Ben-DutkaFirst of all, we'll make this very clear: we are making no statements or comments concerning Kotaku's perceived bias. This is merely a report based on the recent blowup concerning a supposedly doctored Gran Turismo 5 video that has led to Sony fans questioning the major site's objectivity.
It all started with a GT5 video posted at Kotaku that put some extremely long load times on display. Immediately, however, some viewers noticed a few inconsistencies, which in turn raised the first questions concerning the possibility that Kotaku fiddled with the video in order to portray GT5 in a negative light. Then, gamers everywhere began to argue and discuss, which resulted in more articles, like the one at Game Newser that essentially calls out Kotaku for its perceived slant against Sony. The article mentions several recent articles on GT5, including "Europe's GT5 Collector's Edition Is Insanely Expensive" and "So Gran Turismo 5 Isn't Done Yet." We actually saw the latter but as the content of the article didn't appear to mean much of anything, we didn't consider it newsworthy. As for the other headline…well, one could argue for an obvious bias but we have to be fair; Kotaku is often unorthodox when assigning titles to their articles.
The problem is that many gamers around the web are starting to connect this new development with ongoing whispers that Kotaku has always held a bit of a grudge against Sony and the PlayStation 3. Many have posted up examples of this evident slant in forums all over the Internet and we do remember some of our readers making similar claims about Kotaku in the past. But again, we make no accusations and offer no commentary. We'll let you guys handle that.
It's kind of annoying that any news source would have a bias in any particular direction. (With the exception of certain things like an Apple site reporting on Microsoft, you need to expect bias there) I honestly hope that they didn't doctor anything, but by the looks of it, someone did. The people in the reflection seem to move slower and the shaking of the camera is much slower than it should be. Although if you check the Kotaku article in question (http://kotaku.com/5608849/video-shows-gran-turismo-5-has-painfully-slow-load-times) you would see that they posted an update.
"Update 2: We asked Sony about the theories that the video has been doctored to show slower load times. A spokesperson told us that no one on the GT5 product team in the U.S. had witnessed load times as slow as the one depicted in the video posted here. Has the video been altered? Was there something up with that build of GT5 that day? Does the game load its tracks that slowly? We can point to this video, cited by readers, of another pre-release version of the game loading the Nurburgring track more quickly. But we cannot confirm if the video has been altered."
Also the video that they link to is put up by Youtube user "RyukaseDVolco". If you go to that users page (http://www.youtube.com/user/RyukaseDVolco), they have a link to http://www.gt5rs.com/, a GT5 fansite, which may mean that the video isn't doctored. Also the fact that Kotaku didn't post the video may partially exonerate them.
so basically they threw up their arms and claimed that they didnt need journalistic integrity? they essentially said that it wasnt their responsibility to make sure that the videos they post are real, which is absolutely false
@Mackidd
If I was to assume that they have some kind of integrity, then I have to conclude that they are quite simply lazy and irresponsible to post a n article based on a video that they had not viewed. Talk about not doing your research…
If they had viewed the video before linking or posting to it and writing their little biased diatribe then they would not have put the article up because the video is so very clearly wrong.
On the other hand if I don't think they have any integrity (which I do not) then I would conclude that they had viewed the video. They therefore had to know that it was artificially slow, and that at very least they were posting nothing more than a journalistic troll. The whole point of the article was to flame GT5 for being so slow, so it's evident that they did in fact watch the video, but could not stop themselves from being idiots and flaming GT5 despite the video clearly being slower than it should be.
All in all, I don't believe any of their weasel worded excuses. It's clear to me (and any reasonable viewer) that the video was wrong, so why publish the story if you're not trying to generate hits and controversy? Kotaku is a very adversarial site, they like controversy, it generates lots of hits.
Aye, Kotaku is right up there with Destructoid for me in being an attention-seeking pile of flamebait. I very, very rarely visit either site, and usually it's just to check that "they really did what?!!!", and usually they unfortunately really did.
Its very obvious the video is slowed down, the reflections of visitors on the tv shows that. Unless of course that's how people move while waiting for GT5 to load!!!
yup, those folks are either all high or moving in slow motion.
Yeah, I just watched the video and there is a link on Youtube with the original and the guy who put it up has now added subs to state just that. Everyone is moving in slomo and it is obviously faked. How could Kotaku put that up and not even notice something as simple as that and then say that the other video they linked could possibly have been faked? I've never really had too much of a problem with that site but this is pretty blatant.
Now I am going back into hiding. Bye.
@World
That's not how people who are high move! That's how people appear to move to someone that is high!
Then either they are in slo mo or I'M high.
Kotaku has always been a 360-fanboy site so no news there. It doesn't surprise me at all that they would try to make one of the biggest games of the generation out to be less than it is just for being PS3 exclusive.
Watch out for Destructoid too. They're SOO terrible about it, it isn't funny. Ever notice how 360 news gets bumped to the top of the pile, and when you read a PS3 story, it has a link for "More Xbox 360 stories".
I just don't pay any attention to these sites. Eventually people figure it out and they change their ways or lose all their readers.
Every now and then I go to Destructoid for a laugh, I gotta tell ya it's hard to find a PS3 game above a 2 or 3. And that guy writing the articles is the most immature piece of crap in the world. It's HARD to get writing jobs, and they pay that joker?
True. He gave Heavy Rain a 7/10.
Jim Sterling? Yeah he's a joke. He makes up for a lack of writing skill by using obscene language and appealing to 360 fanboys bias. People talk about him like he's a god. I just don't get it.
Regardless of what Kotaku says, I saw GT5 in 3D at Lollapalooza over the weekend and it was fu**ing incredible! Tell Kotaku to have a slow load of that! 😀
Lol Troy Powers…
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
This is no news to me
It was evident since 2006/2007 that-that website was ran by a bunch of immature adults with an agenda in mind.
They probably spent a lot of money on getting their rank up high.
Visiting that site is like visiting a dumpster, full of ****
GT5 will slam down the competition in November whether Americans buy it or not *shrug*
I wasn't gonna make one comment on this article, but you just made another comment worth praising.
**praise** **praise**.
This American has the game pre-ordered on Amazon.
haha well you'll definitely never find any bias against the ps3 here
Not mindless bias anyway, but if the PS3 version of a game sucks, you'll hear about it.
Unlike Kotaku, this is a site solely for the Playstation in all it's incarnations. Even still you don't hear us, well not me cause I do, rant about MS's short comings
p.s. Microsoft is ruining gaming
@Tomm
You certainly find bias from readers, but you're less likely to find bias for the sake of bias from the editor and other writers.
Obviously, as a Playstation site, it talks Playstation news. That's not bias though. Why would a Playstation Magazine or Website fill its pages with XBOX news? Again, that's not bias.
It would be bias if this site reported on a number of news items from numerous systems, and then prioritized a certain system over another for unknown reasons…
Afterall, this site has on a number of occasions made known if a PS3 version is worse than the 360 counterpart. Any regular would know that.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 8/11/2010 9:50:35 AM
If, and it's a big if, something like this was posted here, I believe that not only would many in the commenting community spot the flaw and say so, but the editor would more than likely pull the article and publish an apology/ retraction/ correction instead. See the thing is, it's not really about whether the video was wrong, or even tampered with, it's about why the posted it, and how they've reacted since it was so publicly noticed as wrong. Their reaction has not been to retract, or apologize. They have sought to muddy the waters further instead of clearing them.
So, I read this this morning over on Kotaku actually, and I immediately emailed Brian Crecente (Editor-in-Chief) at Kotaku, and had a rather brief back and forth with him.
He was actually out of the office when he first responded, but said his Deputy Totilo Stephen, would look into it (After he said I may be overstating things).
I've yet to get a response from either of them, but, I'm certainly glad this terrible, terrible bit of journalism is being noticed on other sites as well.
Good call Ben.
By the way, Mr Crecente made a point of stating, and I quote:
"Do keep in mind that if the video was tinkered with, it wasn't done so by us."
I attempted to go to GTrs, the French Site Brian Ashcroft stated that he'd gotten the clip from. But, as the entire site was in french, I couldn't really find what I was looking for.
Last edited by Mornelithe on 8/10/2010 10:11:57 PM
My comment is still pending moderator approval, but if you look click on the video you will see that it wasn't uploaded by Kotaku, but a GT5 fansite, like you stated. Kotaku even addressed this in there article and linked to a video without the slow-mo.
If you read what I wrote, I mention exactly that. Try reading more than just the first two or three sentences.
Doesn't matter really if they made the video, uploaded it or what, truth is they posted it on their site as a honest reflection of the game, which it obviously was not.
Exactly Kraygen, and that's exactly the point I made to Mr. Crecente, the second that video was noticed as tampered with, they should've yanked the entire article, since it completely blew the point of the article, out of the water.
It also speaks volumes, as to the lengths that Mr. Ashcroft (the man who wrote the piece), will go to verify his information, research and analysis he performs etc..
Such hostility. I did read your comment multiple times. I was simply reiterating what you said and also saying that I said what you said in the second post, my comment is still "Pending Moderator Approval" for some reason.
Wow, I'm sorry I totally read your response wrong man. This issue has my blood pumpin' lol. Seriously though, my bad.
The article shouldn't exist anymore. That's the problem. There is no point to the article, it's entire existence is actually a lie. What really irks me, though, is that they have this HUGE By-line, bemoaning the loading times of GT5, with a tiny 'update' at the bottom that recognizes there 'may' be a discrepency, but still encourages you to question it altogether.
They may have changed it by now, I'm not entirely sure. Definitely fired an email to their editor tho, and made sure he knew wtf was going on.
It's okay, don't sweat it. I personally like some of the stories on Kotaku and read them every day. While I think that they should have watched the video a bit more carefully and this particular editor may have jumped at the chance to make GT5 and possibly Sony look bad, I still think that it shows something when they update the story twice to address concerns. I do agree with you that the story is unnecessary, but what really intrigues me is the source. The video comes from a French GT5 fansite, why would they try to make GT5 look bad?
@Mackid1993:
Thanks for being a good sport, totally pulled a di** move and glad we got it squared away.
I agree it's odd that the a French GT website would have that, however, I honestly wonder exactly how the clip was advertised, as I said I don't speak/read French, so I couldn't check myself, but that is mighty peculiar.
It does show something, you're right, hwoever I still don't think there's any point in even having the article up anymore. Just that by-line popping up in searches is bad enough.
I also go to Kotaku on ocassion to read their articles, I've had issues with them in the past, and also enjoyed some of their writing in the past. But, this was simply unacceptable behavior, and I expect more out of writers.
There's little to no chance anybody at Kotaku put that video up without noticing the obvious issue with the video…which can only lead me to one conclusion. That's all I'll say.
@ Ben: My thoughts exactly, I can't think of any excuse where you'd simply not notice the clear signs of slo-mo, to say nothing of the timer.
Exactly, anyone with half a brain could judge the authenticity of that video after watching it just once.
So there are 2 possible reasons for this. The article was written by someone who was intentionally biased, or by someone who is lazy and stupid. Chances are it is the first one.
@ Mackid1993: Or all of the above 😉
I see we have some spammers running over here to say their piece.
Me?
Kotaku stinks and only losers with no life would even bother reading the daily garbage out of their keyboards. The fact that they consider themselves "journalists" is laughable. They are just a bunch of hacks who can't write taking advantage of the Idiocracy with their ugly eyesore of a website. Biased or not, their website doesn't deserve to be successful. Also, many of these hacks are total jerks because of their success.
Wow, the lengths that people will go to, to try and make a ps3 game look bad is ridiculous. The fact that people are this obsessed with trying to make the 360 look better than ps3 is absurd.
I guess it goes to show you that some people never grow up and get a life. I would rather just acknowledge that a game is good or bad based on its own merits regardless of system, but apparently that's not the case for kotaku.
Why on earth would anyone hate on Gran Turismo, even my most MS brainwashed friend has nothing but respect for it
To be honest I think Kotaku does have a problem with Sony and the PS3, maybe beacause of the whole leak ordeal awhile back. Kotaku used to be a site visited regularly for my news but after awhile it got annoying how the ps3 was always put done so I stopped going, like at gaming conventions they'd always believe majority of ps3 games would go multiplat and never really predict positive things for the system.
I mean if your a grown man playing fanboy instead of being a mature journalist I can go to far better places, namely here:)
Cause though we like the ps3 we also give credit to the other systems for their games and other things they have.
Often times, I have to dissect Kotaku's slant from the news they're reporting.
I think it has more to do with money then fanboyism. Microsoft drops alot of Ad revenue at Kotaku. My belief is that to keep their biggest cashcow happy. They slant their reviews towards the 360.
sorry about the multi posts. My javascript seems to hate me for some reason. >.>
Cool avatar, GuardianMode.
Somewhat similar to your thoughts, it really bothers me when I see IGN's advertising plastered all over the Xbox 360's dashboard. I have a hard time fully trusting a media network who's in bed with the product they're advertising on….
I had no idea how low they were. This has pretty much shocked me, I'm quite done with these blatant stabs at the ps3.
is there even a trailer, not fmv cutscenes of in game action of the game? i question whether it looks that good. not so much grand turismo, but how many motorstorm games are they going to create before they make a sequel to heavenly sword. THAT game could probably give the gow series a run for it's money.as for as this generation, i think gow series is done. i know i know, it's coming out for the psp (whatever). besides infamous, what other ps3 exclusive action game does ps3 have not including 1st or 3rd person shooter? hate to change the subject, but will white knight chronicles 2 have a release date before christmas of this year?
Go over to GTPlanet.com, they have tons of footage, in-game, in-cockpit, lap replays etc..
Most if not all the footage we have seen is of ingame.
Yes. GT5 Looks.That.Good.