Rumors and Blacklists: Sony, Kotaku, and PlayStation Home *Update* |
UPDATE: It seems that Dave Karraker wised up and decided to do make-up with Kotaku. Brian Crecente writes:He told me his take on the story and his frustrations and I told him mine, in the end we agreed to disagree on some level, but also decided that our readers and gamers in general would be best served if Sony and Kotaku could still play nicely together.
In a nutshell: The story remains up and Sony has re-invited us to the meetings and interviews initially scheduled for the Game Developers Conference.
It's unfortunate that we, not just Kotaku and Sony, but all of us had to go through this, but it's good to see the outcome: We were doing our job and Sony was doing theirs and now we can both continue to do so.
So how are we going to interpret this? Sony PR tried to do some damage control on that leaked rumor, only to have that backfire, and then now they're wising up and realizing that they better just try and befriend "teh internetz?" Uh, yeah, that seems right.
We've repeated it like a some cultist mantra: Sony needs to get in touch with it's audience again. Looking at recent events, this is not the way to do it.Here's some background just so you know what we're talking about, if you troll gaming news sites though, you probably know about it already. Recently, Kotaku reported on a rumor that Sony is set to blend Microsoft Achievements, and Nintendo's Miis into one nifty feature called PlayStation Home. With PlayStation Home gamers will supposedly be able to set-up, ala Nintendo Miis, their own virtual space in PlayStation, and fill it with items that can be unlocked, ala Microsoft's Achievements.
While all Kotaku had going for this rumor, and they themselves admit this, was their source, and several excerpts from a multitude of interviews that hint that the source was legit, what Sony did in response to Kotaku's rumor report just gave the thing legs to stand on.
David Karraker responded to Kotaku's report in this manner:
I am very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor.... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us.
So, it is for this reason, that we will be canceling all further interviews for Kotaku staff at GDC and will be dis-inviting you to our media event next Tuesday. Until we can find a way to work better together, information provided to your site will only be that found in the public forum.
Again, I take absolutely no joy in sending you this note, but given the situation you have put me into, I have no choice.
Perhaps Sony felt bad about the initial response from folks that basically said "Sony does what Microsoft and Ninten...does," the oversight here is that a move like PlayStation Home, no matter how you look at it, is a massive expansion of Sony's PlayStation Network, and as such can only bring good things to Sony fans and the community(?) that they've got.
People love things like this, as Brian Lam of Gizmodo has said, "buzz is far more valuable than whatever the marketing machine can dream up." Again, this really feels like a bad move on Sony's part, especially since "teh internetz" finds it so fashionable to hate them at the moment.
Via Kotaku
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Comments [refresh]
kotaku is garbage. always hating on sony...
they had this coming long time ago
this serves them right and should be a warning to other sites on how to keep it professional.
A professional blog.....riiiggght
First of all, this site needs to realize that Kotaku was told over and over again to not post it, and if they did, they would face the consequences. Kotaku ignored Sony, and posted it anyway, THEN EMAILED THE STORY TO THEM BRAGGING ABOUT IT. Sony was left with no choice but to punish Kotaku for not listening to the WARNING SONY GAVE. Kotaku even mentioned that Sony asked nicely to not post it. Don't post it if the platform holder is saying don't. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press does not apply here.
Please, report the story properly, even if you have to cite the entire thing. Then people can get a better understanding of why Sony did this. Your just taking Kotaku's word, and of course they will spin it in their direction.
This is 100% Kotaku's fault for ignoring Sony's warning. Karraker even said it, and hell, Kotaku said they didn't listen. That is their problem.
Please, for the sake of the "industry" report these things correctly.
This is just a matter of people making it out to be bad because Sony did something. They did what they had to do, and Kotaku should be punched for twisting the story and taking advantage of the readers.
They should have listen TO THE WARNINGS (MANY TIMES) THAT SONY GAVE THEM not to post the RUMOUR, that may hurt Sony's public image.
Seriously, I can't stand this crap anymore. Screw humans and the people who comment saying "SONY IS D00Med!1 They are stop1d for doing thi5! They ar3 losing cust0mers!1elevenoneoneone !" If you are a gamer, you should understand this and not be bothered by it because you love games, and should love all consoles.
I have no remorse for any of these websites and I think its about time Sony starts letting them know it. After all not like Sony couldnt do with out them..
2 yrs of pure garbage, id stop all interviews and just announce when they have conventions, shows, etc.
@Logic,
You do realize that Kotaku has not signed any NDA on this and is in no way obliged to obey Sony rite?
and after all this commotion that Sony has causes ,you are still considering the Playstation Home feature to be a "rumour" ?
Dont want a bad "rumour" that hurt public image? then they might want to stop copying other console's feature.
JUST GROW UP! I am talking to the news submitter and also Kotaku along with their Microsoft/Nintendo sponsored media channels such as Digg etc (come on you aren't naive enough to believe this isn't the case are you?). This round of the console wars has been so goddamn childish with more talk pertaning to rumours and speculation coupled with an insane level of impatience. All consoles start slow then ramp up, PS3 is no different, PS2 was no different, nor was the PS1. I clearly recall this same nonsense happening over the net when I bought my PS2 at launch but this time around it's an order of magnitude worse. I repeat SHUT UP AND GROW UP!
You cannot spell.
Where does the original poster even mention NDA? Of course Kotaku can post whatever they want, but if you have a business relationship with a company, you may suffer some consequences when you don't treat that relationship with care.
Its a 2 way street (hence, the word relationship): for whatever reason if one party asks for some consideration in a given matter, the other party has to weigh that request and act as ow they see fit... and suffer any repercussions.
Of course, this argument is all for naught as apparently the two have already kissed and made up.
Its Kotaku's problem. Don't worry about it, they should have listened to the first warning. Rumors can infact hurt the image of any company. Even though it says rumor people will still believe it. Saying Sony is making Playstation home will lead people to believe that Sony is actually doing it if not. Also, it leads people to believe that Sony is "copying" Nintendo and Microsoft because of unclear details. In the programmer's world "copying" is considering taking someone else's code and putting it into yours.
Anyways, seems like Sony is doing something but whatever, if a company tells you not to post or whatever just don't you can do some damage to their PR and also you may break your relationship. I also want to say how don't you know Kotaku signed any contracts? You don't just get secret information and beta kits without signing something.
This happens in all industries.
Do you realize that companies spend alot of money on marketing plans and advertisements.
When something is suppose to be a secret, then its suppose to be kept a secret until the company is ready to announce it.
When a journalist goes out and finds a rumor, researches and accumulates some convincing evidence, and releases it before the company intended any information to be released, it really hinders the market strategy, forces them to chance it and adapt to it.
Theres alot of money in marketing an it takes just one article to change it especially from a website like kotaku.
Kotaku was right to publish it, and Sony was right to blackball them for it.
Well I see that it was wrong for Kotaku to do this, you can't tell me you are not at least a little bit glad that they did this and now you know something thats gonna be a big improvement to PSonline. Frankly, I hate how long Sony waits before revealing any new features.
What I think Sony should have done was to not respond to what Kotaku that way its still a rumor and the PS3 gets pulbicity + gets fans something to be excited with. They should do what Microsoft do which is just say they don't respond to speculations and thats it. But if they did that Microsoft fanboys would probably say Sony copied again....
In the end it comes to what you prefer: a website telling you about a new feature before a company goes public with it, or wait for a company to take their time.
If Sony is copying anyone, it would be Myspace, not Nintnedo and Microsoft, I never really like Kotaku, and they have been doing this ***** for a while, im glad sony is finnally getting tired of it.
is it just me or is the articla above being biased... another bad piece of journalism
Who cares what sony says to kotaku and how on earth do you think that will affect sony or their sales?? Sony is adding a very important feature, which they were probably going to announce at the gdc next week. Kotaku blew it for them, so a very small portion of ps3 users know about this ahead of time and some of the surprise is lost. oh well! It's still going to be the huge improvement that shuts up all the xholes about how bad the ps store is!!! That is their major complaint, and sony has been working hard to fix it. Now what can they ***** about next.. Not the price again! lol...
if its a RUMOR then its not a big deal.
but if its true and SONY warned you already...then it's not right to release it. that why its called CONFIDENTIAL. i have some close friends who works in a computer company. and one of their clients are EA and APPLE. they don't discuss new release products to me and even to their siblings because of confidentiality . an example of that is the iPOD. he knows about it way before it was released.
now giving out information without any consent from the COMPANY who made it should face the consequence and ready to take the penalty.
What if QJ.net had reported the story after Sony threatened to blacklist them? How many of you would of hailed Qj.net for looking out for your interests, to give you all the facts (or in this case, rumours) and not be pressured to be silent?
Kotaku did nothing wrong, and if anything, this bit of news is some great news that Sony has been needing. But they somehow manage to make it bad news. Sony and Kotaku making up is merely Sony realizing they are making a huge PR error. Kotaku is a very unbias news source, the community is very Nintendoand Microsoft bias though. I feel Qj.net is also quite unbias (at times), it's the community that is very Sony bias. You all know this to be true. Merely look at any comments concerning the mix of any consoles. For BOTH sites.
To Somewhere: Though I see your point on Confidentiailty . What happened here, and your friend, are two unrelated scenarios under the bigger genre of Confidentiailty . Your friend works for EA and Apple, he is bound by law with whatever confidentiality agreement he signed. Kotaku is bound by no such contract. And as a media source, it is protected by Freedom of the Press. And just for a Watergate comparison to the just confidentiality , regardless of Nixon not wanting it publicized, the press did it regardless.
Lastly, this is just a small tick I have. "He know (should be knew) about it way before it was released." I'm sure it was a typo but I get annoyed when tenses change. I'm cool with all the other errors, just some odd reason tense errors drive me up he wall. I'm retarded I know, sorry.
lol wooo i submitted this yesterday, didnt even know it would get put up.
I believe u