When it comes to negative press, Sony doesn't screw around. Blogger Tom Chick was all set to have an interview with Sucker Punch concerning the launch of PS3 exclusive inFAMOUS but unfortunately the interview had to be canceled. By "canceled," we of course mean, "ignored in a sulky huff without the interviewer even knowing the promised meeting was off."
Chick was understandably confused as to why he'd been stood up, and asked Sony what the deal was. The answer was formal and to-the-point, claiming that it felt "an interview wasn’t appropriate considering last week’s coverage of the game." The coverage in question was a pair of articles discussing the pros and cons of inFAMOUS. Apparently, anything outside complete and total adoration is unacceptable to Sony. They must have learned that from the Killzone fanboys.
So, what have we learned from all this? Basically, if you say bad things about Sony, it won't be your friend anymore. Sounds like grade-school drama to me, but this kind of thing happens all the time in the games industry, sadly. At least we can enjoy the irony that the "negative" coverage that upset Sony so much has now been given far more attention than it would have gotten if Sony had decided not to get all stroppy.
Our review of inFAMOUS is coming soon, and we'll try to be nice. We don't want Sony to give us a wedgie in the playground.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
4:40 PM on 05.26.2009
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That's pretty hilarious. Did they unbuckle the back of his baseball cap too?
idk my head hurts.
This was a gross overreaction on Sony's part.
BUt can be said for a Sandbox game that star spiderman's electro
like, even if this dude gave Infamous a bad rap, who would even care? I doubt one bad review is gonna stop everyone on the planet with a PS3 from buying this game.
Most of the things on the stupid things list were more like jokes while the good things list was more serious, and he's "being juvenile"?
Saying the smallest bad things about a single Sony game makes you juvenile I guess then.
Thanks for the comment, dickhead.
Especially since inFAMOUS is such a rad game. I am an Xbox owner and don't have a PS3, but the game really is quite fantastic. It's like how we wished Fable would be.
Seriously though, do they just hate getting good press or something?
Also; "Moronicle" <-- That is brilliant!
This kind of behavior is unacceptable. I mean, look what it did to Gamepot's reputation after Eidos decided to 'tard everything up over Kane and Lynch!
All the same though, that's weak that they stood this guy up like the fat chick on prom night.
OH WOW!
Previews, and Interviews are a privilege. If Sony, or MS, or Nintendo doesn't want to grant one for whatever reason, they don't have to. And I think that is totally within their right.
Of course, nothing is stopping anyone from buying a copy and writing a "review" of it and posting it all over the internets. And that is within every gamer's right.
However, once you put the two together. You're still looking at a situation where you have someone asking Sony for permission to do something that they don't normally have access to. So what gives anyone the right to think they should have an interview/preview granted, simply because they can write a "review" and post it all over the internets?
I think it's the community that needs to grow up, not just Sony, or MS, or Nintendo. And realize that this is big business.
...just my thoughts
Afterall, this guy thought Farcry 2 was GOTY.
6 more weeks of winter, it is.
Sure jokes are fun and while it is just video games, people worked hard and put forth lots of effort. Why give this guy an exclusive interview if he's going to act like an ass just to fill his column?
TOP 10 THINGS THAT ARE STUPID IN INFAMOUS LOL LOOK AT ME MOM IM ON THE INTERNET
“an interview wasn’t appropriate considering last week’s coverage of the game”.
They give you face time with a developer and you write:
10) The title is supposed to be written like so: inFamous or even inFAMOUS.
9) You play Cole McGrath, who is neither a crime dog nor the owner of a crime dog.
8) Just when you think Infamous isn't going to pull any of Sony's mandatory Sixaxis shenanigans, you get your final power. Because it wouldn't be a PS3 game without a Sixaxis controller gimmick!
Ya I think I see why they didn't bother.
Now, I don't know about you, but when a "journalist" makes a top 10 "why this sucks" article, it's obviously for flame-bait: this guy knew better. To top things off, he titles it "top 10 stupid things about inFamous", and unlike Jim's articles, they're not a satire. Hell, they're not even funny! Having a disclaimer saying "oh don't worry! I'll have a top 10 awesome things soon after you stew over this!" is a cop out. Why not post them together? Jim, I know your stance, but there's no way you would have pulled that sensationalistic nonsense.
Tom Chick blasts Killzone 2 with little reason, then gets defensive in the comments, mostly talking about how "awesome" Far Cry 2 is beyond all reason.
[url=http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/12/10_most_overrated_games_of_200.php]Tom Chick makes another "top 10", this time he writes 1 sentence each on why a bunch of titles sucked last year. Of course, he gives little reason why they were disappointing other than "I said so". Was this article created to be put on digg/reddit and get hits? Obviously.
So many sites and journalists constantly bash developers and corporations simply because they want to be "heard". Sony should email him a letter of apology for standing him up, followed by a section on how he should pick up his professionalism if he wants to interview the people who put their heart and soul into future projects. His "waaaaaa! All I wanted to do is ask them why Sly Cooper is so awesome! Waaaa!" response when he first broke the news that Sony stood him up is also laughable.
In conclusion, I think that it's inexcusable to just ignore someone you promised a meeting with, but you guys should really read the facts before pointing fingers.
Seriously, the first half of that list is complete bullshit and the other half, well you know how most people realize that games are games and there are certain narrative elements that they compromise for the sake of gameplay? Well Fidgit.com doesn't.
However I like the little social experiment to see how many people open their mouths before they know whats going on or read into it at all. Pretty high. Sad...
Just to clarify, I don't share your opinion on Destructoid's reporting of this story. I felt like Jim summarized the situation quite well, and the school-yard euphemisms weren't unwarranted.
But like you said, Tom is basically a poor man's Jim trying to make it.
Tom Chick is just another douchebag blogger. Does every nobody blog really expect the right to an interview from a company? There is billion gaming blogs on the internet, everybody has an opinion.
It's common sense that a PR department isn't going to respond kindly when you troll their product. Nobody wants to waste their time when they are promoting a product on some sh!t blog when there is a chance they can get ambushed with troll questions.
I'd rather you buck convention and be the first gaming site to cover this overmarketed, slightly-above average title for what it is.
But I've come to expect "the media" to dig up any negative sony press they can on a big game release day. It generates traffic (myself included). Gives Sony fanboys something to be angry about and keeps the xbox fanboys from feeling like they are missing out on an exclusive. Seems to happen every big release.
The thing is, as much as it is a privilege, agreeing to give someone an interview to cancel it without even warning the person is just rude. I didn't even know his blog prior to this, I looked around, didn't see anything that would make me come back neither anything that would make me hate it. Those ten points were, as far as I can tell, a sincere, nitpicking analysis, not to be taken in consideration in buying or not the game, specially after reading the 10 good things.
Besides, InFamous is a really, really dumb name. I do get it, as in playing with both connotation and dennotation of bot "famous" and "infamous", but it's still like they just found out about prefixes. And that, my friends, was nitpicking. It's taking a minute aspect about a game and ramble about it. I still find it to be an awesome game from an awesome developer and I'll bet my ass that whatever I said above won't make anyone prevent oneself from buying the game.
Tom begs for hits, and diggs on his message board.