Sony Blog Attacks Major Nelson, Look Stupid
- Scribbled on June 26th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Editorial Content, Industry News, WTF
You’d think Sony would get “it”. From bad television ads to bad print ads to underhanded viral marketing to racist print ads to bizarre scat magazines to lying and lying and LYING, you’d think they’d stop acting like ninnies and start trying to, you know, focus their energies on games.
But, no. Sony has proven their complete and utter incompetence in a new field: blogging and podcasting. Their new blog, “Three Speech”, launched a while ago, and it was mediocre, but that’s to be expected for a new site. However, their incompetence was truly shown in their first podcast. Aside from the fact they showed absolutely no ability to identify Sony products like hyping up a Final Fantasy VII game that didn’t exist, not knowing what Jumping Flash was, and basically rambling incoherently, they attacked Larry Hryb and his MajorNelson website and podcast as a shill.
Now, for any Sony employees to call anyone a shill is the height of hypocrisy - “All I want for Christmas is a PSP”, dude - but maybe they should understand what a shill is. A shill is someone who helps promotes a product and pretends not to be associated with it. Two good examples would be the guy who a snake oil salesman gives his drink to and pretends to be cured, or a fake home buyer whom the salesman uses to create a sense of urgency.
Hryb makes it clear he works for Microsoft. He works in Microsoft offices. He talks to Microsoft employees. He talks about lunch in the Microsoft cafeteria. And nowhere has he ever called anyone at Sony “slimy”, which these numbskulls did about him. Furthermore, Hryb for a months while talked about his desire to get a Wii, and finally announced on his podcast he got one. Does that sound like a Microsoft shill to you? Sounds more like a Nintendo shill, if he was a shill.
But calling Hryb a shill is odd when no one on the podcast or the blog is ever identified. That’s right - a bunch of anonymous guys on what Sony laughingly calls a semi-official Sony blog are accusing Hryb of being a liar and a hypocrite.
Maybe these geniuses should make sure their batteries don’t explode.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Hryb is a nice guy, sure he’s made fun of his fans on one occasion but Larry is simply excited about his product line and the industry in general.
Did you see how hard he worked to get his hands on a Nintendo DS? He loves it. He is your typical dorky gamer that happens to work for Microsoft in a position of status.
When one decides to start a podcast they best talk about something they know and he knows games, specifically Microsoft games.
Now, I do find his podcast a bit boring and stopped subscribing awhile ago. I like to hear about the gaming industry more than just Microsoft specific information. I also like to hear more than one personality on the show (which he’s usually cleared up by doing Interviews).
I don’t see his position any different than The HotSpot, GameSpot’s podcast. They talk about their own news reports which involve the gaming industry. Are they “Shills” too by Sony’s definition? Or what about 1up’s podcast?
Is the line drawn when you do it “on company time”?
The simple fact is this: podcasts, video casts and blogging are GREAT ways to talk to your people, interact with the industry and have a good time. Same reason I’ve got my own podcast for my own company. It’s another avenue for marketing and getting your name out there. I don’t think anyone can say otherwise.
Alas, the last thing about blogging… you can always say bad things anonymously . Hell, look at some of our comments on some of the posts we have. People have no problem calling you an “idiot” or worse. Is it any different when a Sony website does it? Nah, it just looks worse for them
June 26th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I’ve pondered a couple times how close Larry Hryb was to crossing the line - he makes points that ALMOST sound like insults, and rightfully so. This is some asinine garbage…
June 26th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
This article is misleading.
The official Sony blog is at:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/
Threespeech is not the same as Sony.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
You’d be right except you’re wrong. Sony finances the site, which claims to be SEMI-official. Of course, if Sony is paying for the site, wouldn’t that make it OFFICIAL?
Please, don’t drink any more Kool Aid.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I’m still mad at sony PS3 LAUNCH. They released abit of PS3 and made people pay 1000-2000 for it with ga)y bundles and 2 days wait. Just to released a sh1t load 2 weeks later. People paid 2000 when 2 weeks later they can buy one for 600. DEATH TO SONY. SUPPLY AND DEMANDS > YOU.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:32 am
@jonahfalcon
The first place I looked was here:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?&ip=threespeech.com
No mention of Sony there. And the site defines “semi-official” as follows: “Three Speech isn’t part of PlayStation, but it does get to speak to PlayStation.” I don’t doubt Sony feeds them information and possibly schwag, but are you sure they finance them?
Now, you might not be wrong. But you certainly haven’t provided any evidence that you’re right. Before you make sweeping accusations of hidden collusion coupled with personal attacks on the intellegence of other commenters, you could perhaps point us at where we can confirm your accusation to be true? Where did you learn that Sony finances Three Speech? Is it documented fact, or just supposition? Or worse, did someone at MS pay you off to say that? Because I have no evidence to support that, but that doesn’t stop me saying it’s true, does it?
June 27th, 2007 at 1:38 am
It’s registered by a British marketing firm, and its purpose is to seem unofficial. You really think “some random guys” would hire a marketing firm to create their blog? You’ll notice even the blog uses the term “semi-official”. There’s nothing different, ownership wise, between this and the “all I want for xmas is a psp” gig.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Childish mud-slinging at its finest. I don’t have a whole lot of respect for Sony nowadays as it is but for them to endorse something of this nature is downright pathetic.
I found the whole “All I want for Xmas is a PSP” thing hilarious though when back when it was released. Good stuff.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Why ppl make such a big deal about stupid
stuff like this?very childish
waste of my time
September 4th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[...] Sony should be concentrating on its own software than trying to clumsily sling mud anonymously. (Or not so anonymously - check out the link farm there for Sony’s continued stupidity since the PlayStation 3 [...]