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.
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
