Sony Blackballs Kotaku (update: unblackballed!)

[quote name='The Crotch']The thing is, they've now legitamized the rumour. I get what you mean about Sony wanting to break the news, but that's not the way to do it. You can't negate a rumour by going after the people who repeat it.[/QUOTE]


From what I get from it (and pretty much everyone else) is that means the rumor is true. Sony would not go to that extent if there was not some legitimacy to it. What else are they to do if they want to keep the secret under wraps for themselves?
 
[quote name='Vegan']Sony makes an excellent gravedigger.[/QUOTE]

They blackballed a blog. It's over. Sony is finished.


Sony asked us not to publish the story, first nicely, then not so much.
Click to expand...

Apparently Kotaku forgot themselves and thought they were something other than an amateur news site. They're not too bright.
 
[quote name='Apossum']




Apparently Kotaku forgot themselves and thought they were something other than an amateur news site. They're not too bright.[/QUOTE]

Exactly.
 
[quote name='Apossum']They blackballed a blog. It's over. Sony is finished.




Apparently Kotaku forgot themselves and thought they were something other than an amateur news site. They're not too bright.[/QUOTE]Yes. People need to learn how to properly respect corporations.
 
Whatever your opinions of Kotaku or any other blog, I guess I'd rather have them get me scoops on info and rumors rather than executive interviews.

It's always amusing how people totally discount the fact that Crecente is a legitimate member of the news media.
 
[quote name='jmcc']Yes. People need to learn how to properly respect corporations.[/QUOTE]


Not in the least...

Amateur news sites (aka blogs) who are dependent upon a corporation's kickdowns (exclusive interviews, debug PS3, invitations to private events) should learn how to properly respect a professional relationship. Maybe if they were gamespot or someone who isn't in a submissive position to Sony, they could ignore them, but they went the dumb route and now they have nothing. Kotaku will make a stink about it, and their reader base will compain about Sony and damn the PS3 to hell (what else is new) but really, they've just shot themselves in the foot.

Sucks it has to run that way, but it does.
 
I just can't believe the people that are running Sony are actually the people that are running Sony. Any one of us could do a better job at PR.

EDIT: If this rumor is true it's pretty cool stuff.
 
The best course of action would be not to comment on it, and then the best peopel would do is say, "Oh yeahy, I think they had something like this online a few days ago." Now, everyone knows its true. Sony ruined their own chances to make the announcment offical at their show. Oops.
 
[quote name='Apossum']They blackballed a blog. It's over. Sony is finished.




Apparently Kotaku forgot themselves and thought they were something other than an amateur news site. They're not too bright.[/quote]
Sarcasm aside, you see nothing wrong with Sony bullying a blog in an attempt to make it violate its own journalistic integrity? Viva la Controlled media! :roll:

Edit - Just read your new post. You make it sound like blogs are an arm of the companies they report on's PR departments and that by reporting anything that doesnt go with the corprate wishes, that its some sort of act of disobediance.
 
[quote name='NitrousO']Sarcasm aside, you see nothing wrong with Sony bullying a blog in an attempt to make it violate its own journalistic integrity? Viva la Controlled media! :roll:[/QUOTE]


once again, words in my mouth. this isn't watergate or a 9/11 cover up. This was something that was going to be revealed in a few days-- there was no urgency to report it! People wouldn't have been left in the dark if Kotaku hadn't posted it. Now that that distinction is clear...

Kotaku should've treated it like an NDA agreement-- they could've hinted at it and said something like "we'll have more later." instead they chose to put up a full blown story that only had the paper thin word "rumor" to seperate it from fact. And now they've lost a huge resource and are that much more of a blog than a news site that's trying to legitimate its self.

edit: it's not an act of disobediance, it just wasn't a very smart move. I hope you don't think other news sites of any type report every little thing they come across.
 
[quote name='NitrousO']Sarcasm aside, you see nothing wrong with Sony bullying a blog in an attempt to make it violate its own journalistic integrity? Viva la Controlled media! :roll:

Edit - Just read your new post. You make it sound like blogs are an arm of the companies they report on's PR departments and that by reporting anything that doesnt go with the corprate wishes, that its some sort of act of disobediance.[/QUOTE]

Sony asked them, very nicely it would appear, not to run the story. This isn't a case of Sony bullying a blog, this is a case of a blog blatantly disregarding what was asked of them. Heck, it's not like the little guys are the only ones who have to respect this kind of thing - big sites, like IGN & Gamespot, are constantly told when they can reveal certain information & when they can't.

If Kotaku wants to be a legitimate news source, they should start acting like one.
 
yeah i agree with sony too its not liek they banned them from jump they asked kotaku to hold off on posting it and instead they wanted to be cool and show everyone how they wont be bossed around and what do they get for their actions blackballed. besides isnt kotaku the same site that give crappy videogames good scores often?

in the end they could have waited till sony gave them the go ahead for that story and still post other sony news and stories in the meantime but eh thats the price you pay for trying to impress the nerds out there. when it comes to business you need to think to the future and not in the moment.

and you gotta love the comments by all the kotaku fanboys congratulating them on not doing as sony asked. if i were them id be pissed since if thats your favorite site to get game news now they will have distinctly less first hand info from sony but then again they can keep doing what they usually do which is steal their news from cag or the other game sites out there so in a funny way will they really be hurt that much?
 
Kotaku can't go to Sony's birthday party anymore, which is too bad because I hear Sony is totally going to have cake, a moon-jumper, and rumble (even though it's totally last-gen).
 
[quote name='Apossum']They blackballed a blog. It's over. Sony is finished.[/quote]

I'm not implying that this alone does it for them. They've been digging it for months. I don't even KNOW Sony anymore.
 
Frankly, it is a pretty shocking story.
Sony really doesn't understand the internet at all and couldn't have handled this any more poorly. Looks like we've got a great topic to talk about for next week's show.

Support Kotaku and digg this story!
 
[quote name='Apossum']Apparently Kotaku forgot themselves and thought they were something other than an amateur news site. They're not too bright.[/quote]
This drama will get Kotaku more attention than anything that they have just lost. Every other blog on the internet will get the same Sony interviews and the same information. No big loss for Kotaku, but now they have notoriety.
 
[quote name='CheapyD']Frankly, it is a pretty shocking story.
Sony really doesn't understand the internet at all and couldn't have handled this any more poorly. Looks like we've got a great topic to talk about for next week's show.

Support Kotaku and digg this story![/QUOTE]
So out of curiosity, if you were in Sony's spot what would you have done?
 
[quote name='whoknows']So out of curiosity, if you were in Sony's spot what would you have done?[/QUOTE]

Sucked it up and said "We don't comment on rumors" like everyone else.

Depending on the attention, I'm sure Sony will have a change of heart and change their decision within 72 hours.

Or atleast when they formally announce the program.
 
what if kotaku ran a playernet video from msft, and then msft asked them to take it down but they didn't...oh wait that was cheapy....if kotaku was given the info without signing a NDA, then I see nothing wrong with them writting about it....much like cheapy situation, I thought that for the best of either sites it would be to listen to the corporate man, but in the end it was nice getting the info ahead of time.
 
It's not that they just blackballed Kotaku.. but now they're seen as a bully of sorts. Now people are going to be afraid to run Sony rumors. Oh well. Sony didn't help themselves with this move.

I still say that the Sony Home thing is a horrible, horrible idea.
 
I really have to applaud Kotaku on this for sticking to thier guns. As lame as it all may sound the idea of Sony attempting to controll the media and how they report is absoluty disgusting. Maybe it's "just some blog" but maybe this blog is the only outlet talking about this. How many times have the "real" news outlets been bullied by Sony? We don't know and if nobody speaks up we will never know. Just because gaming is entertainment and not life or death doesn't mean that corporate attempts to quite the media, regardless of what is being reported, is acceptable. This, coupled with the lik-sang lawsuit is a real blemish on the public face of Sony that many people are willing to overlook either because it's just videogames or because thinking about it makes people feel bad that they own a Sony console and nobody wants to feel bad.
 
Slightly OT: I'm not neceassarily disagreeing with the view point, but what makes Kotaku, Joystiq, etc. not "real news sources"? If they're not real, who is in the industry? What separates the two?
 
Great way of getting people to buy your hard to find system that I keep seeing everywhere SONY. This is what happens when you get arrogant.
 
[quote name='peteloaf']I really have to applaud Kotaku on this for sticking to thier guns. As lame as it all may sound the idea of Sony attempting to controll the media and how they report is absoluty disgusting. Maybe it's "just some blog" but maybe this blog is the only outlet talking about this. How many times have the "real" news outlets been bullied by Sony? We don't know and if nobody speaks up we will never know. Just because gaming is entertainment and not life or death doesn't mean that corporate attempts to quite the media, regardless of what is being reported, is acceptable. This, coupled with the lik-sang lawsuit is a real blemish on the public face of Sony that many people are willing to overlook either because it's just videogames or because thinking about it makes people feel bad that they own a Sony console and nobody wants to feel bad.[/QUOTE]

I can see it from both view points, but its not really about Sony trying to control the media. They were wanting to make their own announcement about the service and to let themselves be the first to unveil it. Its not like this isnt something everyone would have know in the near future. It wasn't something that we would have never heard about if Kotaku didnt reveal the info.

What else could Sony have done to not have the information floating around? Saying "sorry we dont comment on rumors" still keeps that information floating about. The PS3 is Sony's product and they wanted to be the ones who unveiled this new feature that we can pretty much confirm as true.

Sony might have overracted a bit, but Kotaku is spinning and milking this to get themselves attention.

Also, WFT is blackballed? Never heard that term before but I'm guessing its the same as blacklisted.
 
[quote name='Scorch']
I still say that the Sony Home thing is a horrible, horrible idea.[/QUOTE]
Of course you do.

EDIT: And in what way is it so horrible?
 
[quote name='rodeojones903']I can see it from both view points, but its not really about Sony trying to control the media. They were wanting to make their own announcement about the service and to let themselves be the first to unveil it. Its not like this isnt something everyone would have know in the near future. It wasn't something that we would have never heard about if Kotaku didnt reveal the info.

What else could Sony have done to not have the information floating around? Saying "sorry we dont comment on rumors" still keeps that information floating about. The PS3 is Sony's product and they wanted to be the ones who unveiled this new feature that we can pretty much confirm as true.

Sony might have overracted a bit, but Kotaku is spinning and milking this to get themselves attention.

Also, WFT is blackballed? Never heard that term before but I'm guessing its the same as blacklisted.[/QUOTE]Ok, where do you think this rumor might have originated?
 
[quote name='rodeojones903']I can see it from both view points, but its not really about Sony trying to control the media. They were wanting to make their own announcement about the service and to let themselves be the first to unveil it. Its not like this isnt something everyone would have know in the near future. It wasn't something that we would have never heard about if Kotaku didnt reveal the info.

What else could Sony have done to not have the information floating around? Saying "sorry we dont comment on rumors" still keeps that information floating about. The PS3 is Sony's product and they wanted to be the ones who unveiled this new feature that we can pretty much confirm as true.

Sony might have overracted a bit, but Kotaku is spinning and milking this to get themselves attention.[/quote]

your point about sony wanting to unveil it is bullshit...we had the e3 notes on all 3 companies last year in advance, as well as bill gates keynote at ces back in january...it has been happening in this industry for awhile, sony over reacted imo. As for them wanting to unveil it at the gdc is a stupid idea anyways...the guy running it (who made the ps3 owners will be happy comment) was on nextgen gaming podcast this past episode...he was going on and on how they are trying minimize the announcements and keep the gdc at its roots, a conference were the gaming minds come together and talk about how to move forward...he did comment about how this year there were a lot more press conferences, but he went on to say that phil harrisons keynote will be geared to those in attendance and that the podcast listeners should be mindful of that. The audience at phil harrisons keynote will be an overwhelming majority of game developers and some media.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Of course you do.

EDIT: And in what way is it so horrible?[/quote]

"of course you do"? What's that supposed to mean? I'm guessing that, despite owning an NES, SNES, GBA, DS, Cube, XBox, PS2, Wii and 360, you're calling me a fanboy, is that right? Like so many else have, just because my collection is predominately xbox? Don't even start the fanboy bullshit against me.

I said it was a horrible idea because it sounded like it. Once someone elaborated on it for me, it sounds like a good idea. How it was described to me earlier was just a little apartment that you can put different achievements in or whatever. Once they told me it's actually a virtual city where you can watch things stored on the PS3 and whatnot, it sounds like a fantastic idea.
 
[quote name='jmcc']Ok, where do you think this rumor might have originated?[/QUOTE]

No idea, and I honestly don't think it matters.

[quote name='ryanbph'] As for them wanting to unveil it at the gdc is a stupid idea anyways.[/QUOTE]

Why is that a stupid idea?
 
[quote name='rodeojones903']No idea, and I honestly don't think it matters.



Why is that a stupid idea?[/quote]

if you continued to read what i stated, this show historically has unveiled very little...this show is where the minds of the gaming industry go to talk about things and have conferences..ie cliffy b is talking about the process of making gears, capcom/or square i don't remeber will have a speach about game design, in the past they have had forums on the lack of black game creators. If I worked for epic, or capcom and was sitting in on phil harrisons keynote why the hell would I care about some of things posted that is in the speach. I don't care about the firmware, I wouldn't care much about the virtual world, I wouldn't care about game demeo's. That isn't the point of the conference.
 
[quote name='rodeojones903']No idea, and I honestly don't think it matters.[/QUOTE]Just take a guess. Did the Kotaku guy just make it up and end up correct enough to rile Sony?
 
I think Sony blew this thing way out of proportion. That is cool if they wanted to save this news for next week, but I don't think this news was exactly anything huge. Why so much damn secrecy? Both of your competitors in the industry already have their ideas out in the open.. I mean it isn't like Microsoft nor Nintendo were going to steal from Sony.. looking at Sony's Home idea.. it borrows some stuff from both companies. So why make such a fuss over a leak that Kotaku didn't leak themselves? They just reported something they thought was news. Sony should have said they didn't know what the hell they were talking about and let it go.. I mean, all it could do is maybe generate some excitement for their conference next week.. how horrible!
 
[quote name='ryanbph'] If I worked for epic, or capcom and was sitting in on phil harrisons keynote why the hell would I care about some of things posted that is in the speach. I don't care about the firmware, I wouldn't care much about the virtual world, I wouldn't care about game demeo's. [/QUOTE]

Capcom and Epic would care, because its something that they can implement into their new titles. They are not going to care about the game demo's, but they are going to care about the new stuff they can do with Playstation Home/virtual world if its real. Sony is also going to have to talk to them about how to use it, hence showing it at GDC.
 
[quote name='Sancho1978']I think Sony blew this thing way out of proportion. That is cool if they wanted to save this news for next week, but I don't think this news was exactly anything huge. Why so much damn secrecy? Both of your competitors in the industry already have their ideas out in the open.. I mean it isn't like Microsoft nor Nintendo were going to steal from Sony.. looking at Sony's Home idea.. it borrows some stuff from both companies.[/quote]

That's what's so hilarious. They're so upset over a leak that discloses something with no original ideas whatsoever.
 
Sony: Hey guys, we'd really like for you to pull that story, I mean, you just totally BLEW the whole surprise at GDC.
Kotaku: We didn't get it from you guys, somebody else told us.
Sony: But still, now everybody knows. Come on, PLEEEAAASE take this down, we'd really appreciate it!
Kotaku: No.
Sony: Oh come on! You guys better pull it before we count to three, or you're cut off. 1...2...2 1/2...2 3/4...
Kotaku:...
Sony: fuck... fine, have it your way.
 
I like Kotaku but this is a retarded move by them. They burned a bridge posting "a rumor" that they knew would piss off Sony. Furthermore, Sony has been pretty nice to Kotaku considering what Kotaku consistently writes about Sony. Kotaku was tweaking Sony and Sony bit back. Kotaku deserved what happened to them because they violated Sony's trust.

This isn't a freedom of the press thing either by the way. Sony was making Kotaku's life easier by giving them a heads up on what they were doing at GDC. Kotaku took that favor and turned around and threw it back in Sony's face. Kotaku pulling this "you're trampling on the 1st Amendment" that they imply at the end of their post is, quite frankly, insulting to anyone who considers themselves a journalist.
 
David Karraker

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Let your voices be heard.

Personally it's a bitch move by Sony. Kotaku, a blog it may be, still holds itself to the standards of journalistic integrity. To some people it may not have been worth it, but to Kotaku it was. I respect that. They stood up for what they believed in, even if it cost them the relationship. It's no different than the shit that Sony pulled with Lik-Sang. It's no different at all. For the people defending Sony, whatever. You're all cheapasses anyway. :)
 
last i checked, keynote means the underlying theme...there are much more important shit that should be discussed in a keynote then stuff that sony is coming out with...ie what to do about the ratings system, how to attract non gamers etc...

also do you really think phil harrison is going to give a demo on how companies could use the playstation home...and it really shouldn't be that hard...you have trophies or items that will unlock into the ps3 home when the player completes something in the game...the story that ran from kotaku talked about the announcement not how to use it
 
1. News doesn't have to come from a mega multi million dollar corporation to be news, real news or legitimate news.

2. This is nothing more than Sony trying to get back at people that don't lick their ass. Sony blew a cork and had enough of the bashing and this is the result. Other sites better watch out because they might be next if they don't parot Sony's PR lines.
 
[quote name='furyk']I like Kotaku but this is a retarded move by them. They burned a bridge posting "a rumor" that they knew would piss off Sony. Furthermore, Sony has been pretty nice to Kotaku considering what Kotaku consistently writes about Sony. Kotaku was tweaking Sony and Sony bit back. Kotaku deserved what happened to them because they violated Sony's trust.

This isn't a freedom of the press thing either by the way. Sony was making Kotaku's life easier by giving them a heads up on what they were doing at GDC. Kotaku took that favor and turned around and threw it back in Sony's face. Kotaku pulling this "you're trampling on the 1st Amendment" that they imply at the end of their post is, quite frankly, insulting to anyone who considers themselves a journalist.[/QUOTE]No, it's Sony not having control over their own constituents and taking it out on a third party.
 
[quote name='ryanbph']last i checked, keynote means the underlying theme...there are much more important shit that should be discussed in a keynote then stuff that sony is coming out with...ie what to do about the ratings system, how to attract non gamers etc...

also do you really think phil harrison is going to give a demo on how companies could use the playstation home...and it really shouldn't be that hard...you have trophies or items that will unlock into the ps3 home when the player completes something in the game...the story that ran from kotaku talked about the announcement not how to use it[/QUOTE]

That's not the point. Kotaku played the little kid who peaks at his mom wrapping presents and then tells his little sister what she's getting. Sure, he doesn't get to play with the shit ahead of time, but he still steals some of the fun for Christmas for others. Keynotes are all about hype rather then content and Sony's steak has a lot less sizzle now.
 
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