Tretton: our industry can't keep secrets

By Robert Purchese Published 12 June, 2009

Speak for yourself!

Sony of America boss Jack Tretton reckons the games industry is full of people who have trouble keeping secrets.

"People don't respect confidentiality in this industry. It's tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties," Tretton told CNBC (caught by Voodoo Extreme, referring heavily to the PSPgo saga, which saw the handheld leaked the weekend before its planned E3 reveal.

"This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today; 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 added.

Tretton humorously addressed the PSPgo leak at the top of the Sony E3 presentation, saying he was surprised to see such a turnout given "the industry's ability to keep information confidential".

His boss, Kaz Hirai, was equally self-deprecating, calling the PSPgo the "Worst-Kept Secret of E3". People laughed.

An early version of The Last Guardian trailer was also spilled pre-E3, ruining an otherwise show-stopping reveal. But for all the leaks, Sony's ship managed to produce a motion-sensing controller demonstration few had foreseen.

Rivals Microsoft and Nintendo were not without spoilt surprises, either. Project Natal was all but outed pre-show, and we'd have cried foul had Nintendo not unveiled the long-teased Mario project.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jim1975 #1 3 years ago

    onlive did a pretty good job

  • brappbrap #2 3 years ago

    Sorry Jack, my bad. I just love to gossip

  • Aretak #3 3 years ago

    They managed to keep Final Fantasy XIV a secret though. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere before E3.

    Shame it's a MMORPG.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #4 3 years ago

    Then again the only thing surprising about FFXIV was next year's release date. That it would come sooner or later was inevitable; Of course it being an MMORPG also caught a few by surprise again.

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #5 3 years ago

    jim1975: Easy to keep vapourware secret though innit ;-) (joke!)

  • matrim83 #6 3 years ago

    Aretak They managed to keep Final Fantasy XIV a secret though. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere before E3.

    Probably because no one cared. :p
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 17:19

  • Turambar #7 3 years ago

    Yeah you're right. Nobody cares about one of the biggest JRPG franchises in existence.

  • Oh-Bollox #8 3 years ago

    Aye, much as you keep the press under your jackboot, some people just won't co-operate eh?

    Fucking shame, that. If only you could keep all consumers as totally ignorant as you dream. One day. ;-)

  • myiagros #9 3 years ago

    Wasn't the biggest reveal for PSPGo Sony's own fault. accidentally putting a video on the PSN store.

    Yes developers had mentioned it before then, but the video was what took the most polish off of the reveal.

  • jiveguy #10 3 years ago

    Maybe it's time for the industry to mature and be more open with their customers. If you know you have a good product get it out their and keep your customers happy and interested and maybe even contribute in making it better. I like what Introversion are doing with Darwinia+ for example. This way there is no need to put all that wasted energy into keeping secrets.
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 18:05

  • zarglu #11 3 years ago

    The problem with this industry is actually that of paper-launch.

    Products are pre-announced, pre-launched,announced, launched months if not years before anything is actually available. Games have teasers, trailers and whatnot.
    Of course, that kind of attitude encourages leaks and speculation. What do they expect???

  • Ryze #12 3 years ago

    @myiagros

    Exactly. More Sony fuckups, followed by Sony shit talk.

    Why? Why can't they just become cool again?

  • MORZTAN #13 3 years ago

    I feel sorry for Sony for the Guardian leak. That really would have made the show!

  • rotmm #14 3 years ago

    Well Jack, you certainly managed to surprise people with the $249/€249 price point. That information definately didn't leak before the announcement.

    Neither, for that matter, did the news that the Dollar and Euro are now on parity in the currency markets.

  • PanStre #15 3 years ago

    @ MORZTAN

    I bet you if the Last Guardian teaser hadn't leaked, they wouldn't have bothered. Only reason they did was, they would've looked a bit silly if they hadn't, though, because of the leak.

    It still hasn't been put on PSN yet and Yoshida went, 'oh, I'm a bit disappointed at the leak', Why, Yoshida? Because you'd have gotten a kick out of disappointing us?

    Whoever leaked the video (and forced Sony's hand) did Sony a favour.

  • callum9999 #16 3 years ago

    Ryze - Sony as a company didn't accidently upload it, an employee did. The bosses have every right to criticise it as it wasn't their doing.

  • Goffee #17 3 years ago

    No we don't, playstation 4, oops

  • GreyBeard #18 3 years ago

    The most depressing thing about the Trico/Last Guardian reveal was how few people actually commented on the fact that it was completely re-rendered. Yes it was almost shot-for-shot the same, but keeping the same script/storyboard does not make it the same work. If you take that attitude you might as well not bother watching trailers for most racing/shooting games.

  • ShinMegami08 #19 3 years ago

    the leak was in the qore-magazine, which was "accidently" uploaded on the psn a week before.
    wouldn't be surprised if the leak wasn't a leak at all but promotion. the psp go was a very hot topic since then...

  • Colin8703 #20 3 years ago

    I feel that none of these things are actually leaks but more confirming the inevitable. There are no secrets because nearly every game these days has a sequel (usually released two years after the previous) and every hardware usually has multiple iterations as well.

    The only surprise I have had lately is Left 4 Dead 2.