Sony pulls fabricated ‘interview’ with Naughty Canine head Neil Druckmann

Final week, Sony printed a seemingly innocuous little bit of fluff, touting its long-term “inventive leisure imaginative and prescient” in broad phrases, together with some interviews of key staff. Neil Druckmann, studio head of Sony’s Naughty Canine, was a kind of — and his interview made waves within the sport world. In line with the interview, Druckmann mentioned AI may “create nuanced dialogues and characters” and in addition mentioned that the brand new sport Naughty Canine was creating (however hasn’t formally introduced) “may redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming.” Some mighty sturdy and probably controversial statements from the top of a studio beloved for its The Final of Us and Uncharted franchises.

Drawback is, Druckmann was wildly misquoted by his personal employers. A couple of days after Sony printed its interview, Druckmann took to X and mentioned “this isn’t fairly what I mentioned.” He then went full Ellie-in-revenge-mode on Sony, posting a bit of the unique interview transcript. (He was truly fairly well mannered if we’re being trustworthy — even the highly effective can solely chew the hand that feeds so arduous.) Regardless, issues right here don’t add up.

Gaming reporter Stephen Totilo shared his personal comparability of what Druckmann mentioned and what Sony printed, bolding the phrases in Sony’s reply that Druckmann by no means mentioned — and people phrases had been nearly all of the quote. Sony mainly put phrases in his mouth and printed them, kicking off a traditional gamer freakout.

To be truthful, if I used to be Druckmann, I might be fairly pissed too. Have a look at this butchery!

Now, 5 days later, Sony has eliminated the interview from its website fully. Nevertheless, they did not simply delete the web page — they left it up with an apology to Neil and the Naughty Canine crew “for any destructive influence this interview may need triggered.”

My favourite bit is well this:

So the whole lot he mentioned about animation, writing, expertise, AI and future initiatives had errors. Hey, a minimum of they nailed his identify and title.

For the morbidly curious, you possibly can nonetheless learn the “interview” on archive.org.