Media management (from our friends at Sony)

flogen

I'm not trying to add to the list of threads that make Sony look like a bunch of incompetent, arrogant and frankly childish morons, but they're giving me little other option.

Gaming blog Kotaku has gotten "blackballed" by Sony for posting a rumour about Phil Harrison's upcoming speech at the GDC (which Sony has said will include a major announcement).

They've patched things up now, but for me it's just another example of there being some kind of illness within Sony at the moment - something that the recent reshuffle hasn't solved at all.

Kotaku wrote:

Earlier today we posted a rumor story on the site about a possible announcement of a new technology coming to Sony's Playstation 3.

The Playstation Home, we reported, would be an intriguing blending of the Mii and achievements, allowing gamers to create a virtual world for customized avatars and then decorate that space with items unlocked through game play.

What readers couldn't have known was the great lengths we went to to try and pin down the veracity of the rumor before publishing and, when finally deciding to go live with the rumor, to make sure we put it in the correct context.

In so doing, Sony asked us not to publish the story, first nicely, then not so much. Sony Computer Entertainment of American representatives reminded us that the story was a rumor and then went on to say that publishing it could harm our professional relationship with them.

When I responded that we were going forward with the story and that sometimes news doesn't come from official sources I was told that if we published we would likely be blackballed by the company.

Specifically, they said we would be asked to return our debug PS3, uninvited from all meetings scheduled with Sony at GDC, including one on blogger relations and a one-on-one with Phil Harrison, and that they would no longer deal with us.

Knowing that, we went forward with the story, choosing not to point out the threats.

Read the rest for yourself over there - but basically Sony came good on their threat, and tried to make Kotaku out to be the bad guys for not playing by their songsheet.

Firstly, even the smallest of companies should know that reacting to a rumour report just gives it oxygen. If it's true, you reacting makes it look like you have something to hide. If it's false, you reacting just brings it to the attention of more people than it otherwise would have.

Secondly, Sony has had an uphill struggle lately trying to shake off its self-imposed image of arrogance amongst the gaming community - turning on an extremely popular gaming blog is hardly going to get that same community on your side again.

This honestly isn't another "Sony suxxorz" thread, I just think they handled the situation extremely poorly - even ignoring all their previous mistakes and comments. I'd say the same if it was Nintendo or MS - this is just idiotic.

projectmayhem

this problem in sony is at an executive level. the engineers, devs and whatnot that work for the company are putting out good stuff, but the execs are really screwing up. kaz hirai is wrong for the job, but at least he's kept his mouth shut. jack tretton has taken his place though. i like phil harrison though, he has a good personality for public speaking, and tends (i say tends) not to talk complete crap.

the company needs a proper re-shuffle, with a lot of staff being skimmed. they've obviously gotten so big that unimportant people are making decisions that affect how the company is perseived on the outside

LookingFor

flogen wrote:

I'd say the same if it was Nintendo or MS - this is just idiotic.

It shouldn't shock you to hear that this kind of stuff is common-place. It's not 'a Sony thing'. That doesn't make it alright, of course. I don't know what it's like in other industries, but PR in videogames is very murky. Dan Hsu of EGM has a good blog up about this in the wake of the Kotaku story.

The only difference here was that the whole thing got a very public airing. Usually, this stuff never arises because journalists tend to 'play nice' to get and retain access. (For example, notice how IGN and Gamespot did not report on this story at all.) When there is 'blackballing', it's usually just a temporary slap on the wrist before relations are normalised again, so to speak.

As for Sony's arrogance, I don't see it as particularly arrogant of them to have made amends. I doubt they would have if the whole thing hadn't been aired in public, though. As I said, this wouldn't have been the first time they (or many others) had done this kind of thing, but hopefully this incident will at least set a precedent for future policy at Sony.

astrofool

The problem at the upper levels of Sony has come from failures at the lower level. Their bread and butter hi-tech appliances have lost their sheen for years now, and only the most faithful would go for a Sony over a Tosh/Samsung/Phillips/LG part all other things being equal. The only successful part has been their Playstation division and as a result they seem to be putting too much emphasis on it, trying to make the PS3 a jack of all trades rather than master of one area, which the PS1, PS2 did perfectly.

The one big answer to everything has always been to try and create a proprietory technology and then live off that money stream, but they have consistently failed in that approach and have risked the PS3 to try it again. They may succeed, but it won't have been through good business practices and solid design, and ultimately they look like being sidestepped by digital delivery anyway (I wonder how long it will be before Sony entertainment starts allowing digital delivery of HD movies). They always do this, and it's cost them previously in the MP3 player market, where they went from #1 in the walkman days to a non entity.

Oh, and they make by far the worst software in the world, even Creative trumps Sony here.

BlitzKrieg

you guys couldnt be more right:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/sonys-problems-start-at-the-top-241418.php

wonderful read just to see that all the problems seem to make sense when you look at it from this persepctive.

flogen

LookingFor wrote:

It shouldn't shock you to hear that this kind of stuff is common-place. It's not 'a Sony thing'. That doesn't make it alright, of course. I don't know what it's like in other industries, but PR in videogames is very murky. Dan Hsu of EGM has a good blog up about this in the wake of the Kotaku story.

I'm not saying that MS and Nintendo don't have preferential reviewers and blacklisted ones, but when it comes to reporting rumours, from what I always read at Eurogamer, both companies tend to respond with the usual "don't comment on rumours" blurb - and that's always the case, be the rumour right or wrong.

Let's assume that all the 3 players treat reviewers based on the way they've reviewed them - so those who always give MS good reviews always get first shot at a new MS game and vice versa. Do you think MS would say "You've given us a bad review, so don't expect anything from us in the future"? Of course they wouldn't - they'd have the sense to put that wall up quietly... anything else just means the reviewer has solid reason to gripe and evidence to back it up, rather than seeming like a paranoid moan.

What confuses me most about this reaction is that the rumour was in no way damaging to Sony even if it's completely untrue, it's not like they claimed the company was about to go bust.

astrofool

flogen wrote:

it's not like they claimed the company was about to go bust.

I'm sure Sony's lawyer's will be in touch shortly..

LookingFor

BlitzKrieg wrote:

you guys couldnt be more right:

articfool couldn't be more wrong, though. Not only is he off-topic, but it's a long time since Sony relied on Playstation alone to bring home the bacon. Quite the opposite lately, in fact, with the electronics and movie businesses rebounding, and Playstation held back by launch expenditure. Stringer has done a good job in turning many of Sony's divisions around, it's actually now the games business that's presenting a challenge at the moment.

flogen wrote:

Of course they wouldn't - they'd have the sense to put that wall up quietly...

Sure, it happens quietly a lot of the time, I know this first hand actually Doesn't make it any better or worse.

flogen wrote:

What confuses me most about this reaction is that the rumour was in no way damaging to Sony even if it's completely untrue

Well, if it was true it was potentially spoiling a surprise. If false it potentially could fuel unrealistic expectations. I think the reaction points to the former, though. What Sony should have done is either quietly blackballed them (after GDC, perhaps), or gave them a carrot to keep quiet about it (like, perhaps, some exclusive access at GDC). That would still be 'media management', of course, just more like the kind that usually goes on that we don't talk about.

flogen

LookingFor wrote:

Well, if it was true it was potentially spoiling a surprise. If false it potentially could fuel unrealistic expectations. I think the reaction points to the former, though. What Sony should have done is either quietly blackballed them (after GDC, perhaps), or gave them a carrot to keep quiet about it (like, perhaps, some exclusive access at GDC). That would still be 'media management', of course, just more like the kind that usually goes on that we don't talk about.

I agree - again, it's not like they're the only ones doing it, they're just the only ones that made the mistake of doing it very blatently (at least in recent times).

Frankly, if it is an accurate prediction, and had the carrot approach not worked, they'd have been better to shut up about, just look at how much attention the article has gotten now that Sony have made a scene over it.