Sony has publicly apologized to Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann for heavily editing his comments that “did not represent his views and values.”
Last week, Sony held a corporate strategy meeting to discuss future plans. It also includes where you want to be in the next 10 years. An interview with Neil Druckmann, co-president and creative director of Naughty Dog, the team responsible for The Last of Us, was also released at the same time.
In an interview, Druckmann appeared to discuss his studio’s next project, saying, “I’m excited to see how this new game will resonate, especially after the success of The Last of Us, as it could redefine the mainstream perception of gaming.” He said.
Although it could be dismissed as standard PR bluster, it reads like a pretty bold claim.
However, Neil Druckmann took to social media shortly after the interview to claim that he had not been properly quoted in the interview.
“In the process of editing a lengthy response from a recent SONY interview, unfortunately some words, context and intent were lost,” Druckmann wrote. “Well, here’s a long, rambling answer to your last question about our future games.”
Druckmann also published a full transcript of what he said. There I don’t see any quotes from Sony mentioning it in the original article. It’s very common to edit interviews to make them more manageable, but the speaker’s intent and original expressions should always be maintained in the process. However, in the case of this Sony interview, the answers provided were completely fabricated. Moreover, it does not capture what Druckmann actually said.
In response, Sony has now retracted the interview entirely, and the page where it was published now displays an apology to Druckmann.
“Re-examining our recent interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, we discovered several serious errors and inaccuracies that did not represent his views and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects). We apologize for misrepresenting Neil’s comments and for any negative impact this interview may have had on him and his team. We worked with Naughty Dog and SIE to remove the interview.” Sony says:
Hats off to Neil Druckmann for posting those exact words, and fair play to Sony for retracting them and apologizing.
