If you are rich enough and afford to shell out almost a $100 to get the game early, it's a great deal for you. It has created a have and have nots divide between players. Now is it good for consumers? Not really. These guys wouldve gotten the game for $10 on gamepass if they waited a week, but they didnt want to and now MS has made $85 per game for the first million sales. Forza almost has 1 million players already. Yes, it's a brilliant idea to make more money. Having this quicker early access tied to a premium edition of a game is a nice bonus. A game goes gold weeks before it's released to the public yet that game is still finished, faster, slicker distribution channels now allow for the games to get into the hands of the gamers quicker. Microsoft have not however artificially moved the release date back to make normal people wait longer, the release date was set long before the different editions were announced. I suppose it depends on whether you are a glass half-empty or glass half-full kind of person as to how you see this. Public early access is just an extension of a practice that has been going on since the beginning of video gaming itself. In the case of FH5 reviewers and a lot of Microsoft staff have been playing the finished game for weeks which probably accounts for tens of thousands of users before the premium edition customers. It's normal for many people to get to play games before the release date. Normal customers are not being held back, the release date is (and has been for some time) November 9th. In the case of Forza Horizon, the release date was set months ago so it is still in pre-release. Click to expand.So when reviewers are playing finished games early or the developers have sent out advanced copies to VIPs is that also holding normal customers back?