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Microsoft talks about product info leaks and internet speculation
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During a segment on the latest podcast of the Gamerscore Blog, Microsoft's Games for Window's PR Manager Michael Wolf argued that information leaks, like the ones for the Xbox 360 Elite, are counter-productive because the information doesn't have any "context." Gamasutra quotes him as saying:
For the Elite, for example, people were talking about the functionality and had pictures and all this stuff, but they didn't have the full story. They didn't know the price, they didn't know the accessories, they didn't know additional information that really puts a lot of context and a lot of information behind it.
The reason why it's bad is because then you lose all the context. You lose all the facts that back it up, so that people hear the story once, understand it, and move forward, as opposed to hearing things bit by bit, piece by piece.
Although John Porcaro, Microsoft's Senior Group Manager for online community and communications agree with this sentiment, he does admit that in this day and age it may be something necessary. He says:
With the way that Internet works we're just going to have to deal with it to some degree, but on the other hand, it's almost like there's so much information out there... you could say any publicity is good publicity, sort of play devil's advocate there a little bit.
Wolf goes on to note that due to the vast number of alleged leaks Microsoft has a policy of not commenting on rumor and speculation as it doesn't add value to comment on a rumor, especially if they're not ready to make a full announcement yet. As for the origins of the information leak, many theories were offered by employees, and some have even suggested that "we're probably all guilty of [leaking information] to some degree." However, Porcaro assured that employees aren't telling the press. He notes:
I think it's an employee that tells somebody they trust, who then tells somebody they trust, and it's probably second generation... Every now and then we see something pop up that only 30 people know about or should know about, and we have people looking into that too.
To listen to the whole Gamerscore podcast feel free to head to it via our "read" link below.
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