All journalists know: If it bleeds, it leads. Does this hold for us in the games media? Do gamz jarnalists thrive on crumbling developers, plummeting sales figures and disappointed consumers? Sony's press conference suggested this might be the case. Addressing the recent PSN outage, which he described as %26ldquo;the elephant in the room,%26rdquo; SCEA head Jack Tretton's first remarks were directed at the media %26ndash; joking that his problems made their day.
Above: L.A. Noire supporting character Jack Trenton
%26ldquo;Reporters tell me nothing makes their editor's day like controversy and bad news,%26rdquo; Tretton told the E3 audience, %26ldquo;so to all our esteemed members of the press I say: you're welcome.%26rdquo; Tretton's quip brought some uncertain laughs %26ndash; it's hard to know what to say when someone calls you a vulture %26ndash; before the CEO went on to thank third parties for their support and pledge to do better by consumers in a penitent speech that could almost have been delivered outside your apartment, in the rain, possibly with a boom-box held overhead.
What do you make of such remarks? Do you really think we're happiest when hackers and corporate woes are making your life miserable? Your pain is our pain, you know. But all that said, the PSN thing was a lot of fun to write about.
June 7, 2011
