made some pretty bad decisions lately and because of them, they are rightly accused of bad practices. But The Crew is supposedly an MMO game and as such I have to agree with Ubisoft and say that reviewing this game prior launch should be avoided.

After all, we don't want another Driveclub situation were reviews scores were lowered because the online aspects didn't work as they should, right?

When a company takes steps to block reviews of its product, you have to wonder what exactly it is they don't want us to know.

But you can play the game. They've had lots of betas, they keep sending me emails to play it more and enter the next stage of each beta

http://thecrew-game.ubi.com/portal/en-GB/beta/index.aspx?ncid=313-3168-None--2-eml-31-29-OpenBeta--1-1-8-1114

That's not exactly hiding

(note, I clicked on that through my email, so I hope the link works)

Then why not send out copies? And how do we know how the Beta differs from the release version?

Their recent track record doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Not a fan of racing games, but The Crew's concept had me intrigued. Downloaded the PS4 beta a couple of weeks ago, played for about 15 minutes and deleted it.
Not buying the game whether it scores 95 or 55 on Metacritic (although I'm inclined to believe it will be closer to 55).

The Crew requires you to be online at all times, and is also primarily a multiplayer game, so I understand why they aren't sending out copies.

MMO's are never rated before release, and The Crew is probably the most MMO-like game in its genre.

If the servers aren't on, you can't play, and they probably won't turn the servers on until launch.

Lately reviewers aren't reviewing games until they can fully test them, such as IGN and Nintendo Life refusing to rate SSB:Wii U until the servers came online. Therefore it would be pointless reviewing The Crew, as there would only be a (very) few people online playing it even if the servers were online.

Tens of thousands of people have played the beta on PC, PS4 and XBO, so Ubisoft have nothing to hide, just talk to someone you know who's played the beta, you'll get a more reliable image of the game from them than you would from a reviewer anyway.

The problem with that is that we would have to buy the game to "form our own opinion". Then if it turns out to be rubbish, it's too late. And it would let shitty publishers to what they please with their strong marketing arm.

No, reviews are there for a reason. We might complain about them, but they are needed. Even if you disagree with the scores, reading them or watching video reviews helps a lot.

But you can't review the game before it's open to the world

It's a driving game, the main thing you need to know is how the cars handle and the beta should give you a strong enough idea