Sony Throws its Toys out of its Pram; Cancels Interview After Negative Press
In a move that shows how much of a smiley-faced, kind, loving company that they can be, Sony pulled the plug on an InFamous interview with games blogger Tom Chick.
According to a post made by would-be interviewer Tom on Fidgit.com not only did the promised interview not take place, but he was actually stood up. Now that is pretty darn tactless. Big scary companies such as Sony should be doing everything in their power to make us, the consumers, like everything they do. This event just makes us bitter and disdainful toward Sony. Or to be more specific, its PR department.
The reason Sony gave for abandoning poor Tom was that “an interview wasn’t appropriate considering last week’s coverage of the game”. The coverage in question are a couple of lists detailing the pros and cons of InFamous. Hardly libel or defaming stuff.
This is nothing new to the games PR industry. The rule is that you say nice things about a company and their products and then they will be more than happy to continue to give you free stuff, passes to events, previews of games and whatnot. If you fail to do so then the industry love halts. Think of the whole Kayne and Lynch: Dead Men GameSpot fiasco and you’ll get another great example of the way the blogosphere functions. Real opinions wont get you anywhere quickly. But, massaging egos and boosting sales figures will.
Just imagine how easy it is for Negative Gamer to ride the gravy train what with our upbeat attitude towards games.
Via: Gamezine.co.uk
News Tags: cancel, infamous, Interview, Sony, tom chick
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Awww poor Sony, did the nasty man say bad things about your baby? Well then, you just sit tight, pretend he doesn’t exist and everything will be alright.
/facedesk
Sony is like a political group, they can’t admit anything has a flaw opr agree anyone else is right. I’d respect them more if they just agreed, yes those 10 stupid things are justified but inFamous is still cool!
Instead they just come off as the immature faceless organisation that they are.
Personally I am always compelled to buy a game more when they developers are willing to express themselves and answer questions about development and what they would like to see more of in a sequal maybe.
There is a nice little PR Manager job going at SCEA as seen here maybe someone should take it up and explain how not being a dick when your super powered, overpriced games console is lagging behind a malfunctioning hot air machine and a novelty soap dish might be worth considering.
There is a nice little PR Manager job going at SCEA: http://tinyurl.com/q6wdcb
Maybe someone should take it up and explain how not being a dick when your super powered, overpriced games console is lagging behind a malfunctioning hot air machine and a novelty soap dish might be worth considering.
Um, guys? Top 10 “cool” and “stupid” “things” don’t really scream “I deserve an interview”.
I read his post over at Fidgit and all I could find was a short paragraph where he wrote about what he wanted to ask and the general tone was one of that he didn’t seem to bothered about it, so is this one of those mountain/molehill type of articles?
Yeah people are entitled to their opinions… but “Top Ten Cool/Stupid things”???
Jeez even Negative Gamer doesnt go that low… shame on you random “journalist”
How is the ten good / bad things about inFAMOUS any different from posting a preview, or just pointing out what is good or bad in a review? You make no sense sirs.
I agree with the general concensus. If you’re a blog and you’ve somehow managed to get an inteview with Sony for one of their biggest releases, it’s probably not a good idea to trash their biggest game. Top 10′s also seem to be a stupid staple of blogs sponsored by TV channels and ISPs as well.
Ill tell you why… the way it was written… the way it was presented.. it was not professional…
Top Ten lists are what stupid people do… its a quick way to get hits… it boils down the things to the lowest common denominator… if he was serious… he should have reviewed the game or should have written a proper preview…
Look at NG itself… we arent professional writers… and even we dont post top ten lists for games…
god I hope someone doesnt find a top ten list from this website… Id look like an idiot…
@darkwhitehair:
http://negativegamer.com/2009/01/12/five-rubbish-endings-to-videogames/
http://negativegamer.com/2009/01/05/five-most-negative-supporting-characters/
The fact that he wrote these Top Tens, one of which was very positive about the game, does not excuse Sony simply not turning up to the interview without notification like they were standing up a bad date.
NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
hoisted by my own petard
Did Fidgit already know that they were getting an interview before they posted the top 10 thing?
If they knew ahead of time then they can’t complain too much imo. Entertainment journalism is different than say, Political coverage. Sony doesn’t HAVE to support a small-ish blog if they don’t want to. It’s not like they reported on a game-breaking bug, they printed an op-ed in the form of a top ten list.
What’s funny is this has been sensationalized into the ground. If you read Tom Chick’s articles, they’re all completely fanboy driven, awful drivel.
This will blow your mind: to all the people who think this is a qualified “journalist” that has a high traffic site:
Tom Chick runs this site 100% at the moment. He recieved a master’s degree in Religious Studies, then became an actor. Do you watch The Office? He’s Gil, Oscar’s gay lover. Now, for some reason, he thought he could “write”, so using his hollywood swagger, he signed a deal with the Sci-Fi channel and made “Fidgit”.
On Fidgit, he proceeds to write completely opinionated drivel with numerous spelling errors that he has pointed out by his commenters. Also, he writes articles like “Why Killzone 2 sucks”, and “the top 10 disappointing games of last year”, with a sentence on each game, and no effort/pictures.
Tom Chick also runs a highly sucessful vbmessage board that he set up before getting this deal, and where he got his start. Unbeknownst to the Sci-Fi channel (I’m assuming), he is begging for hits, diggs, and reddit shout outs on his forum using his fearless community.
Now tell me: would you interview this guy? This is how it probably went.
Tom:Hi Sony! It’s Tom Chick! My agent got in contact with you, and I was wondering if we can set up an interview.
Sony: Oh! You’re that guy from Law and Order and The Office! Oh I didn’t know you liked video games, what’s your site we’d definitely love to interview you!
Tom: Fidgit.com. I’ll see you in a week!
Sony: ::reads Killzone 2 sucks:: ::reads “Top ten STUPID (hur hur) things about inFamous (that doesn’t have a positive side up YET). ::reads “why Far Cry 2 is the best game ever and nothing is better than it because I said so”::
Sony: Yea, forget this guy. Definitely not as advertised.