Let's talk about Ubisoft bribing game influencers, shall we?

In case you haven't heard, Ubisoft apparently paid for a lavish trip to Disney Land and more for game influencers so they could play-test the new Star Wars game, Star Wars Outlaws.

There are countless gaming influencers covering the scandal (irony abounds), but here is a link to an actual, honest-to-god article about this shit.

Look: This sort of thing is nothing new. E3 - for all you young folks pre-COVID - was a veritable smorgasbord of graft and booth babes trying to get media folks to put a positive spin on whatever on-rails demo they've sanitized for the journalistic masses.

Of course, spending large chunks of money to fly influencers out to Disney Land is a bit beyond that, but.. Does it count as bribery?

Here's the TL:DR; answer: Only if they said "Ok, we paid this metaphorical hooker to give you a metaphorical handjob, you gonna play ball now?"

Here's my thoughts: Ubisoft is most assuredly banking on at least 2 aspects to the strategy.

Aspect 1: Hoping that the game influencer would feel guilty for not being conciliatory in their coverage of the game after Ubisoft treated them so well, and..

Aspect 2: Hoping that the fun experiences outside of the game influence their experience of the game (or at least fog their memories a bit).

Both of these are common goals in this situation. You see it in a variety of industries; you'll have an industry party where you hope to sell a bunch of folks on whatever product you've got, so you liquor them up, put them in a nice hotel for a couple days, and then give them the 30 minute pitch.

It works.

Now, there is a second part to this controversy, and one that could honestly be blown just a bit out of proportion, given we don't know any actual details:

Ubisoft required all coverage be approved by a 3rd party they chose before release.

This may sound ominous, but it really isn't a guaranteed Bad Thing (TM).

You see, Ubisoft & Disney want to protect the IP. It's Mother Fucking Star Wars (TM). MFSW (TM) is a big-money franchise that has reached multiple generations of folks. MFSW (TM) is a gigantic piece of the zeitgeist.

MFSW (TM) gets the good hemorrhoid cream.

While this could be a "We don't want you to share anything too critical", it's actually more likely that it's a "Oh, that aspect's not received it's final pass & polish, so don't show that", or "That portion contains something we consider a spoiler, best keep that out of the fans eyes pre-release".

That second part may seem odd given they tried to limit what could be done, but remember, this is an open world game: There is a shit-ton there, and while I'm sure they did a specific build for these influencers, they probably didn't have the time to painstakingly trim it down without introducing even more problems.

It's honestly just easier to have someone review the content before release just to make sure it's all kosher..

..Because you know Disney will have issues if something leaks before they are ready.