Ubisoft Hands Out Nexus 7 Tablets At a Game's Press Event 43
An anonymous reader writes "With Watch Dogs launching next month, Ubisoft is ramping up the promotion. That includes holding press events to show off the game to journalists, many of whom will end up reviewing Watch Dogs. One such event was held last week in Paris, and it has been revealed by attendees that Ubisoft decided to give everyone who turned up a Nexus 7 tablet. Why? That hasn't been explained yet, but in a statement on Twitter, Ubisoft said such gifts were 'not in line with their PR policies.' You can see how it would be viewed with skepticism; after all, these are the individuals who will give Watch Dogs a review score, which many gamers rely on to help them make a purchasing decision."
More Shocking... (Score:3)
...it would have been more shocking if they hadn't been doling out swag bags to their press events.
This is news?
Re: (Score:2)
Even if we view this as blatant bribery to game reviews, above and beyond the usual swag, how is this news? Do we not understand how the game review scene works? Few reviewers start with any but the best intentions, but the machine to subvert them slowly over time is very fine tuned.
Re: (Score:2)
I am much more concerned about the conflict of interest of these magazines/sites having advertising from these same game developers as their primary source of income. If you think you're going to get an honest review for a game on a site who gets a lot of money from selling ads for said game, then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Re: (Score:2)
That's just one of many angles. The biggest may be early access to games for reviewers. A game review is of course more valuable if it's out before the game is, but that requires playing nice with the publishers.
Alright, let's make it rain up in here! (Fling!) (Score:2)
.
Anyone who's seen the Veronica Mars Movie Knows (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
agreed, it says to me that there is little perceived value in an android tab, so UBI probably thought it was like giving away coffee or something.
Re: (Score:2)
yeah but how can you give people a "one time use" coupon that they can't post on to facefart or something like that?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Give a discount on a digital download. Generate unique discount codes (random numbers) and allow each number to be used only once by keeping track of which numbers have been used.
Alternatively, accept the fact that the code will be shared and make it a small discount and/or only valid on launch day, to stimulate impulse buys. People will feel they got a good deal by outsmarting your system, while it was calculated from the start.
Modern Day Ass-Creed (Score:2, Informative)
I predict a sucky game.
Saving face (Score:2)
It's intresting the people attending the press event had to sign a NDA and when it came out that press got a goodie bag with a tablet in there Ubisoft quickly says "its not sanctioned".
To me it looks like saving face because 20.000 dollar worth of tablets have to be vetted somewhere in the chain.
Also remember a couple of weeks ago when ubi got caught with doctoring images and they replied with "well those images where the vision of what we had not actual game play" but at the time they where saying it was g
If only PRESS events yielded bloody diomonds. (Score:1)
This is the only game I really care about right now: Planetary Annihilation. [youtube.com]
There are others, but really, nothing else matters to me besides my own experiments. I really tried to care about some 1st world problems concerning about who got what tablet that will be burning in a waste pile in Ghana in two years, but I just really couldn't bring myself to do so. I mean, don't get me wrong. I can love me some games, but I just can't give a flying fuck about who got what data on which Starfleet PADD. [memory-alpha.org]
Know what
...Includes DRM that bricks the tablet. (Score:1)
Bribing Journalists = Bad Game (Score:3)
The game will be bad, or is being completely oversold.
I'm trying to think of a case where this level of PR blitz/buying people off has ever resulted in a truly "good" game.
This news how? (Score:2)
From TFS: "You can see how it would be viewed with skepticism; after all, these are the individuals who will give Watch Dogs a review score, which many gamers rely on to help them make a purchasing decision."
Come on, we're all adults here. We all know the industry gives perks to reviewers in exchange for favorable reviews. This is just more blatant than most.
Because nobody wanted the crummy battery life?? (Score:2)
While I love my Nexus 4 and especially the, now discontinued, Nexus 10, the 7 is a piece of junk, IMO. I run the same software on all of them (actually, less on the 7), and I have to charge it as often as the 4, which I use far more and is also receiving a cell signal.
The 10 is pretty sweet though. I can get almost two weeks, as compared to one/two days from the 7, with similar usage. I've wanted to throw the thing away myself. I don't blame Ubisoft.
Re: (Score:2)
While I love my Nexus 4 and especially the, now discontinued, Nexus 10, the 7 is a piece of junk, IMO. I run the same software on all of them (actually, less on the 7), and I have to charge it as often as the 4, which I use far more and is also receiving a cell signal.
The 10 is pretty sweet though. I can get almost two weeks, as compared to one/two days from the 7, with similar usage. I've wanted to throw the thing away myself. I don't blame Ubisoft.
Sounds like theirs something wrong with your Nexus 7.
I've never heard of battery problems with any Nexus 7 and I did a metric crapload of research before plonking down A$440 for the LTE variant of the Nexus 7. I realistically have to charge it once a week with normal usage or once every 5 days with heavy usage.
You've probably got a rouge app that keeps draining your battery life.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like theirs something wrong with your Nexus 7.
I have the same experience with a Nexus 7 2013, but only since upgrading to kitkat.
Re: (Score:2)
It has less apps on it than the other two. And there are actually many threads out there on the Nexus 7 battery problems (which I only discovered after running into the problem). It might be more limited to the 2013 models though.
Re: (Score:2)
Watch Dogs Tablet App... (Score:4, Informative)
This time, however, the demo concluded with a demonstration of a real-time iPad app that supports a kind of meta-game - much in the manner of Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass.
Here players were presented with a wireframe map of futuristic Chicago, drawn in a similar style to the one that used in the press conference demo. The map can be scrolled and zoomed, with pop-up boxes and icons providing real-time information about the game in progress.
"As we said, everything is connected - and we've extended that to mobile devices," said the Ubisoft demonstrator. "We have Chicago in the palm of your hand. Everything that you've seen in the game will be accessible, so different shops - pharmacies, gun shops - will also be available here. You can see everything."
Oh, I get it (Score:2)
Only for british journalists (Score:2)
Here is more complete coverage [arretsurimages.net] (in french, since Ubisoft is a french company and the event was in Paris, but you will manage to translate)
In short, the Ubisoft person responsible for British PR decided to offer tablets to British journalists. No-brits had nothing, which suggests this is indeed an individual move
A reason why they SHOULD have... (Score:2)
Giving away Nexus 7's seems hard to explain away. I mean, I tried to think of any reason why they might have wanted to give them all 7" Android tablets, like maybe an interesting way of distributing a multimedia press kit or something, but that could have just as easily been handled by $75 Chinese-made Android tablets.
That did make me think that that'd be pretty cool though; imagine buying a bunch of modestly-spec'd 7" Android tablets from China wholesale, and using them as giveaway items to distribute rea
Re: (Score:2)
I actually picked up FOUR 7" Android 4.x tablets from DealExtreme for ~$35 each last year, during a half-price sale...and I doubt they'd let even such a sale as that rob them entirely of profits...
Dealextreme is like BG Micro. Sure, they buy stuff to stock and sell, but much of what they sell is some crap that someone else couldn't sell, which they got for a song. Just because DX got a bunch of tablets nobody wanted to buy in a store for $20/piece doesn't mean someone will sell you new, supported ones for that.
This isn't a new practice (Score:2)
Woe betide any outfit which angers a
Re: (Score:1)
Gamers know these so-called journalists are purchased just like the current game they are slinging. What they should have said was "which almost no gamers rely on to help them make a purchasing decision." That's why "Let's Plays" are so popular. Gamers go to places like twitch and you tube to get a look at the game and advice from someone who has no motivation to lie to them about how good or bad a game is. So gaming companies are trying to slap copyright and content complaints against let's play presenters