Plenty of gamers stayed up until the witching hour last night to go and pick up their copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops at midnight, so why are we still waiting on reviews of the game?
Well, it turns out the answer is relatively mundane – there’s a global embargo in place which expires at exactly 6.01pm AEDT whioch applies to all gaming press worldwide, to coincide with the US release of the game.
Which is pretty painful if you’re an Australian consumer waiting for reviews.
But why no long lead reviews? Well, speaking to an Activision rep locally today, it’s just a “Call of Duty thing” – to “make sure everyone falls in line with global.” If we remember correctly there was a similar delay for reviews with Modern Warfare 2 last year.
It’s not quite an ideal situation, particularly for Treyarch themselves who, according to Military Advisor Hank Keirsey (who we spoke to today – full interview soon) put an incredible amount of work into Black Ops and are extremely excited to see the press reaction to their baby.
So it makes us wonder who this embargo is benefitting? Not the consumer waiting for reviews, not the publisher who’ll reap the benefit of the top scores you’d expect Call of Duty: Black Ops to receive, and not Treyarch who see the game as a real coming out party for the studio – a testament to the high quality they can produce when they’re focused on one single title exclusively.
Maybe we’ll throw it out to you guys instead. Anyone played through Call of Duty: Black Ops yet? What’s your verdict?
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