Nothing personal but what do you exspect? Many companies and publishers do this all the time. If this rumor is true (which this leads me to believe that it is), NDA were sevearly broken and Kotaku should have held that information back. It's the same with the TMNT live arcade anoucement on sites. The source (as well as images) came from a service that is under heavy NDAs yet someone still leaked what they were not suppost to. So microsoft has gone around telling sites to pull any images of it down (yet still does not confirm its legit). -- edit -- To clear a few points. I am not saying kotaku broken an NDA but who reported this to them did. As well the fact sony was trying some strong arm tacticts shows some validity to the rumor yet kotaku still wish to run the article. Again, If 1 week before the wii remote was shown, If a site like kotaku came out and gave strong details or screenshots of the remote from anonymous sorces. You can bet nintendo would have thrown a fit and done all they could to get it pulled.
Good job Sony! And I mean that sincerely. And why in the world would Sony give Kotaku debug consoles? No. You mean you'll get a court order to send back the debug units. Kotaku isn't any different than the other game-news sites out there. They rather ruin supposedly 'good connections' just to be the first to expose news that other well-known games sites probably already knew just to get more hits. Something other sites will most likely do anyway. Still, they really hit David below the belt here, but Kotaku is painting themselves as the vicitm.
I could not agree more, but M$ problem is even worse considering reviewers themselves have direct access to the informations (even NDAed) using partnernet, and I don't expect all of them to be quiet. Never give internal infos to a reviewer unless you want those to get leaked.
See that is another thing in this. It's not like kotaku is simply being removed from the PR's press release mass email system. They had Debug kits, Beta of quite a few games (he has mention alot about playing God of War 2 & Motorstorm). Kotaku staff is under Sony NDA them selfs and should know better.
I cannot believe that anyone is defending Sony's tactics here. Sure, we are only getting one side of the story, but I am really doubting that this is an NDA issue between Sony and Kotaku. Between Sony and Kotaku's source though, it probably is an issue.
Sony said they'd lock them down if they ran the story..so they did...doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with that (as a private company Sony has the right to deal with whoever they please).
I won't argue that Sony has the right to do so, I am just saying that this might not be an NDA concern. If they received the information from Sony under NDA, then they could be violating it even if they had a second source (depends on the NDA terms). However, if they did not receive the information under NDA, then they cannot be held accountable to it. It seems to me that Sony is trying to act like Apple and prevent any rumors from being released instead of just providing a "no comment" response for them.
I'm going to applaud Sony on this one, not only because I simply can't stand Kotaku, but also because... It should have ended here. If Sony asked nicely, then the people at Kotaku should have acted with 'professionalism', and they shouldn't have published the story. Now the rejects at Kotaku are acting like Sony did something wrong! What the hell, they not only asked once (and nicely at first!), BUT TWICE! If they are stupid enough to go forward with publishing the story after two warnings, then they got what they deserved.
I think Kotaku's Ballball article (http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/sony-blackballs-kotaku-240860.php) is enough proof that Sony have taken the correct approach in this instance.
Good thing for Kotaku that the PS3 has fuck all interesting on the horizons. They won't be missing anything.
And now Sony retracts (as they should in my opinion): http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/sony-and-kotaku-makeup-240922.php
Ah Kotaku, Bottom of the barrel gaming journalism! Shame Sony didnt stick by this, Kotaku and Joystiq are the slime of the gaming world. Publishing the emails just shows how immature they are about all this and why they will never be anything beyond a blog site.
im kind of taken aback by some of the comments in here, i may be missing something...but as far as i understand things kotaku is not an extension of sony corp. why should it be expected that they not publish a story because sony asks them not to? because sony gave them debug units they should only publish what sony wants them to report? under the sites' disclaimer section it clearly states: "Kotaku is a gossip site. The site publishes both rumors and conjecture, in addition to accurately reported information. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. Links to content on and quotation of material from other sites are not the responsibility of Gawker Media." still...sony has the right to do what they did, and hundreds? thousands? ...of people have the right to be throughly disgusted by their actions.
You should change the title from "Sony blackballs Kotaku" into "Sony blackballs blog" http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/03/01/2230214.shtml Looks they kissed and made up though.
As I see it neither side was in the wrong initially. As long as Kotaku didn't directly violate the NDA they signed with Sony and received the information via 3rd party then they had every right to run the story. They knew what the risks were in choosing to run with the story and I applaud them for sticking to their guns. You get into dangerous territory when you let outside entities dictate what news is relevant. Just look at modern news since they've been made to focus on rating and profits by corporate executives for proof of that. Likewise Sony should be able to use every resource available to them to protect their trade secrets even if it does mean playing hardball. Sony had every right to sever their relationship with Kotaku. That said, The point I felt someone was in the wrong was when Kotaku decided to post online the emails between Sony and themselves. Publishing emails during an ongoing discussion between the two was both in poor taste and a violation of trust.
As I said, both are justified in what they did but equally importantly Kotaku has no right to complain at all, if I tell a friend "Don't say X to my other friend Y" and then they go and do it..of course I have every right to be annoyed..that's pretty much how I feel anyway. I kinda wish Sony hadn't have backed down just because I personally feel it would've been funny if Kotaku suddenly was severed (by their own doing) from being able to report on Sony. It just seems like to me Sony asked them to not run with a story (which wasn't a BAD rumour, anything but really) and basically threatened after asking nicely and being refused..by breaking business ties which is exactly what they should have done imho. Also yeah..my bad on using the term Private company..I should have said what I meant (like a seperate entity to Kotaku so they can choose what they do with their information with no obligations to bend to Kotaku's influences).
So, Sony Blackballed a shit gaming Journalism site for spilling the beans on something secret? After warning them TWICE? Say it ain't so. And people are mad at Sony over it? SAY IT AIN'T SO. I agree that some of the execs there have been spouting BS every day almost, but this Sony hate is getting old. I normally just don't read any topics like this, since they're all the same shit. And now Sony is getting flak for actual positive stuff? When does it end?
