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PlayStation Insomniac Studios Upcoming Titles Have Leaked

Dardan Sandiego said:
They both say that if this had happened to Sony/PlayStation proper they would have "covered the fuck out of it". (Which doesn't even make sense because that might also affect Insomniac or any of the other studios.) I guess we'll see how they justify it then if it happens.
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Yeah, that just goes back to the nuance of it. Tim stands by their approach but they both said they don't know if they're right and are totally open to being wrong. We'll just see how they handle it god forbid something like this happens again.
 
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All they had to say was because this leak affects them and their working relationships closely they won't be covering it in detail, and I'd have respected that. They are chummy with Insomniac so it would be understandable. To instead act like they are taking a principled stand all of a sudden when they haven't shown the same tact during other leaks and dismiss criticism of this as people just being trolls isn't a good look.
 
Galgavias said:
All they had to say was because this leak affects them and their working relationships closely they won't be covering it in detail, and I'd have respected that. They are chummy with Insomniac so it would be understandable. To instead act like they are taking a principled stand all of a sudden when they haven't shown the same tact during other leaks and dismiss criticism of this as people just being trolls isn't a good look.
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I mean, I wouldn't respect that. It's crazy the degree that an incestuous relationship between publishers and "journalists" is normalized in the gaming industry, to the point that some are actually trying to say it's morally principled to be compromised by the subjects of your reporting.
 
Don't think we need to look much further to see why Kind of Funny Games would treat Playstation differently, lmao. It's definitely bias and a working relationship and absolutely nothing to do with "nuance".
 
As someone who watches them frequently and knows how they typically operate, it definitely does. Everyone is entitled to their own take on it, though. They covered pretty much every other PS/TLOU leak extensively (outside of story spoilers). KF talks about gaming news on their daily show but KF in general is more of a podcast channel than a place that's going to have proper journalistic guidelines like IGN or Gamespot. So I just don't get as hung up on them being so flip floppy on these issues, as often as I disagree with their approaches, as these other proper outlets.

They said they were going to talk about the content of the leaks inevitably, but they clearly didn't want to hop on it right away. I think if they mentioned that they're doing this out of respect for being more chummy with Bryan Intihar and Insomniac (since they are) it would have helped. Again, I just hope their closeness with Insomniac here gave them more perspective for the future. I don't agree with their approach and am on board with a lot of the criticism towards them, but I also just get where they're coming from. I suppose my perspective on this just isn't as black and white.
 
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ziggyrivers said:
Some or a majority of gaming “journalists” and outlets have always been more apologists/public relations to the video game publishers. It’s telling that these news sites have consistently reported on leaks, but suddenly stop to do so because, coincidentally, it’s a media darling: Insomniac/PlayStation/Sony.
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I'm gonna preach a bit for my parish, but I don't think that's necessarily the case here. These kind of leaks are something new, at least on that scale, and when they happen they lead to discussions between the editorial board to decide if it's ethical or not to talk about it. Those discussions have happened for the Capcom leak, they have happened for this leak, and discrepancies in editorial behavior between the two don't always mean that journalists were afraid of being blacklisted by Sony, but, for example, that they decided that the difference in scale between the two leaks (especially in terms of the personal information released) necessitated different treatment, or simply that editorial teams have changed since then and newcomers have different ideas on the subject.

Personally, my point of view on this kind of criminally obtained leaks is to cover them if they have a journalistic interest and don't harm developers (typically, here the financial figures are very interesting), with a disclaimer at the beginning of the articles, but I know that others have a different point of view on the subject. I know that, as players, knowing the roadmap or having images of Wolverine in advance can be exciting, but revealing this kind of thing to as many people as possible can lead to the cancellation of projects, to a drop in morale among developers or crunch to rush the games which are now playable in their unfinished version. This is why you should always approach this with caution.

Of course, some journalists decide not to cover the leak for fear of repercussions from Sony (this kind of behavior isn't limited to gaming journalists, by the way: in all fields, journalists censor themselves to avoid losing money, information or advantages), but I don't think we should generalize about behavior that can be explained by several different reasons.

I'd also like to add that - although I have very little experience with Sony as I work mainly on Japanese games - no studio or publisher has ever complained about articles written about leaks. This may be different for American journalists, given their geographical proximity to SIE, however.
 
On a different note, it's really fucked up to see people just straight up playing the unfinished game now with people sharing download links on Twitter. What a punch in the gut for the devs.

Something else kind of cursed about this is that this is what basically happened with X-Men Origins Wolverine when that movie leaked unfinished all those years ago, which makes for a really bizarre coincidence.
 
Branduil said:
I mean, I wouldn't respect that. It's crazy the degree that an incestuous relationship between publishers and "journalists" is normalized in the gaming industry, to the point that some are actually trying to say it's morally principled to be compromised by the subjects of your reporting.
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Kinda Funny would never, ever, call themselves "journalists".
 
Eh, not sure what to say really. I like having a content road map, even if it’s subject to change. Still feel for the team of course, but hopefully one day showing games in very early states like this will be normalized (through official ‘means) as I think it’s a fascinating look into the development cycle. Deadspace 2023 did it, I don’t think a few people on twitter crying over a games graphics two years from release are worth ruining that opportunity for the rest of us.

Regarding KF and Gamespot, gamespot seems to be very hypocritical here, and I’m genuinley surprised and I think it sets a bad precedent. where as I’m not surprised this is coming from KF. I always assumed it was public knowledge that KF was pretty deep in the pockets of big publishers. Thats why I’m surprised anyone took their reviews seriously. I think kf wants to have their cake and eat it too, but as they learned with this, you cant be both the press and industry spokes people. One will eventually give out to the other
 
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The information is out there. Not covering the leaks doesn't protect the developers. People who want to know about it will find it. If you're a journalist, you should present the information in a manner that is truthful and digestible to the average folk. If not, they will get the information from sources that are less reliable or ill-equipped to interpret and analyze the contents. The more prominent gaming sites should be the "papers of record" where they can be accurate sources of information. You don't need to show the actual leaked contents but you can talk about them in broad terms that gets the points across.

KF could have just said that they had a personal relationship with folks at Insomniac and therefore, felt uncomfortable and unqualified to discuss the leaks without their bias getting in the way and that seeing how leaks hurt real people made them realize that their coverage of other leaks in the past was harmful and apologize. But they didn't do that. They made it clear distinction between this leak and all others. If you don't have a personal relationship with people at KF, then it's open season and they no qualms talking about your leaked information.

The whole irony of many media members and journalists announcing that they wouldn't cover the leaks is that they are drawing even more attention to them. It's yet another story on top of everything else that has come out. Now people really want to know what the leaks are that are so damaging that the press can't talk about them. And by taking to Twitter to announce how you're doing the right thing, you become part of the story, taking focus away from the developers who are actually hurt by this ransomware attack.
 
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I don't think any leaks that come from criminal hacking should get publicity, with the gaming industry being big business these days these leaks are incredible damaging to the industry, so hacking leaks should just be totally ignored by every major gaming site and reporters.
 
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I'm kind of surprised at the number of people saying having a ten year roadmap for development releases is somehow beneficial.

One of the best developments of recent years was publishers moving away from multiyear hype cycles (which generally lead to inflated expectations and worse discourse) and moving towards announcing and releasing games within a 6-12 month window. Announcing and then releasing a game within a shorter window means you can still generate some excitement, but avoid the generally toxic levels of hype that are endemic in the worst parts of videogame fandom. Fallout 4, Metroid Prime Remastered, SM RPG Remake... They all benefited from being announced and released in a short window that prevented fans from devolving into an absolute silly circus.

Having nearly ten years for the Playstation fan base to go mad about what they do and don't want to see in the upcoming X-Men game isn't going to lead to any healthy expectations or discourse, it's just going to turn into another example of fans hyping themselves out of control.

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In addition: I'm a big fan of the idea that developers should have freedom and flexibility to pursue what they want to make. Having ten year release plans released out into public just means developers are now further locked into long term development decisions that may not be for the best.
 
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JazzPotatoes said:
I'm kind of surprised at the number of people saying having a ten year roadmap for development releases is somehow beneficial.

One of the best developments of recent years was publishers moving away from multiverse hype cycles (which generally lead to inflated expectations and worse discourse) and moving towards announcing and releasing games within a 6-12 month window. Announcing and then releasing a game within a shorter window means you can still generate some excitement, but avoid the generally toxic levels of hype that are endemic in the worst parts of videogame fandom. Fallout 4, Metroid Prime Remastered, SM RPG Remake... They all benefited from being announced and released in a short window that prevented fans from devolving into an absolute silly circus.

Having nearly ten years for the Playstation fan base to go mad about what they do and don't want to see in the upcoming X-Men game isn't going to lead to any healthy expectations or discourse, it's just going to turn into another example of fans hyping themselves out of control.

EDIT

In addition: I'm a big fan of the idea that developers should have freedom and flexibility to pursue what they want to make. Having ten year release plans released out into public just means developers are now further locked into long term development decisions that may not be for the best.
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We should go back tot he days where they announce a game two years out and release screenshots (no trailers) to show what the actual game will look like so peple can actually be both a) excited for the game and b) not mislead by over-polished CG trailers that do nothing but set unrealistic expectations for what the game actually is and those expectations go crashing down when the game is actually shown for what it is.

I would love the return of something like the Smash Dojo where the developers don't go for HUGE marketing beats but rather release very small tidbits of info as time goes on and gives focus to what the game actually will be, not set hopes and dreams for what it never could be.
 
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Level-headed take by Jason Schreier:

Emotions were running high on Tuesday so it's easy to understand all the big sweeping reactions from game developers, but just to be clear about something, no serious reporter in the world would ignore public, accurate information, no matter where it came from. Different outlets have different standards for what is newsworthy, of course, and while one outlet might choose to do individual articles about each news nugget, another might choose to do a roundup or only focus on what they see as vital. I can see the logic behind a gaming website being judicious about what they'd report based on the leak, especially the information about upcoming games that will probably change 10 times between now and then anyway. But to say "our news outlet won't cover any of this information because it came from criminals" is simply not a serious stance.
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DittoM said:
This thread is funny. “Those poor Insomniac developers are CHAINED and FORCED to work on this IP, how tragic!”

And the IP in question is Spider-Man.

Whose latest game was a Game of the Year contender that’s selling like hotcakes.

People here really like projecting their personal Marvel fatigue on people they haven’t met. I loved Rift Apart and I’m sad it didn’t turn a profit but the Spider-Man games were also amazing and full of love for the old webslinger. I imagine they’re not crying at their desks to make more games in this unique Spider-Man universe they’ve crafted.
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People don't have a problem with more spiderman. Everyone loves spiderman.

People have a problem that Sony had the option to make more spiderman in a cheaper way, like with Miles Morales, but they doubled down on the AAA gaming sphere. Especially with such a talented studio like Insomniac, it is a shame. I have loved Insomniac games since the original Spyro Trilogy, they were formative games for me, and they have continued to impress since. We need more original ideas as an industry, but Sony doesn't greenlight them. They don't even care about profitability, just prestige. A game like Days Gone, which was commercially successful, could have done amazing in the second pass at a sequel. That's actually where the majority of Sony's blockbuster IP's started. But they are refusing to.
 
Well, at least Ratchet is coming eventually. It's weird though that they're basically making it with a VERY small team over the course of 6-7 years, according to that development allocation graph.
 
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I guess most elements of this situation have been discussed to death, but I'm still sort of confused how hackers can ransom/blackmail a company with stolen company data without having any identifying information? Like I'm not sure of the logistics behind still staying anonymous and being wired that sheer amount of money from a huge corporation.
 
AstroOhHey said:
I guess most elements of this situation have been discussed to death, but I'm still sort of confused how hackers can ransom/blackmail a company with stolen company data without having any identifying information? Like I'm not sure of the logistics behind still staying anonymous and being wired that sheer amount of money from a huge corporation.
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That's the supposed point of bitcoin
 


Really sucks for all the employees. Hopefully, at the very least, the whole thing makes Sony reconsider layoffs. It would be pretty shitty to kick people to the curb right after they had their information stolen.
 
AngryAlchemist said:
Don't think we need to look much further to see why Kind of Funny Games would treat Playstation differently, lmao. It's definitely bias and a working relationship and absolutely nothing to do with "nuance".
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Greg Miller has always been biased. I really like him, but he’s so biased that sounds silly.
But it doesn’t bother me at all. I hear their podcast every day and I don’t take their opinion as seriously as I take Edge or some people from IGN.
 
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There is nothing of interest for me personally coming from these particular studios.
 
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The leaked sales figures had me thinking, why don't we get updates for Sony games from the CESA like we do for Nintendo? I assumed it was mandatory, but I guess not.
 
N75 said:
The leaked sales figures had me thinking, why don't we get updates for Sony games from the CESA like we do for Nintendo? I assumed it was mandatory, but I guess not.
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Cesa is useless outside of Nintendo and namco

No other publishers are sharing updated data there
 
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