Sony has taken down an interview with Naughty Dog Studio Head Neil Druckmann (Uncharted, The Last of Us) that the company now says contains "several significant errors and inaccuracies that don't represent his perspective and values." The surprising move comes after Druckmann took the extreme measure of publicly questioning a portion of the PR interview by posting a lengthy transcript that conflicted with the heavily edited version Sony posted online.
The odd media saga began last Thursday, when Sony published the interview (archive here) under the heading "The Evolution of Storytelling Across Mediums." The piece was part of the Creative Entertainment Vision section of Sony's corporate site, a PR-driven concept exploring how Sony will "seamlessly connect multi-layered worlds where physical and virtual realities overlap to deliver limitless Kanto—through creativity and technology—working with creators." Whatever that means.
Druckmann's short interview started attracting attention almost immediately, primarily due to Druckmann's apparent promotion of using AI tools in game development. Such tools "will allow us to create nuanced dialogues and characters, expanding creative possibilities," Druckmann is quoted as saying. "AI is really going to revolutionize how content is being created, although it does bring up some ethical issues we need to address."
Not so fast...
By Friday, though, Druckmann ended a months-long drought of social media posting by noting that, in at least one case, the words posted by Sony were "not quite what I said. In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost."
As evidence, Druckmann posted this "rambling" 457-word response to a question about a "personal vision or dream project" he hoped to create:
Please, PLEASE always send copy to the stakeholders and leave enough time for them to read it and respond before you publish. It will not only foster a better relationship with them, but it could stave off a PR disaster when one of them says "er, that's not quite what I said" later on. Sign-off is IMPORTANT.