Sony Boss Says Industry Has A Confidentiality Problem

SCEA head Jack Tretton is bummed that the best parts of the Sony E3 keynote were leaked well before the company had a chance to unveil them, and thinks it’s part of a larger problem in the videogame industry.

Jack Tretton probably really wanted to formally unveil Trico – now The Last Guardian – at the Sony E3 press conference. Unfortunately, the trailer was leaked beforehand. Or hey, it would probably have been a huge announcement if he’d been able to pull the cover off the PSP-Go … but we knew about that one already, too. We knew that Sony was working on motion control. We knew a huge chunk of what Sony’s presenters were going to say before they even stepped on stage.

Understandably, Tretton is kind of peeved: “Stop f**king leaking our news, you bastards.”

Okay, he didn’t actually say that. What he did say, though, was that the E3 leaks were endemic of a larger problem in the industry – people just can’t seem to keep a secret. “People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry,” Tretton told CNBC. “It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties.”

Annoying for things like the PSP Go, yes – but not crippling. But what about proprietary information like, say, new consoles? Companies rely on keeping their secrets, well, secret in order to eke out a potential lead in the bitter battles of the console war. What would have happened if Sony had learned the specifics of Project Natal two years ago? What would have happened if Microsoft knew exactly what Sony was planning with their own motion control? The omnipresence of leaks in the industry makes it hard to run a seaworthy ship.

“This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today,” Tretton elaborated. “We want to constantly talk about tomorrow … You have to prepare for people to know things in advance. The frustrating thing is they only know a part of the story and that opens up a lot of conjecture and misinformation that ultimately waters down the reality when you roll it out.”

He also said that people with no financial stake in the matter should stop telling Sony to lower the price on the PS3 already, but c’mon, who really cares what he has to say? We all know they’re going to lower the price. I mean, it came from a leak. It must be true!

(VG247)