That's right, Bullshit with a capital B.
It's no news that Sony has been taking some serious shit these days. In fact their insane claims and statements are coming with such regularity it's quite astonishing. The backlash from the gaming community has been pretty substantial, but Sony seemed to be content to continually just brush those haters off as it were.
Well they finally got angry.
You can get more details at Kotaku, but the long and short of it is that Sony didn't like a (widely confirmed at Kotaku by very reliable sources inside the gaming industry) rumor that Kotaku wanted to publish. Well even after some nice asking from Sony, they published the rumor anyway. Instead of the "we do not comment on rumors or speculation," company line that Microsoft regularly dishes out, Sony sent a bitchy note to Kotaku saying that they were shutting down all relations with the site including interviews at future trade shows and the a request for the return of their debug PS3.
This is some serious blackballing if I ever saw it, and it freaking blows my mind. If you're a gamer and you follow the multitude of gaming sites and blogs that publish gaming news everyday, you know that there is nary a day that a rumor doesn't appear that was meant to be a secret. For example, recently it's become apparent that the developer and industry only test version of Xbox Live (known as Partnernet) is regularly being raided by certain sites to reveal unannounced games, despite very clear rules against such practices.
Sure all these rumors may run against your planned controlled release of news and information, but why would you go so far as to burn your bridges so completely? It's been widely reported that the biggest thing that is going to sustain Sony and the PS3 in thse critical first year is the Hardcore gamers, due to a lack of any substansial amount of somtware and such high prices. Well I may be crazy but the regular readers of Kotaku are generally pretty hardcore.
Here's the wierdest part: not only are the rumors almost certainly true(evidenced most clearly by Sony's harsh response), but they are about a feature which sounds like a beneficial addition to the PS3's somewhat uncohesive online experience. I mean if the rumor was actually damaging to your image that's one thing. Lesson here: pick your battles. Apperently Sony realised this, albeit a little late, and has apparently kissed and made up with Kotaku. After this though I'd pay good money to see the next tension filled interview of a Sony exec by a Kotaku staffer.
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