Ubisoft has explained why it will not distribute review copies of The Crew prior to its release date.

The open world racing game can only be fully assessed when it's live, Ubisoft said, as servers are populated by players. However, Ubisoft assured that there would be no coverage embargoes in place either.

Ubisoft was scrutinised for requesting an embargo on Assassin's Creed Unity, which could only be lifted after the game was released. The editor of one publication, Kotaku, said in response to the situation that he would no longer acquiesce to post-release review embargoes.

However, regardless of embargo timelines, it is now common practice for publications--including GameSpot--to postpone reviews of online-centric games until its server infrastructure is tested.

Ubisoft says this is the very reason why it is not handing out early copies of the game. It also points out that, on several occasions already, has let players sample the game via betas.

"The Crew was built from the beginning to be a living playground full of driving fans, so it’s only possible to assess our game in its entirety with other real players in the world," the publisher wrote on its blog.

"For this very reason, The Crew will be available to media to begin their reviews when the game launches on December 2. There will be absolutely no embargo on any type of coverage once the game is available for sale."

The company added: "While we fully anticipate that you might see some reviews immediately at launch--largely built around the preview sessions we facilitated during the past months or the limited content of the closed and open betas--they won’t be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game."

A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One open beta for The Crew, takes place between November 25 and 27.

Ubisoft says this open beta represents "the last chance to drive the roads of the United States ahead of the worldwide launch on December 2."