David Jaffe he's someone who usually doesn't tell them, even to the gaming press, but today he wanted to side with those who, simply doing their job, published part of the information that emerged from the enormous data theft suffered by Insomniac Games in the last few days.
Jaffe's words
Let's read the long speech by Jaffe, who we remember as the father of the God of War and Twisted Metal series, published in a post on X:
“As a human being and a former game developer (who lied and went to great lengths to keep so many details secret), I understand the plight of the developers 100%.
But video game sites (and I know many gamers will be surprised to read this, as many sites act like PR for the industry of video games) respond to players (aka their customers). And customers click on these stories and are happy to read them.
Even when I was a developer, I was always surprised by how much fans and industry journalists were serve them treating developers with kid gloves. It's hard to think of other industries where the same happens. I mean, do you think that if Tesla's next five-year plans leaked and became public, no one would have to report on it? Do you think that if an as-yet-unannounced player trade emerged at a baseball team, the sports press shouldn't report it?
We're not talking about Watergate or Wikileaks. People DO NOT need to know this information for the public good. But if the information gets around and it's not illegal to report it, it's crazy to blame the press for spreading the news.
I also add that the game will not be damaged. GTA 6 suffered a data theft, Rockstar Games released the official trailer 6-12 months later and it still got the world talking. The same will happen with Wolverine, etc.
The case The Last of Us 2 it's different. I LOVE that game but a lot of people cite the leaks as a reason why it may not have done as well as the previous game. The fact that information had been leaked wasn't the problem, however; I think it's WHAT was leaked that discouraged some players, who didn't like what was being said.
Anyway, this is just my opinion… but I fully understand the plight of developers and game makers. It's bad to have surprises ruined.
On a positive note, one of Wolverine's 'vertical slices' looks awesome and brutal!”
Basically Jaffe's point can be summed up as “the press is simply doing its job by publishing news.” In this case the news was there and was published, even if it came from a data theft, simply because it existed. This is a banal truth, from the front page of any journalism manual, but it is often forgotten when talking about the topic.
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