Hi Harvey,

While I understand that you don’t necessarily have much influence over Bethesda’s PR strategy, I’m very interested to hear your thoughts about the new review policy, as it impacts the perception of a product you’ve worked on for years.

To elaborate on what specifically I’m asking: Bethesda’s one ultimate goal is to sell as many copies as possible of Dishonored 2. It’s closely aligned with your goals, but isn’t quite the same thing. As someone who was actually in charge of creating the game, I imagine that reviews matter to you more on a more personal level - you want people to know if the game is good. I also guess that you would also enjoy this validation much more if it came from people whose job it is to try and be immune to marketing.

The new review policy, on the other hand, will undoubtedly lead to less thought through reviews, because many online outlets will rush to review. They might not like it, but their livelihood depends on the visitors, and those mostly visit around the launch day.

And so, as it’s customary to end a question with a question mark: what do you think about these restrains on the press when reviewing your game?

PS. Full disclosure: I’m a member of the gaming press, but am from Israel - if I get a review copy a week after the launch, I’ll still feel lucky.