Lionhead Slams Kotaku Over Leaked Fable 2 Non Trailer
By Shawn on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:01 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games, Microsoft
Lionhead Studios has issued a statement is response to the Fable 2 “trailer” that Kotatku published yesterday, which spread through the internet like wild fire. What Kotaku didn’t include in their article was it was not actually a trailer at all, but B-roll footage. It was never meant to be anything more than background footage for official interviews with Peter Molyneux. It represents the current state of the game, warts and all, but not actually finished gameplay. Here’s full statement Lionhead:
Last night, after a long day at the Showcase Event, we found out that Kotaku had posted a video showing Fable 2. This is not a trailer and it was never intended to be released in its entirity on the internet. Kotaku has dissapointed me, yes Mike and Brian you have. Sadly enough, it did happen and the snowball effect (other sites doing what Kotaku did) was inevitable at that point. The video was intended for broadcast media to edit into filmed interviews with Peter Molyneux. It was clearly marked as such on the Microsoft PR ftp.
Let me make this clear: we decided to be honest with everyone, to show Fable 2 as it is right now, including the 5000+ bugs that are currently being fixed by the development team. The press have reacted positively to our decision to show our game warts and all. To then see this video being released with the comments from editors (like Mike) and readers ranging from downright negative to so-so, is rather dissapointing and totally out of context.
Please understand that it represents work in progress and see it for what it is: how the game looked on 7th May 2008. We promise to release a real trailer in due course. It will be interesting to compare them…
via Lionhead Studios Fable 2 Development
If gaming sites weren’t so hungry for knowledge and every leaked detail, things like this wouldn’t happen. It’s sickening, just as bad as the paparazzi who follow celebrities around.
Let companies release info at their own pace, god damnit.
I can understand how sites like Kotaku help viewers learn about games without going to each individual company’s site, but still, if something is not meant to be a trailer and can clearly negatively impact a game, it is unacceptable for a site to go and release it as such. Kotaku must have something against Lionhead to go and do something this stupid.
Well I’m not faulting Kotaku too much here.. the audience is hungry for information and if you slack off even a little traffic numbers go down which means that your audience goes elsewhere.. we suffer the same issue to some extent.
Now if they made a mistake while getting the press media from the FTP I can to some extent understand it. I have not looked at the FTP myself to see if its clearly labeled as B-roll or not. If MS did not want the video out there the best option is not to make it available, or to make it available upon request or only on Beta tape.
I don’t think the paparazzi slam was necessary though Rick. Gaming blog/news sites are not stalking these developers and making a big profit from their public behavior. We’re merely trying to drive traffic numbers, make our meager pay and hit our traffic goals by offering the visitors and readers of our sites a place the can find the news aggregated and served with our perspectives.
There is nothing really exploitive about it most of the time.
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