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Jack Tretton Hates Leaks Even When They Ensure 100% More Media Coverage.

It was interesting hearing Sony’s chief exec bemoan the industry’s will to constantly leak important content. Given it was Sony’s own Qore application which leaked the first images of the PSP Go a weekend before E3, I’d almost certainly assumed the “leak” was intentional. No doubt such an important announcement lowered the implications of such an unveil during Sony’s press conference, but it also maximised exposure at a time when even the biggest stories aren’t quite guaranteed to take centre stage.

We see announcements left, right and centre in the week before E3. All the big trailers are on GameTrailers days before. Heck, Capcom even hold their own Captivate event to avoid getting lost in the shift. When it comes to E3 – with the greatest of respect to all those involved – the average third-party title (be it a very good one) simply can’t stack up next to a new Zelda or Assassin’s Creed or Call Of Duty. Such franchises are only ever the winners at E3.

Thus, while the initial shock-factor of the PSP Go was ripped out from Sony’s press conference – they essentially guaranteed themselves a weekends worth of frontpage news on various specialist media outlets – at a time when traffic is really starting to ramp up.

I’m not trying to say the PSP Go isn’t big news. I’m just trying to get to Tretton’s reasoning. Pretend for a moment that Nintendo had whipped up a storm moments before Sony’s E3 briefing. Announcements of a new Zelda and Pikmin perhaps – alongside a Wii HD edition. All things were possible announcements – ok, they didn’t happen, but we’re pretending that they did. Where does an announcement like PSP Go sit next to such announcements? Couple that in with the fact that Microsoft had announced a new Metal Gear and the Natal camera moments before and you get a huge shift in the scope of how much coverage the PSP Go could garner. As it happens, the “leak” led to a weekend of full coverage and snooping from big video game outlets — outlets that would have been on the showfloor hours after Sony’s briefing.

I just find it baffling that Tretton would rather Sony have a shock announcement than get some decent coverage. That’s not to make the PSP Go any lesser of a product – it would have gotten coverage, but it also may have got lost alongside other, more “pressing” matters.

At times I feel like companies end up competing with themselves for coverage. Let’s pretend (again) for a moment that nothing from Sony’s conference had leaked, much like Tretton hoped. PSP Go, Motion Controls and The Last Guardian would all have been fighting for attention. Is E3 about making a splash or communicating information to the consumer?

I feel like it fails on both counts. All three companies seem focused on “out-announcing” their rivals and that ends up in a mash of corporate gloating rather than communication on why we should care.

What’s the Agent? What’s Final Fantasy XIV? What’s Milo? What’s Metroid: Other M? They’re all just fancy names and videos meant to convince the journalist into writing nice things. I’m afraid the excitement wasn’t there for me because of a lack of information and because, presumably, a lot of this stuff gets lost in the shuffle.

So as for Jack Tretton bemoaning leaks. I’d like to ask him, why? I had time to digest the PSP Go news because of the time at which it broke. Perhaps companies should stop trying so hard to one-up each other and actually focus on the important things – like communicating to the journalists and gamers why their product is the best.

And no Peter Molyneux – that doesn’t mean you can present scripted demos as though they’re real.

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

Previous entries in the “Twiggy” range:

• Sony’s Wand Technology Sent Out A Fierce Message To Competitors Hours After They Comfortably Assumed Victory
• Sony’s First, Second & Third Party Alliances Will Ensure A Thrilling E3 2009 Showcase
• Playstation 3 Is Platformed Out With Bionic Commando & inFamous This Week, And It Reminds Me How Much I Love Super Mario 64
• In A Year Dominated By Blockbuster Sequels, Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain Vision Could Be The Diamond In The Rough
• Here’s What I’d Request In The PSP Go! If I Had A Job At Sony & A Say In Such Things
• Does The Playstation 3 Need Motion-Control & How Will Sony Apply It?
• Why Did Guerilla’s Killzone 2 Force Me To Kill The More Interesting Good Guys? I Hate The ISA!
• Sony’s E3 2009 Press Conference Could Be The Biggest In History & A Turning Point In Software Perception
• A Playstation 3 Pricecut Could Cripple Sony So Stop Asking For It