Casual, what do you expect? Badmouthing Sony is the new in thing. Its so laughable at this point I autotmatically find myself siding with Sony. Seriously, look in the General Gaming first page. Theres at least 3 topics this week about how bad of a company Sony is. Shit has got to stop, this is turning into IGN.
Let me break it down a bit. Kotaku had the right to do what they did but sony more so had the right to do what they did (and any big name company would have done the same). Kotaku tho is being childish for publishing everything on their site when there are some things they just don't need to make public. A simpler way to explain things is this I am under NDA with sony regarding the PSP (i work on psp software), Sony is entity A, I am entity B. A person I know working on ps3 stuff who is under a NDA with sony regarding the PS3 we will refer to as entity C. So the ps3 guy spills the beans to me about what sony is doing on the ps3. I deside to make this rumor public (since essentualy it's somewhat a rumor because it's hear say and not direct from sony), I go to sony and tell them what I have learn and that I will post it. I am requested not to but I tell them I am still going to do it. Sony threatens but I still post the article and EMAIL THEM BACK THE LINK (Now if that isn't a "f*k athority" attitude i'm not sure what is). Sony replies and request my dev kits back yet I go public and post how sony is now requesting "THEIR PROPERTY BACK" (Note, all dev and debug kits are properly of sony, you only are leasing them) and is severing ties with me. Again how is that not being childish on the part of Kotaku. Pull that stunt with nintendo or microsoft and they're not going to send a fresh batch of cookies. They're going to get pissy and null any ties as well as issue a lawsuit or two. Kotaku knows better since they them self are under NDA from sony. It's not some random gamming nerd who spews message board gossip. Seriously and I'm getting pist off i'm always being called a Sony ball licker. Sure I am maybe wrong on some parts but also sometimes I'm not even being fanboyish. I might do PSP development now (and i quite love my psp) but I still enjoy and miss doing GBA development (I dispise ds development due to crap lib design).
The Penny Arcade post from today points out that Kotaku were actually posting positive information in the first place, so it seems kind of odd that Sony would get uptight on this issue and not on something more overtly negative.
ok...kotaku isnt developing software for sony, i dont read kotaku maybe they do, but i somehow doubt it. sony most likely, im guessing, gave them them the debug units so they could review the hardware and games to generate publicity for the ps3. i just dont see it as the same thing...they dont work for sony, they dont develope software or hardware or anything for sony. if sony has a problem with blogs, gossip sites? i dont know what you would call them...if sony has a problem with sites that report rumors and gossip why did they give them the hardware to begin with. its the purpose of the site to report gaming related gossip and rumors, i see this whole episode as the tabloid shit a gossip site would capitalize on. and posting the emails? ...if they didnt post the emails who would believe it, wouldnt their readers want to see them? anyways the whole thing is stupid...
Kotaku has a debug unit to review and try out beta builds of games not on final master disc. Sites like Gamespot/IGN/1up/EGM etc also have them (as well for other platforms). It allows companies like sony to get feedback and generate interest in games. To have one puts them in a binding NDA with sony regarding the units and materials discussed between the two parties (in this case kotaku & sony). Sony (along with other companies) do not just go sending hardware off to anybody who ask for them. They are only given to repitable news organisations (which means kotaku is not just some two bit blog by a kid in high school, some of the staff does reviews for news papers). If you read kotaku you would notice at time they've mention when they got beta builds for games like God of War 2, Motorstorm and many others but "were not at liberty to discuss them". If you have not noticed, No major gaming news site reported on this even tho they at times also report big name rumors. I am also hearing that suposetly the information came from a staffer at IGN who was fired for discussing it then later went on to spill all the beans to Kotaku.
As it's positive news, Sony I assume wanted to break the news in a timely manner to help build interest, not have it leaked spoiling the effect.
Is it just me or is the big rumor really unexciting anyway? It just sounds like they're going to introduce some shitty Animal Crossing rip-off into the PS network. Big deal. Also have to agree that I was surprised that Kotaku had all of a sudden gone from a game blogging to "journalism"..
Eh, to that I have to say WTF? Gaming sites aren't there to serve Sony's PR machine. They're there to report what they know and so long as it doesn't directly break an NDA, go to town. And if you learn something from a third party, it is free and clear of NDA, especially if you didn't hear it from the source. That's the whole point of journalism. -hl718
And to this post I have to say "WTF?" because this thread is old and the discussion was pretty much over, so just let it die.
Classifiying any thread that's on the first two pages of the board as "old" just so you don't have to defend a position is pretty weak. Reviving a thread from last year would be "old." Responding to a thread from the last week is not.
Ok then, to counter argue, why wouldn't Sony be allowed to cut their ties if they published something they didn't want out yet? If it's going to be a huge marketting thing, then there's not going to be as much interest if some blog leaked it a fortnight previous. You can't expect Sony to turn around and say "I guess thats just journalism for you, hey Kotaku, want to come over on the weekend and take a look at some WIP games?" They are entitled to treat Kotaku how they want, this isn't defending Sony, it's defending any companies right to keep things like this under wraps. If say for example your wife became pregnant, and the midwife called all your family and friends and told them before you got the chance, you would be pretty pissed off. It's no different, people just like to demonise Sony.
Now I think you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. Ok, if that's what you want, whatever. In response to your original post: First of all, kotaku can barely even be called journalism. It's basically a bunch of idiots emulating 'professionals' and not doing a very good job of it. I wasn't saying kotaku had to serve as Sony's PR machine, by no means. I was saying that they should have acted with some professionalism, and not post the story as per Sony's multiple requests. Instead, they pushed forward with it because I'm guessing they get giggly at posting a story that no other game site had (even though other gaming sites probably already knew about it, especially the big names) so they could say 'hey, we did something ballsy and cool, and now were getting pushed around by the big bad corporation!" They were looking for sympathy, and I don't think they deserved one bit of it. Sony had already warned them of what was going to happen if they posted the story. They posted the story, then acted shocked when Sony carried out their threats. That's REALLY SMART of kotaku, don't you think? Old news is so exciting, so lets keep up this debate because I just can't get enough! Come on, I'm getting 'riled up' just thinking of what your reply is going to be. Let's keep discussing this old crap, because I have nothing better to do!
Giving Sony the courtesy of a heads-up is a lot more than many outlets would have done, but pulling a story at the request of PR should never be done. How is this any different than Sony saying, "If you give Game X a bad review, we're not supporting you anymore?" -hl718
I completely disagree with this as it varies from person to person. Take a new console announcement for example. Regularly there are photos, rumors and leaks released well before the full announcement. This doesn't hurt the publicity at all, and can in fact sometimes help it. Just look at the information hurricane that surrounded the Wii/Revolution public announcement.
Yeah but Nintendo could release a toothbrush and people would cream their pants... Take Turtles on XBLA, we knew it was coming out ages ago, people got really excited, we waited, then they officially announced it and most people have lost interest already. The public as a whole, has a very short attention span.
In that case the company in question should do a better job of managing confidential information. Should no one ever post news about the new PS3 with limited BC because Sony doesn't want to spread the word? As for XBLA, Microsoft is well aware that some debug kits have made it out into "unauthorized" hands free and clear of NDA. A few of those instances have been pretty well publicized, others are right here in the marketplace forum of these boards. There's nothing stopping any one of those people from posting about what they see. -hl718
No one here (I believe is saying) that journalism and information should be restricted (or can be restricted) by a company. Our arguement is that Sony was justified in there response and that Kotaku was being rather ridiculous about their response to being locked down.
If they are getting debug machines on the understanding that they sign an NDA in doing so, then yes, they shouldn't leak information they know comes from a reliable source and is under NDA. If they were concerned about complete independence from Sony then they shouldn't have signed their agreement for the debug. Simple.
