Jack Tretton is an idiot.

[Valkysas]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/kotaku-magu...200-235204.php

in early january 2007, Jack Tretton declared he would pay a $1200 bounty on any PS3's found at retail that had been on the shelf for more than five minutes, promising he could call any retailer in the nation and find that they were sold out.

bull****. and of course, EGM points this out right away, and it's dismissed right away. he ignores his previous comment completely, rather than handing EGM several thousand dollars as he promised.

I found countless PS3's stacked up in stores even right before christmas, and after christmas. I saw at least twelve in best buy 2 days before christmas, and 10 of them were still there 3 days after christmas. I SHOULD BE RICH RIGHT NOW.

Jeroak, you said you wanted me to find lies from sony themselves rather than just their PR department. well, here you go. president of SCEA. obviously making crap up.

penny-arcade's strip today based on this little fib is hilarious.

[Kire]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

Yeah, another dumb move by Sony big wigs. Why would they claim something that's so easily refutable? Everywhere I go, I see ps3s in stock.

[John Mora]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

Sony needs to stop pumping themselves full of hot air and just make sure their system gets good games.

[Patryn]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

The best thing for Sony to do right now would be to completely shut up. Why do they need to talk to the press? The system is released. There are no new specs. Just let the individuial developers/publishers do the talking.

[Vonwert]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

How about they release some games that people would want to play, instead of ports of 360 games....

[Denmo]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

I love Penny Arcade.

[IRC]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

Yeah, they're only making the same joke everyone else has since this came out.

[Magus]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

Me too.

Tycho's bitchslaps are enjoyable:

We put Monday's strip up early, so you might have seen it already - but you might not be familiar with the EGM interview it is based on, an excerpt of which appears here. I sometimes worry about appearing partisan in these communiques, but it is not my job to be fair. I'm not a journalist, I'm a consumer. I don't buy one product from each company in the interests of some karmic ideal, and I don't need to purge my posts of wrongthink because I haven't produced something suitable for use as a press release. Sony is grinding down their goodwill with every smug, psychotic interview, and someone needs to tell them so in clear terms.

This is an intervention.

You may wonder about the methodology we employed in our ultrascientific enquiry, and there's really nothing to say. We went to the stores that were closest to us. We did not call ahead and thus craft some optimal route that would generate maximum shame - to say nothing of maximum profits! There are many regions of the city that we were unable to scour, but the answer to the question "can a PS3 be purchased without difficulty" is definitive. Jack Tretton had to know this, and yet he persisted in his fairy tale. I'm surprised he didn't ask EGM to verify the stock numbers with a giant caterpillar. Certainly he would know.

It is not difficult to lie to people. It may be better (i.e., more polite) if we call it "information management." It is not difficult to manage information. But the information you are "managing" needs to conform, at least superficially, to reality. It is as though they don't realize that every gamer is attached constantly to one another in an absolutely unbroken stream of communication. In this case, it's as though he wasn't even aware of the telephone.

If there is stock, you don't say that there isn't stock. You don't say this ever. You can say there isn't as much stock "as people are saying," which isn't strong but creates doubt. You could say that the stock is primarily the 20GB model, because the response to the "consumer proposition" on the "premium model" was "stronger than they expected." I feel kind of dirty now. But the right response, the one that makes a "ding ding ding" sound, is that the stock exists not because it hasn't sold, but because they are being bought and swiftly replaced by new stock. Also, if there's more time in the interview? Say that you're "leveraging synergies." Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them.

I would not go so far as to say that (what is known as) the hardcore sustain the entire industry, but what Sony is learning is that they do catalyze it - they make livable the period between when a platform is released and when it becomes a mainstream proposition. These are the people that they are taking for granted. Let's see how far it gets them.

Let's see if this hullabaloo continues on to May. Then it'd be a FULL YEAR of Sony shenanigans. The first anniversary of the Giant Enemy Crab!

Maybe they'll quit ****ting on the PSP too.

...

MAYBE...

[Ryner]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

I'm kind of starting to love Sony. You know, like the way comediens love George Bush...

I think a podcast I listen to summed up the PS3 pretty well.

"You bought yourself a PS3 for Christmas?"

"Yeah, and I think they call it the Playstation 3 because I've played in three times since then."

[josh]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

oh, Sony.

[jvrlopez]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

UGH SONY HATERS.

I'm gonna hold my reply till Jeroak comes in with the truth.

[Red Dragon]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

I can't find any PS3s...

In my basement...

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

Jeroak, you said you wanted me to find lies from sony themselves rather than just their PR department. well, here you go. president of SCEA. obviously making crap up.

That doesn't really count though. He shouldn't have bothered saying it because everybody knows PS3s have been sitting on shelves and he's not fooling anyone but it's just bs bolstering and never meant as anything more.

And it never ends.
Phil Harrison: "[The] PlayStation 3 launch has been, objectively by any measure, more successful than PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2 or other competing system out previously."

Really all the bad press in the world wouldn't be a problem if PS3 was doing as well as hoped. We really only focus on it because we're so disappointed in the console but they still talk like they own the industry. Sony's playing Emporer's New Clothes but they lost their power so nobody's afraid to point and laugh.

[Ryner]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

I think it'll be awhile before any system has such a big launch as the PS2 did. And the PS3 sure wasn't close.

[DK]

Re: Jack Tretton is an idiot.

We put Monday's strip up early, so you might have seen it already - but you might not be familiar with the EGM interview it is based on, an excerpt of which appears here. I sometimes worry about appearing partisan in these communiques, but it is not my job to be fair. I'm not a journalist, I'm a consumer. I don't buy one product from each company in the interests of some karmic ideal, and I don't need to purge my posts of wrongthink because I haven't produced something suitable for use as a press release. Sony is grinding down their goodwill with every smug, psychotic interview, and someone needs to tell them so in clear terms.

This is an intervention.

You may wonder about the methodology we employed in our ultrascientific enquiry, and there's really nothing to say. We went to the stores that were closest to us. We did not call ahead and thus craft some optimal route that would generate maximum shame - to say nothing of maximum profits! There are many regions of the city that we were unable to scour, but the answer to the question "can a PS3 be purchased without difficulty" is definitive. Jack Tretton had to know this, and yet he persisted in his fairy tale. I'm surprised he didn't ask EGM to verify the stock numbers with a giant caterpillar. Certainly he would know.

It is not difficult to lie to people. It may be better (i.e., more polite) if we call it "information management." It is not difficult to manage information. But the information you are "managing" needs to conform, at least superficially, to reality. It is as though they don't realize that every gamer is attached constantly to one another in an absolutely unbroken stream of communication. In this case, it's as though he wasn't even aware of the telephone.

If there is stock, you don't say that there isn't stock. You don't say this ever. You can say there isn't as much stock "as people are saying," which isn't strong but creates doubt. You could say that the stock is primarily the 20GB model, because the response to the "consumer proposition" on the "premium model" was "stronger than they expected." I feel kind of dirty now. But the right response, the one that makes a "ding ding ding" sound, is that the stock exists not because it hasn't sold, but because they are being bought and swiftly replaced by new stock. Also, if there's more time in the interview? Say that you're "leveraging synergies." Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them.

I would not go so far as to say that (what is known as) the hardcore sustain the entire industry, but what Sony is learning is that they do catalyze it - they make livable the period between when a platform is released and when it becomes a mainstream proposition. These are the people that they are taking for granted. Let's see how far it gets them.

He's actually saying something?

All I see is "blah blah blah blah blah"