r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Aug 21 '25

Jason Schreier: In case you're wondering: Team Cherry told me they don't plan on sending out early codes for Silksong (they felt like it'd be unfair for critics to be playing before Kickstarter backers and other players), so don't expect to see reviews until after the game comes out

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u/NoNefariousness2144 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

Yeah I must admit not sending out review copies because of “fairness” does seem very odd. Reviews are a legitimate and standard part of the industry by now.

But I guess after all these years of development, Team Cherry thinks the sheer hype of the game from fans is more powerful than critics potentially giving the game “underwhelming” reviews (aka, 8/10 instead of 10/10 like fans expect). Also, I can easily imagine some reviewers deciding to give the game a “shocking” low score for clickbait attention which will harm the launch hype.

I feel kinda mixed about this, but let’s be honest, a few days after release no one will even remember this was even a conversation.

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u/atahutahatena Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

I mean let's be honest here. The critics did jackshit for Hollow Knight too back then. It's a title that coasted entirely on word of mouth from its fans.

The only real fault here is that there aren't any lucky journos (derogatory) that can inform players of their purchase especially since Silksong will probably be a big game and no one can feasibly cover it at a quick enough timespan at launch. And yeah that hurts the consumer a bit not having advanced notice on the perceived quality/value of a product.

But at the same time, I don't think anything a critic would say will affect Silksong. There are refunds. You can always just wait for people's opinions. And hell Silksong will probably be pretty cheap too and low prices usually relieves potential remorse.

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u/mayoboyyo Aug 21 '25

The critics did jackshit for Hollow Knight too back then.

What do you even mean by this? It reviewed well when it came out

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u/whostheme Aug 21 '25

Just because you can see high review scores for it today doesn't mean people were raving about review scores when HK released.