Rumor: PS All Stars Leaks Lead To Fired Employees

PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale practically had a pre-launch blow out of content leading up to the October release date which got pushed back. Sony, who had pre-emptive plans to reveal PS All Stars characters such as Raiden and Dante in a Sonic (Super Smash Bros Brawl) esque fashion, felt these leaks caused significant publcity damage leading up to launch. A user Afro Gunsou was able to reveal via his source some details regarding the mayhem which took place behind the scenes. As with most compiled fighting titles which feature characters from different franchises, guest appearances are strategically placed as a marketing initiative for titles that character may (or may not) have on the horizon. In this case Superbot and SCEA signed agreements with 3rd parties to best accomodate any publication or hype generated from character reveals Dante and Raiden.

With leaks out in the wild SCEA’s PR took action to try to stir prelaunch hype into a mist populated with true and false rumors, while bribing journalist Paul Gale to use him as a scapegoat; as he was one of the firsts to reveal PS All Stars as “Title Fight”. Paul Gale “carefully timed out “leaks” and “teases” and purposely laced them with vague and false information in order to pump the fan base up for release.” To add to the fire, Platinum Games designer Hideki Kamiya called out PS All Stars for being a rip off in spite of the promised launch hype of Raiden’s reveal in PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale. To compensate for Superbot basically “blowing their load” of what could have possibly been shown for PS All Stars due to leaks, SCEJ then sent an executive decision to SCEA’s way to make “necessary re-arrangements” of the marketing and PR team in North America and directly urged Superbot to begin further development of the game. The extended period of PS All Stars development would produce a final product that is laced with content that lines up with Paul Gale fake leaks to retain hype for the game.

This massive controversy caused multiple SCEA PR employees to be fired. The maddness behind everything that has happpend thus far is Sony’s in-house denial of their attrocious marketing regardless of leaks that still wouldn’t make a difference in if PS All Stars sales without a leak. It’s time for them to wake up and realize it’ll take a lot more than leaks to prehibit their AAA titles from selling well, it’s Sony themselves.

Via NeoGAF