After Neil Druckmann called out Sony over inaccuracies in a published interview, the company has now issued an apology to The Last Of Us co-creator.
While you might expect interviews with developers published on official company platforms to be rigorously checked, to iron out any negative wrinkles, Sony has found itself in a spot of bother for doing the exact opposite.
Last week, an interview with The Last Of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann was published on Sony’s Group Portal website, where he talked about the impact of AI on game development. He also teased Naughty Dog’s next game, claiming, in the original version of the interview, that it could ‘redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming’.
After the interview was published, Druckmann took to Twitter to highlight how he didn’t actually say those words at all. ‘In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost,’ he wrote.
Now, a few days later, Sony has scrubbed the interview from its website entirely and issued an apology to Druckmann, after discovering ‘several significant errors’.
‘In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don’t represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects).’ a notice reads on the website.
‘We apologise to Neil for misrepresenting his words and for any negative impact this interview might have caused him and his team. In coordination with Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, we have removed the interview.’
What’s particularly bizarre is that Druckmann only initially highlighted inaccuracies in his edited answer to a question about future projects, but this apology implies the entire article was riddled with issues across every topic.
Publishers are usually very careful to make sure journalists transcribe interviews exactly but since this seems to have been treated as a marketing exercise, primarily aimed at investors, Sony appears to have taken a very loose approach to editing Druckmann’s comments.
The controversy comes after Naughty Dog cancelled an online multiplayer spin-off of The Last Of Us back in December, in defiance of Sony’s push for more live service games, which may hint at a troubled relationship behind the scenes.
In his unedited answer regarding Naughty Dog’s next game, which is yet to be announced, Druckmann teased that it’s ‘maybe the most excited I’ve been for a project yet’.
He added: ‘I’m not only excited for this game that we’re making – and it’s, it’s something really fresh for us – but I’m also excited to see how the world reacts to it.
‘Because of The Last Of Us, and the success of the show, people even outside of gaming are looking at us to see what it is that we put out next. I’m very excited to see what the reaction for this thing will be – and I’ve already said too much about it. I’ll stop there.’
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