Sony Pulls Neil Druckmann Interview, Citing "Significant Errors"

Sony removed an interview with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, stating that it didn't "represent his perspectives and values."

[Eonjay]

Welp at least they corrected the record but honestly why wouldn't they just use his words instead of paraphrasing for PR reasons? Glad to see Neil stand up for himself and get the truth out.

[InUrFoxHole]

100%

[RNTody]

This is pretty ludicrous to be honest! How did Sony get an interview with their own guy so wrong. If you read the transcript Neil put on Twitter compared to what was quoted about Naughty Dog's next game, it's laughable how badly he was represented. What he said was fine.

Glad he got the chance to clarify.

[Notellin]

No one is mad about the statement you're referencing.

The development community is concerned with the opinions he shared on AI.

[S2Killinit]

please read the article. It says that the released version was paraphrasing what he had said:

“Druckmann later went to social media to clarify that the interview did not accurately report the actual words he said, even providing his own direct transcript to show that it did not match up.”

What do we need to be concerned with exactly? He posted the entire direct transcript.

[RNTody]

Depends how it's used? AI has already been used in many businesses with success. If it's used to simulate voice actors without their consent, that's obviously bad. If it's used to streamline and automate certain functions or generic items during development, like data logs or background story information, maybe there's usefulness there.

AI is a hot topic and everyone is going to weigh in on it, but it is inevitable and it's up to us to speak out against misuse of it. Let the developers be excited about the possibilities, it's not like it's EA or some exec in a suit speaking on this topic, or Neil commenting on monetisation possibilities. He's a gaming guy, so maybe there's value there that he sees.

[-Foxtrot]

@S2Killinit

Jesus man, how about you read what Neil actually said on Twitter

FROM THE MAN HIMSELF

https://x.com/Neil_Druckman...

Nothing was mentioned about his AI comments, that's all 100% true, he literally makes a point of what part of the interview was misleading by screenshotting the exact part taken out of context. The part where he mentions "redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming".

[Christopher]

The Development Community is actually pro-AI as it will help reduce their workload. It's uninformed gamer community people who don't understand how they will utilize AI in development that are concerned.

[DarXyde]

Christopher,

I don't disagree the development community is open to AI's inclusion, but as we know, there are also concerns. The labour is often at odds with the execs and I sincerely don't trust them to do right by their employees.

As a precondition for utilizing AI, I think pushing for unionization at developers using AI to support development is a bare minimum requisite.

The devs and execs want efficiency, but it's not really in the same way.

[Profchaos]

Neil's been coasting off the hard work of others for years now he barely thanks the people who do the hard hards it's always about him and his things.

So I'm not shocked he screwed up an interview that wasn't about him

[Profchaos]

@Redemption is it because I don't subscribe to the cult of Druckman like so many others? Or is this just another console war thing where I can't be critical of anything's Sony does.

I buy their games I buy their consoles but I don't want to get carpet burn on my knees at the alter of druck thanks maybe you've forgotten the politics of ND circa 2015ish

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

It's a bit less than sane to try blame Druckmann for someone from Sony PR attributing false quotes (presumably to create excitement for ND's next game) that differ from the transcript.

"he barely thanks the people". This is false.
"maybe you've forgotten the politics of ND circa 2015ish"
What are referring to?

[Inverno]

More like he got a lot of criticism, and it isn't the first time he's stirred up controversy so they want a do over.

[RNTody]

Lol dude, what he said was nothing close to controversial. The link to what he actually said is in the article. He never said Naughty Dog's next game would redefine mainstream gaming.

[Inverno]

So he did say hand animation is dated and AI is the future, just that their next game won't redefine gaming.

[-Foxtrot]

But his shitty AI comments still stand

Talking about using it for creative things like writing, dialogue, stories then pulling the same old "there's still ethical issues to address" which is what all AI lovers love to say at the end of bigging up AI so they don't get as much flack.

People keep thinking that the interview being pulled means everything he said was misquoted when the worst thing he actually did say during it wasn't misquoted at all.

[RNTody]

I responded above to the AI comments.

[romulus23]

It's not his fault people have nothing better to do then twist his words or whatever he's doing into something "controversial" so they have an excsue to complain.

[Inverno]

Not his fault, but if you're gonna express your opinions publicly then you should prepare for people to express their opinions on your opinions. His comment about hand animation rubbed people the wrong way, and we've yet to see how AI will help or ruin games so people have very strong opinions on it. His concern was that he didn't say their next game will redefine gaming, which let's be honest, ND normally pushes a few boundaries when they release a game so it's weird that that's the only thing he wanted to correct lol.

[romulus23]

Never said I had an issue with opinions on opinions but calling an opinion or comment "controversial" is something else entirely. People can get angry about AI assisted development all they want but its gonna happen, just like everything else the gaming community complains about and ends up happening anyway, Like it or not AI pretty much has to happen in the development space to keep costs down or there potentially wont be any AAA games in the future to complain about.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Basically this. Gaming community jumps to conclusions before seeing the final results.

They were all bitching about Sony doing a GaaS game. Or turning away from single player gaming which was ignorant and idiotic to think Sony would drop what makes them millions of dollars and millions of unity sales.

Gaming community asked for Sony to pair that level of quality and make online games at the level of single player like Resistance, Killzone, etc. They kept bitching and complaining it was the end of single player games. Sony ended up releasing on their system Hell Divers 2 and not only is it quality online game, it doesn't bombard gamers with ridiculous levels of micro transactions. Shutting up the naysayers who were talking shit and now had to eat shit because they jump the gun. Maybe GaaS games can be done right in the right hands. And Sony did that by supporting that developer of the game. And we know if online games don't get periodic updates, gamers move on to the next game or complain that the online game isn't getting more content. More content means GaaS.

AI has its uses if done correctly. They should let Neil and Sony use it to help bring high quality games to consumers much faster. We can't automatically assume that every employee will lose their jobs where Sony is just a bunch of executives while using a bunch of AI algorithms to make games where there's no humans in the building.

But some just like to complain to complain.

[Crows90]

Of course...lol

[derek]

He could have said anything and there are gamers that would triggered by it. Console warriors and cry babies who have never gotten over their videogame daddy dying in tlou2. Lol.

[S2Killinit]

Lol, most of those are just mad that there were gay girls in the game while manly father figure died. It was too much for them 😆

[Good-Smurf]

I still remembered the days he was gamer's darling doing alternate ending of TLOU and can do no wrong.
Now if he's only uttering a syllable the very same fans ready to raise their virtual pitchforks and a stake ready to call him all kinds of stuff.
Crazy how some fans took it personally when at the end of day, it just a videogame character that died.

[CS7]

It is amazing how effective the repetition of
reductive statements like “You’re mad Joel died” or “You’re mad women have muscles” were on shielding this game from criticism.

The game has poor storytelling relative to the first.

The entire first game was about how brutal a trek across America would be in this post apocalyptic world. Yet the game has (almost) teenagers just strolling across America, some even by themselves multiple times throughout the game.

Ellie kills hundreds of people and just at the last one who initiated her quest she stops short because “revenge is bad”.

TLOU pt 1. had an amazing balance between how harrowing and dark the world is and the beauty of nature and humanity at its purest form. Pt. 2 was just dark and depressing throughout.

Joel’s death is within the context of multiple poor storytelling choices and elements of the game seemed craft to present a particular world view above creating a consistent world and an impactful story.

This is the problem with the game. Not that Joel died.

Otherwise the game is an amazing technical achievement and unparalleled in gameplay. But it seems like Neil prefers crafting stories around his curated world view over creating believable world and characters.

[SimpleDad]

Jesus Christ

[thesoftware730]

Yeah no one is gonna call this what it is, Sony fucking lied to hype shit up...

The spin is, at least they corrected it lol.

[TheSenorCheese]

Welp. That's not a good look.

[H9]

Damage control, you got to protect your golden boy!

And on a different note, it's hilarious how this site is now pro-AI just because Neil supported it

[mudakoshaka]

Someone is getting fired!