PS3 Game Developer Fired For Speaking Out About Sony's Game Console
3D artist Josh Robinson explains how an online article about the current developments around Sony's Playstation 3 game console got him fired from Sony.
In an interview with PS3week website, former SOE employ Josh Robinson gives details about his dismissal from Sony, his new job, the genesis of the PS3 article, and the reactions to the story from around the web.
The story bagan last January, when Robinson posted an article on his blog which read: "Our game just keeps getting moved back... And back. Well my immediate impression of the PS3 is?where is it? Seriously, where is it? They have a case, a controller and a dev kit. But the system still doesn?t even exist. So what is there to say? Where is the final system? When is it coming out? No one knows and in the mean time people in the industry are starting to get just a little salty."
"You could always tell where the PS3 dev box was because it?s the room that had the F-bomb coming out of it half the day," he added.
"I started of very excited about the PS3. I was very confident that it was going to just destroy the XBOX 360 just on the name Sony alone. The more time that goes by the more I am becoming doubtful. Everything I?ve developed or seen developed has yet to be ?next gen?. The poly counts are not really any higher, im not seeing sub surface scattering, im not seeing much HDR lighting" he said.
Robinson told PS3week that he asked at least two Sony employees to read the blog entry before it was posted, and even showed it to an SOE producer.
However, according to Robinson, he was "Let go at Sony after the article was plopped on the desk of Sony corporate. I was also asked to remove the article immediately, which I did without any resistance."
"Did I knowingly break NDA? I absolutely did not. I would never do that and I would never want to hurt Sony Online. Did I dance in the grey area by even opening my mouth? Yes I did and I was fired for it."
Robinson said he received four or five job offers immediately after leaving Sony.
The story bagan last January, when Robinson posted an article on his blog which read: "Our game just keeps getting moved back... And back. Well my immediate impression of the PS3 is?where is it? Seriously, where is it? They have a case, a controller and a dev kit. But the system still doesn?t even exist. So what is there to say? Where is the final system? When is it coming out? No one knows and in the mean time people in the industry are starting to get just a little salty."
"You could always tell where the PS3 dev box was because it?s the room that had the F-bomb coming out of it half the day," he added.
"I started of very excited about the PS3. I was very confident that it was going to just destroy the XBOX 360 just on the name Sony alone. The more time that goes by the more I am becoming doubtful. Everything I?ve developed or seen developed has yet to be ?next gen?. The poly counts are not really any higher, im not seeing sub surface scattering, im not seeing much HDR lighting" he said.
Robinson told PS3week that he asked at least two Sony employees to read the blog entry before it was posted, and even showed it to an SOE producer.
However, according to Robinson, he was "Let go at Sony after the article was plopped on the desk of Sony corporate. I was also asked to remove the article immediately, which I did without any resistance."
"Did I knowingly break NDA? I absolutely did not. I would never do that and I would never want to hurt Sony Online. Did I dance in the grey area by even opening my mouth? Yes I did and I was fired for it."
Robinson said he received four or five job offers immediately after leaving Sony.
