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Le Monde journalist who reported the Quantic Dream scandal says he got blacklisted by Sony [read OP]

Charamiwa

Charamiwa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,060
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,069
snapcracken said:
If you're sending emails to the PR person you know and not getting any responses, and then you ask a journo at another outlet to send emails to the same person and they're getting quick responses... it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together.
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Sure, now he just needs to tell us that's what actually happened.
 
snapcracken

snapcracken

Member
Oct 25, 2017
619
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
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It would make sense QD would know it was coming out, they asked David Cage for a statement (as reputable journalists do in publishing an article like this).
 
juliamcardinals

juliamcardinals

Member
Oct 27, 2017
351
LordKano said:
Hi, there's three articles out there with dozens of people interviewed and everything is triple-sourced. Maybe do some researches before saying that there's not enough evidences and that he's just disliking him.
http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/articl...de-management-contestees_5241506_4408996.html
https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/ec...eam-pepite-francaise-du-jeu-video?onglet=full
https://www.canardpc.com/373/drole-dambiance-quantic-dream



Well, there's a lot of stories about David de Grutolla that haven't been translated in English but that are well known in France so it's more that you don't have the full picture in front of you about what kind of character he is.
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Fair enough
 
David

David

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,002
Neo Yokio
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Holy shit
 
Thadeus

Thadeus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
383
Out of curiosity, is it really Sony that initiated the blacklist? I note that it is the publisher that provides the review copies but if i was the developer which was being accused of something providing bad press to my company. The most logical thing I would do is to contact the publisher and advise them not to provide review copies to said publication.

Just my 2 cents that they may be other things going on in the background so I generally do not like to lay blame on a particular organisation/person until the full facts are released (which may never happen).

**This is not in reference to the QD situation to employees.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 15428

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,464
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
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What a mess.
 

Kartul7

Banned
Dec 25, 2017
173
Terror-Billy said:
Well, time to stop supporting Sony Interactive Entertainment products. I was hopeful that they would bring attention to the issues. Instead, they decide to blacklisted the guy who ran the story. It tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.
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Interesting post history you have there, mate.
 
LiquidSolid

LiquidSolid

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,731
Birdseye said:
I thought first-party games were developed in-house. QD are just making exclusives for Sony, right?
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No. First party games are any games a first party publisher funds, publishes and has some form of ownership over. Bloodborne is a Sony first party game, even though Sony doesn't own FromSoftware, because Sony owns the IP and its publishing rights. Hell, Spider-Man is a Sony first party game, even though Sony doesn't own Insomniac nor the Spider-Man IP, but they do own the game itself and its publishing rights.

Sony owns Heavy Rain, Beyond and Detroit. They're first party games.
 
Xpliskin

Xpliskin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
575
This needs an explanation.

How and why was he blacklisted ?

Blacklisted by Sony France perhaps ?
 

FormatCompatible

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,071
Force_XXI said:
Who hasnt photoshopped their co workers face onto Hitler once or twice? All in good fun. /s
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Exactly man! Who hasn't watched a police procedure on tv and asked their poc coworker if the guy being arrested is their cousin? /s

God, that just makes me sad because situations like that happened to me and some friends have said it happened to them too.
 

Deleted member 8791

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,383
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
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The plot thickens.
 
peepers

peepers

Member
Dec 10, 2017
707
Biscay
So I have done my best to ask him directly in french how he knew he had been blacklisted and he has answered:
https://twitter.com/Willvs/status/952933508678324224 (I don't know how to attach tweets sorry)
He says he knows from sources close to this matter/business, "as they say politely". As you might have guessed french is not my first language so feel free to interpret/correct me.
 
Gestault

Gestault

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,385
This connects to a few threads recently: The handful of people asserting that the reason others are pointing out bad behavior is because of some personal dislike of Cage (rather than there being merit or an actual problem) are falling into a cult-like defensive posture, given the on-the-record realities of the events.
 
Nolbertos

Nolbertos

Member
Dec 9, 2017
3,319
Bad PR for Sony means good PR for MS and Nintendo. I don't think it'll affect there bottom line TBH, but let's see how Sony spins this statement from La Monde.
 
BeeDog

BeeDog

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,562
Quite stupid of the exec at Sony to go ahead with a blacklisting, but not really surprised. Major corporations are stupidly over-rational with their decision-making which completely blinds them from the actual consequences of their actions. Anyway, let's see if this shitstorm does something to Cage, he strikes me as a total asshole in every sense despite me liking Heavy Rain and looking forward to Detroit.

Guardians said:
I stopped supporting Sony many years ago for several reasons, and now I'm even more happier that I did that. Sony should have talked to the CEO of Quantic Dream and blacklistet him, instead of a journalist. But this is how I know Sony.
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Grist to the mill, member-with-Nintendo-avatar.
 

Deleted member 2791

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
19,054
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You summarized well the gist of it. They basically told their employees to deny everything told in the story and contacted influencers to form some sort of defense squad for Quantic Dream. In the first tweet, the last sentence is quite telling "I'm asking for your help[...] you, who have the power to maybe influence some opinions[...]".
 
WhySoDevious

WhySoDevious

Member
Oct 31, 2017
8,466
snapcracken said:
If you're sending emails to the PR person you know and not getting any responses, and then you ask a journo at another outlet to send emails to the same person and they're getting quick responses... it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together.
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If I were that person, I would probably take their email up to my direct supervisor so that they can direct me on how to respond. In fact, I can imagine legal taking a look at it and letting them determine how or when to respond. After all, that reporter just wrote a damning article with accusations that my company denies.
 
snapcracken

snapcracken

Member
Oct 25, 2017
619
Chaos2Frozen said:
Sure, now he just needs to tell us that's what actually happened.
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Why would he do that and burn the PR person publicly like that, and any other journalist he asked to see if he was blacklisted? Why does he have to bend over backward because some guy on a forum refuses to trust him for some inexplicable reason? What exactly does he have to gain other than you getting embarrassed, and then promptly switching to some other defense as to why Sony was in the right?

WhySoDevious said:
If I were that person, I would probably take their email up to my direct supervisor so that they can direct me on how to respond. In fact, I can imagine legal taking a look at it and letting them determine how or when to respond. After all, that reporter just wrote a damning article with accusations that my company denies.
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Any response you would make as a PR person would be the same for all outlets and all journalists. There's no nonsense about "well if I respond 'no comment', then our whole legal action against this outlet that thoroughly vetted their sources collapses."
 
Mondy

Mondy

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,456
This is far from a good look, Sony. This sort of bullshit behavior is what I'd expect from the likes of EA. At least we know what Jim Sterling's topic of the week will be.
 
Alderade

Alderade

Member
Oct 27, 2017
189
peepers said:
So I have done my best to ask him directly in french how he knew he had been blacklisted and he has answered:
https://twitter.com/Willvs/status/952933508678324224 (I don't know how to attach tweets sorry)
He says he knows from sources close to this matter/business, "as they say politely". As you might have guessed french is not my first language so feel free to interpret/correct me.
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It's a good guess, from is answer someone at Sony France told him he was blacklisted.
For all the people outside France : William Audureau is a Journalist at Le Monde who is basically the french NYT.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,069
snapcracken said:
Why would he do that and burn the PR person publicly like that, and any other journalist he asked to see if he was blacklisted? Why does he have to bend over backward because some guy on a forum refuses to trust him for some inexplicable reason? What exactly does he have to gain other than you getting embarrassed, and then promptly switching to some other defense as to why Sony was in the right?
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The Journalist just replied a guy asking him the exact same question.

Don't know why you got to be so defensive about it.
 
Hailinel

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If there's anything we've learned in the past year, it's that YouTubers are all morally upstanding with integrity beyond reproach.

I may need to see a doctor about a possible sarcasm overdose.
 

Lime

Banned for use of an alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,266
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

jschreier needs to report on this (or kotaku)
 
Patapuf

Patapuf

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,424
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Lol, the stuff in those tweets is hilarious. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
 
Einbroch

Einbroch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,044
Why are large corporations so stupid?

All they had to do was release a press release, say they're looking into it, and move on. A week later, no one would remember, and they'd handle it behind the scenes (or not, but now it's out of the public eye). Now they're potentially blacklisting people for doing good journalistic work and causing more waves.

Just...stupid.
 
Pariah

Pariah

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,945
Puroresu_kid said:
Love how some people are quick to doubt a journalist from a huge reputable newspaper.
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That's an equally dangerous rhetoric. We should not be expected to believe anything a particular author or media publishes, just based on past records or public notoriety. It would be very naive, to think of the mass media as entities without an agenda.

Taller towers have fallen, as some used to say. It doesn't have to apply in this case, but it's good to keep it in mind.
 
StrikeFirst117

StrikeFirst117

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,234
UK NW
Blacklisting someone and pretending everything is fine at QD is some sheer ignorance to see coming from Sony France.
Its disgusting that companies think they can strongarm media outlets because they published an article that exposes one of their partners for what they are, complete and utter scum.
 
StereoVSN

StereoVSN

Member
Nov 1, 2017
13,620
Eastern US
Force_XXI said:
Who hasnt photoshopped their co workers face onto Hitler once or twice? All in good fun. /s
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Man, at my company everyone involved would be fired immediately pending HR investigation. There would be HR emails flying around warning people not to do that immediately afterwards.

I can't understand how that shit happens without repercussions. Then again, I work for a large corp that does a lot of government work so any sort of news like this would be like poison when you start talking future contracts. This is vs a small company (QD, not Sony) where issues stem from the owner on down.
 
Lat

Lat

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,322
Money talks, bullshit walks. As everything in regards to Sony, everyone will forget and praise their work to the heavens. Such is life.
 

fireflame

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,275
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
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It is just saying that Quantic dream got support from a famous youtuber called siphano with 2 millions followers, who is not the most objective person and has interest in defending them. Siphano claims the journalist threw a baseless accusation and just does not like the company.

Siphano is now calling everyone to cooldown and says he will apologize if investigation proves him wrong.He claims to have a reliable source.
 
snapcracken

snapcracken

Member
Oct 25, 2017
619
Chaos2Frozen said:
The Journalist just replied a guy asking him the exact same question.

Don't know why you got to be so defensive about it.
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Cuz in the scenario I laid out, going publicly about it would've meant burning people, and you still wanted it to happen because reasons. The reply he gave was vague enough not to burn anyone. There's a difference between someone who asks him the question just to hear the answer, and someone who asks the question, is explained to by someone else how it could happen/possibly happened, and then still goes ahead and demands the journalist verifies that is what happened.
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,330
Charamiwa said:
Man they are some crazy stories on french twitter right now. Apparently Quantic Dreams knew about the article ahead of time and contacted some influencers (including a big youtuber called Siphano) to tell them that it was bullshit and they needed help. The day the article came out, sure enough Siphano said the whole article was bullshit and was just to get revenge on QD somehow. When finally the plea for help to the influencers was leaked Siphano got a lot of shit and now he went from "it bullshit" to "we don't know, let's wait". He's being ridiculed right now.

https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952854813053718528
https://twitter.com/cafegaming/status/952855367398117376
https://twitter.com/Siphano/status/952851721667121152

If a French member wants to decypher all this and make sense of it that'd be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Good reminder that youtubers are not your friends, they are a brand as any other.
 
Puroresu_kid

Puroresu_kid

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,471
Pariah said:
That's an equally dangerous rhetoric. We should not be expected to believe anything a particular author or media publishes, just based on past records or public notoriety. It would be very naive, to think of the mass media as entities without an agenda.

Taller towers have fallen, as some used to say. It doesn't have to apply in this case, but it's good to keep it in mind.
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Agreed but when people try claiming a journalist is doing it for attention you have to wonder? He doesn't work for www.videogames.com
 
Famassu

Famassu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,186
vereor said:
That person represent the compapny, it doesn't matter if he's just a low level PR or Kaz Hirai himself.
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Sure, but higher-ups could lift the blacklisting once they hear about it. I don't think this is a huge issue so long as someone does so, unless it's actually official policy for Sony to blacklist people for these types of things.

I mean, don't get me wrong, this doesn't reflect well on Sony in any case but that one poster being all "hurr durr, arrogant Sony" was just silly, as if their position in the console market has anything to do with this.
 
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