Former Sony Employee spills the beans, gets dumped by Sony

[Anexanhume]

A former employee of Sony had some rather bad things to say about the PS3 compared to the 360, and it's progress ( very few dev kits ).

Read it all in an interview after the fact here:
Interview (http://www.ps3week.com/blogs/ps3week.php?title=title_6&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)

[racecar]

..that like throwing eggs@ stones :hmm:
...don't really matter what he said's..the ps3 will still beat/crushed the 360's launch #'s :deadhorse:


should've ...just shut up and enjoy the ride..but instead he have to said something stupid ..and get kick off the ps3 limo :roll:

[njiska]

..that like throwing eggs@ stones :hmm:
...don't really matter what he said's..the ps3 will still beat/crushed the 360's launch #'s :deadhorse:


should've ...just shut up and enjoy the ride..but instead he have to said something stupid ..and get kick off the ps3 limo :roll:

So tradgic that you're so willing to crush his opinion without reading the whole story.

He didn't say anything stupid, he gave his opinion and he did so after running it past some people from Sony. He spoke the truth and there's nothing wrong with that, it's what your country is founded on. But i do understand Sony's decision to drop him. After all with the financial state of the company they needed someone to drop anyways.

[ProgrammingAce]

as someone who is "in the industry" i can't say i'm shocked. I'm under so many rediculous NDA's that i can't keep track of 'em (it would be ground for termination for me to say what would be "grounds for termination"). The fact that this guy came out and bad-mouthed a multi-million dollar project and insulted a valued busisness partner astounds me. What exactly did he think would happen? First rule of fight club, don't talk about fight club. Second rule of fight club, DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!

EDIT: I noticed that he said he had two people read his article before he posted it... one of them was a producer. Wrong choice dude. If i were to publish an article officially, i would have to have it reviewed by the Public relations departments on three different continents. I assume it is a similar situation over at sony. When you're under an NDA, there are clear chanels you need to go through to publish information, this guy got fired for not following them.

[omnedon]

I found a copy of the article that got him fired here. http://drakeshangout.com/index.php?showtopic=2159

It's a good read, and a fascinating peek inside. It is stunning though that he's surprised this got him fired. He's being critical. That enough when your on the inside, to find a fast track to the outside. LOL

[stressboy]

Not surprised he got fired at all. Tell the world that your competitor has a better product and that the product you are working on sucks, and see how quickly you get fired.

It is kind of funny to watch the drooling Sony fans work to discredit him while the Xbots take everything he said as gospel.

[DeputyMoniker]

I found a copy of the article that got him fired here. http://drakeshangout.com/index.php?showtopic=2159

It's a good read, and a fascinating peek inside. It is stunning though that he's surprised this got him fired. He's being critical. That enough when your on the inside, to find a fast track to the outside. LOL

Ouch. Of course he got fired. Holy crap...that was some negative stuff. I'd fire someone for saying things like that about my company. You can't be hyping up the competition, telling everyone how much "we" suck and how much ass kicking the other guys can do.

[MrRoboto19XX]

For those of you who dont want to follow a link, and Racecar who has problems accepting other people's opinions, heres the article:

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I’ve spent some time the past year developing for the PS3. Actually it was a cinematic demo to be shown at e3 in 2005 at a closed door viewing. I was one of the few artists selected to work on it for the demo. My job was primarily asset creation. I was creating assets to populate the path where our camera would be flying during the demo. The company I work for is also working on a launch title that I am quite familiar with. In short, I’ve spent some time around the PS3 and or the teams developing for it.

I’ve really had to sit here and think for a long time about what my first comment about the PS3 would be. Will I say, its GREAT or will I give it two thumbs down. Well my immediate impression of the PS3 is…where is it? Seriously, where is it? They have a case, a controller and a dev kit. But the system still doesn’t even exist. So what is there to say? We received one of 5 PS3 dev kits in the United States some time ago. Several companies in the US as well as companies over seas were given the daunting task of creating a demo in less than 9 weeks on a first generation dev kit. Now I’ll be honest with you. What most companies do is fake the entire demo. I mean they come up with some great visuals and neat tricks and scripted events. In the end however, its not a real time demo and its not running ON the actual box. We were the only company to my knowledge that showed something that ran it live on the box. Even then it was a scripted event. You could not pause the camera and fly around the scene. So if you saw the demo once, you saw it again the exact same way the second time. Also this was on a brutally early dev box. You could always tell where the PS3 dev box was because it’s the room that had the f-bomb coming out of it half the day.

Lots of time has passed since that demo and the dev box has gone from a totally jimmy rigged computer and box of parts about the size of a small child, to a much more realistic size. Although its still the size of a normal pc. I have been pretty excited about the whole cell processing thing. I am not a very technical person but my understanding of it was pretty clear. (Multiple processors to handle individual events in parallel). Sounds pretty good to me! To hear people talk, you’d thing that a processor revolution was about to happen. So I’ve been pretty excited to say the least. Now in my opinion it doesn’t matter how good the PS3 is. If the XBOX 360 is better, then it doesn’t really matter how the cell processors work or how good they say it is. Realistically one of them will be better over all. Now I’ve spoken with people who are on the technical side of the PS3. I’ve also talked with people on the technical side of the XBOX 360. The consistent comment I am hearing from people on my end is, “The XBOX 360 is better”. They are saying that it is capable of just doing more. (shrugs) Now take that for what its worth. If you watch all the videos on the PS3 they will say how much more powerful it is than the XBOX and vice versa. Im just telling you what I am hearing. They proceeded to go into a lot of technical info that I don’t understand. So I just nod.

The game that we are creating for a launch title is a “just get it out” title in my opinion. It doesn’t look next generation. I don’t see how anyone could debate otherwise. It looks good. But it looks good for a game that has come out in the last couple years or so. I mean we are talking about a box that will be with us for the next 5+ years! In 5 years will the games we are making today look good? The only way for that to be possible is if the new games coming out for the PS3 are drastically improved. So good that they can stand the test of time until the next system comes out. We’ve all seen Gears of War for the xbox 360. If that even looks half as good when it comes out then I’ll be floored! The game we are making isn’t even in the same league as Gears of War. In fact there are many current games out that look just as good and are using the exact same specs. So, on our end we are either not pushing the bar or were just trying to “get a title out”. To be fair, this is a business. Sometimes you have to treat it as a business and not make the best title you can. The best title you can make usually costs 20-40million dollars/3 start overs and 4 years of your life. You just cant do that every time out. Its impossible. Our game just keeps getting moved back….and back…..and back…..and back. Again, where is the box? Where is the final system? When is it coming out? No one knows and in the mean time people in the industry are starting to get just a little salty. I mean I was at e3 2005 and PS3 was almost no where to be seen.

In closing, I started of VERY excited about the PS3. I was very confident that it was going to just destroy the XBOX 360 just on the name SONY alone. The more time that goes by the more I am becoming doubtful. Everything I’ve developed or seen developed has yet to be “next gen”. The poly counts are not really any higher, im not seeing sub surface scattering, im not seeing much HDR lighting. (or they are faking it and not really doing it), I’m not seeing next gen fluid dynamics or object dynamics. I suspect that you’ll be able to have more dynamic objects in a scene than before. But im not seeing games doing this yet. We dont have a controller, there is no network code and there is no box. Its still the size of a normal PC. Oh well, at least they have normal maps. Although I’m over the normal maps fad ok everyone!

I’m confident that the PS3 will have a few “crazy” games that show it off to its potential. But I would expect the full capabilities of the box to not show up until the system has been released PUBLICALLY for over a year. This is the extra time the developers will need with a FINAL system to truly make next gen games

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This guy really had it coming, he deserved to get fired.

However, I think he did sony a massive favor here. Now sony has to come up with something really special to get gamers who were already skeptical of the sony hype machine to take a risk on the ps3. In the end this can only lead to a better outcome for us as consumers and in the industy as a whole.

[Bojay1997]

I'm no Sony fanboy, in fact I'm pretty platform agnostic, but this article is garbage. After reading a lot of the coverage about the article, I thought this was going to be a balanced critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the PS3 versus the Xbox 360. Instead, this guy is making lots of ridiculous statements which would apply to any unreleased system. Things like final hardware and controllers and even final dev kits typically don't go out until just before launch. Sony hasn't even announced a release date, why would this guy expect to be working on anything but a PC sized version of the hardware?

Of course the stuff he was working on was get out the door software, that's what just about all of the Xbox 360 stuff has been so far, and that would apply to just about every other system that has ever launched in the last decade or so. Sure, Halo was an exception, but it helped that the game was in development for years starting on the Mac. The PS2 launch stuff was mediocre too and things turned out pretty well for Sony.

Is this guy serious about being surprised that he was fired? Who are these managers at Sony that thought this would be ok to put up on a website? The whole thing seems crazy to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm not the one working with the systems...that said, this guy is not a programmer, just an artist. You know. Might not have the same handle on things when his information is mostly secondhand.

I am actually surprised that he got rehired basically immediately...

[googlefest1]

i didnt realy think there was anything realy bad in his coments

personaly i wouldnt have said anything like that about a place i worked - mabey he didnt realy need his job for survival.

even though he didnt break any NDA i would have fired him -- i dont think any company insider is alowed to give his/her opinions unless its for offical buisness - and then i think it has to be as positive as legaly possible

[Ed Oscuro]

i didnt realy think there was anything realy bad in his coments

...

even though he didnt break any NDA i would have fired him ...
You're making lots of sense there.

[Diatribal Deity]

If you read between the lines, he was sick of his job. It was a cry for help in a sense. His ambitions seem to be beyond that of the drone he was at Sony. Some of this could be just rationalizing after being canned but more power to him for speaking his mind. If more people did this rather than accept the status quo, the world would be a better place.

[Bojay1997]

Sorry, but I work for an entertainment company and I appreciate that people need to vent and that open discussion within a company is important to progress, but this is just undermining the success of the company. You can say this stuff in private, but publishing it on the web can do economic harm to your company, whether it's true or not. I would never hire someone like this, if for no other reason than he has horrible judgment.

[Diatribal Deity]

Sorry, but I work for an entertainment company and I appreciate that people need to vent and that open discussion within a company is important to progress, but this is just undermining the success of the company. You can say this stuff in private, but publishing it on the web can do economic harm to your company, whether it's true or not. I would never hire someone like this, if for no other reason than he has horrible judgment.

Horrible judgment...which landed him a promotion, more money, and a better location! Venting and open discussion within companies like Sony are probably not too common. Saying stuff in private accomplishes nothing.

This is merely a glimpse (albeit shallow) of what happens with development of a system which has very high expectations. Disclosure is key to running a successful publicly traded business nowadays (entertainment, technological, pharmaceutical, etc...). The more shrouded in mystery development/completion of the PS3 is the less confidence by investors.

Sony can ride its name into the next generation all it wants, but with stale status quo employees working for them, where's the innovation? I work in the financial services field and am disheartened by Sony's future prospects and was before this info was released. He did not present anything new, but merely confirmed alot of the suspicions many people have had.

Then again E3 is right around the corner...so we shall see...I guess...

[Ed Oscuro]

Horrible judgment...which landed him a promotion, more money, and a better location!
I hope grammar and technical smarts aren't necessary in his new position. He had his supervisors look over that piece...and nobody bothered to spell check it. I wouldn't write anything that poor unless I had drunk myself blind LOL

[exit]

He's complaining about a system that's still in development, I wouldn't be surprised if he was going to get fired to begin with.

[ProgrammingAce]

for those of you saying that this guy got a better job, i'm pretty sure i know where he ended up. For the past few weeks, head hunters have been relentless trying to get people in the industry to go work for a "certain" company. All i can say is "daikatana". John Romero has been trying to hire anyone he can, and the location he described fits the bill... lol, good luck with that one...

[stressboy]

LOL.. isn't Romero currently trying to get a team together to make a MMORPG?

[Ed Oscuro]

for those of you saying that this guy got a better job, i'm pretty sure i know where he ended up. For the past few weeks, head hunters have been relentless trying to get people in the industry to go work for a "certain" company. All i can say is "daikatana". John Romero has been trying to hire anyone he can, and the location he described fits the bill... lol, good luck with that one...
Can't comment on that, but the follow-up alleges that he got multiple offers for employment nearly simultaneously...anybody's guess, but I wonder if the controversy makes him more appealing to Sony competitors.

[Bronty-2]

I'm sure he had his new job lined up well before he made that statement. He was just going out with a bang IMO.

[Lothars]

Well the comments he made really makes me think that he's is pretty clueless

I mean I could see him being picked up by a competitor but than I don't think he's that bright for writing that in the first place

not really anyone knows anything about the ps3 yet

so who knows but it's gonna be quite interesting to see what happens.

[njiska]

not really anyone knows anything about the ps3 yet


We received one of 5 PS3 dev kits in the United States some time ago.

People who have the Dev kits are the ONLY ones who really know anything about the PS3, and he was one of those people. A graphic artist not a programmer, but still he was in fact, in the company and use of the Dev kit.

However because the dev kits available when he wrote the article were rather early modles i wouldn't say he had a great deal of knowledge about it, just some.

[lendelin]

I liked the initial article because it is a good dose of reality in all this PR-hype about new systems and possibilities and options.

I said it last summer about the E3: if someone gets excited about a demo of little rubber duckies swimming around in a bathtub he needs to get his head examined. If someone got excited about the Revolution (or even later about the controller) he needs a good dose of reality. People who fall for little stunts of PR magicians are easy prey for guys who show you a little rabbit foot and the rest is covered under a blanket. It is amusing and sometimes frustrating to read 'discussions' if and how the blanket covers a real rabbit, if the rabbit has three or four feet, if it is white or maybe yellow, or if the rabbit isn't a rabbit at all but a stuffed animal.

If there is nothing to discuss there is nothing to discuss -- this goes for the PS3 and the Revolution. The authors "where is the box?" -- which easily can be expanded to "where are the games?" -- is right on target; and it is certainly not a surprising or a provocative insight that programmers make use of the full potential of a system one year after launch; that means it is not provocative for players, but challenging and uneasy for PR departments.

Demos aren't games; even real gameplay footage of the Xbox shows you only the best. Prudence is always advised.

That the PS3 is in an infantile stage and that there is no way this system can launch this spring became also very clear at the E3 last year; one guy who showed a demo said unintentionally on stage that they have the development kit for four weeks. Although this was intended it to be a positive remark pointing out what amazing things can be done in such a short period of time, it made painfully clear that speculations the Ps3 might be released six months after the 360 was unrealistic and nonsense. You can't get dev kits out and one year later you launch a title -- this is nonsense and impossible when it comes to poroduction of hardware and development of software and the invitable PR for launch.

It is a good article. As realistic and open the content of the article is, the expectations of the author about its perception of the Internet public and Sony were naive at best.

[googlefest1]

i didnt realy think there was anything realy bad in his coments

...

even though he didnt break any NDA i would have fired him ...
You're making lots of sense there.

i think i made perfect sense - whats so hard to understand?
YES i dont think he said anything realy bad
and YES i would have fired him if i owned the company _ personl feelings aside- anyone saying anything about a company i own or run that can be damaging becasue people take things out of context would most certainly get the boot

[Nature Boy]

Unless he was looking to get fired or was mad at his employer it was a pretty stupid article to post. Actually it was pretty stupid *anyway* if you ask me - if we all know one thing it's that hype about a new console is just that until you have it in your hands - hype. Doesn't matter if the hype is positive or negative.

(I mean really all I care about is what games will be available at launch, how much everything will be, and most importantly how the PS3 compares to the 360 and the Rev in terms of what the future holds, not which machine is more powerful).