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Sony's Karakker On Turning Around PS3 Buzz
simoniker writes "Sony's new PR boss Dave Karakker has been talking about his challenges handling publicity for the PlayStation 3, explaining how Sony will be switching things up: 'We were allowing media to drive the message for us, and interpret it for us. So allowing someone like Peter Moore, who's a good friend of mine, to stand up there and say negative things about Sony, there wasn't anybody refuting that. People just took that for face value. Now we're very aggressively defending our turf.' He also defend the lack of universal achievements on PS3: 'Frankly, how I view it is I don't care if you're great at Madden if I'm playing you in Resistance. Because that doesn't tell me you're that much better in Resistance. An overall score doesn't really tell me much, it tells me you've spent a lot of time online, it tells me you spend a lot of time playing games, but it doesn't tell me how good you are at a particular game.'" Should be noted that Simoniker is a former Slashdot editor -- also, the AP write-up about reactions to the PS3 is quite positive.
He has coasted around ruining companies and now sony think he is perfect to head up the PS3.
In his own words:
I don't know if I'm the smartest guy in the world, for jumping in two months before launch, or the dumbest guy in the world.
liqbase
When he said "We were allowing media to drive the message..." I thought:
You're right! You actually realized -- you realized that trying to constantly synergize with the media and IP divisions of sony is what's paralyzed the game division! Someone at Sony actually finally understands that you can't spend all your time interacting with other divisions of your company -- you have to interact with what customers want as well!
Then it became clear that he meant 'media' in the 'news media' sense. So I gave up on Sony again.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
While it is expensive, and although Sony have been pretty evil in the past, the fact remains that the PS3 is a very powerful system, with a decent level of brand recognition.
HD support may not be a requirement for many people, but those with HDTV will want some hardware to complement it. Blu-ray might have been a result of pressure from Sony's top level, but the extra capacity is not to be sneezed at.
Early adopters have a lot of money. They can afford the thing. And how often has the most powerful console been a total market failure?
One more failure, amongst many. Sony as a company should simply wiff out of existance. They do not have a single worthy product, nor service.
We're talking about the reactions from people who attended a Sony PR event - people who, for the most part, already love Sony. I'd say reactions from them would be slightly biased at the least.
say that PS3 will be end of Sony but im sure it will not be. all you have to do is go onto a few of PS3 message boards to see that millions are lining up to own one. This guy may or may not help, but even with all of the bad press of late, the PS3 will still be a success.
This guy worked on the 3DO and the Dreamcast! This means that the PS/3 will be the best console of the generation and still die a marketing driven death!
He also worked for Martha Stewart and KMart. So that means their is a good chance that this will end in bankruptcy or jail time.
If Sony was smart they would give Steve Jobs half the stock in the company. He would create a Red PS/3 and give $5 to African Aids research for everyone sold. Bono would hawk it for him and people would get on a six month waiting list to get one.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I made it to page 4 of 5. But the interviewer clearly is more concerned with being a buddy than asking anything interesting or inciteful.
Here's two of his question on the first page:
GS: Sounds fun!
GS: Woah!
and on the second page, he says:
GS: It did seem like there were a number of mis-statements, and this may be a media misperception, but did you have to work to rein people in and make sure they're on message?
Even the Sony guy didn't claim that (and note the spelling error is the web site's not mine)
And then he asks:
GS: Don't take offense to this, but is the system going to be able to hold up to being always on?
Why worry about if he's going to take offense? This is not journalism, this is a fan blog. Don't worry about offended a PR flac... that's his job. Ask questions that mean something... "The console looks impressive, but it's the most expensive. Why do you think gamers will buy it?". Don't pretend all negative buzz is just from people not being on message.
The guy doesn't have to be combative, but he should ask some questions that are hard and that might be interesting to the readership.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
I hope their new PR guy is good. They do have a lot overcome. However, there has been a lot of doom and gloom viral marketing for the PS3 which is not entirely true. Even though I've speculated a lot on /. about Sony's poor choices on the PS3 and how it expect it to hurt their sales, I have also been (finally) seeing more information on their games and their hardware and I'm pretty interested in it. Some of their screen shots are breathtaking.
Was the most controversial, Blu-Ray, the right thing to do? Hmm... I'm still going to say no. However, like I've said in the past, looking at the perspective of adding it or leaving it, I can only defend adding it, all things considered once I think about it...
While I think Sony has been doing things ass-backwards as far as Public Relations and response to the 'shock' of the new system on gamers, they do have room to make amends if they just started being a little more respectful and talking up their system on a positive aspect instead of the "you're n00b!" approach.
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
*drools* dragon force I'd buy a ps3 just so I could play the saturn again...
"NASA's Rollercoaster For Moon Rocket Escape"
Xonk?
An overall score doesn't really tell me much, it tells me you've spent a lot of time online, it tells me you spend a lot of time playing games, but it doesn't tell me how good you are at a particular game
But the gamerscore isn't supposed to fill the role of "how good an opponent is someone," it's to fill the role of providing an official metric for the eternal "my dick's bigger than yours" competition that goes on amongst "hardcore" gamers. And that's a competition that's been going on since arcade denizens started sending Polaroids of their high scores in to gaming magazines.
That's all the gamerscore means, and it's not meant to mean anything else. It's bragging rights by the numbers, and I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that it doesn't matter because it's not a record of how good someone is at a given game.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
1) Piss in the koolaid
2) Relish the fact that no matter what you do your loyal fan base will still throw their salaries at you
3) ????
4) Laugh some more
5) Profit
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
"Now we're very aggressively defending our turf."
Let's see the console launches in a couple of weeks and you're just now going to start defending it?
Brilliant marketing strategy...
After neglecting the Internet space, they've finally realized that there's a lot of unfounded trash talk against the PS3. Microsoft's been very keen at catering to the blogosphere that there are many pro-360 sites which have helped influence the minds of many gamers.
Overpriced? Nope, it's a better value than the XBox 360 when it comes to technology and cost of manufacturing.
Overheating? Nope, it's cooler than the XBox 360.
Shortage? Doesn't take away from the console, just my ability to buy one.
The only thing I can think of that's a legitimate negative for the PS3 is the lack of rumble.
The positives for the PS3 are worth the extra $100 you spend (Premium Xbox 360 vs base PS3):
Free online service
Better form factor
Linux capability
Blu-ray
Motion control
Superior hardware (may take at least a year for developers to take advantage of it though)
It was Linux capability that tipped the scales for me though.
As for rootkit, Lik-Sang and DRM... I think Microsoft's done just as bad w/ their monopoly and it's just as bad with DRM.
The Wii is a great machine too, and I've been recommending it to most people who can't afford the PS3 (or can afford both), and to those who have kids.
Hate to say it, Sony, but your biggest image problem right now isn't coming from the media. It's the retail channel.
I walked into a Gamestop this week, and casually asked about the next-gen systems. The employees there pushed the Wii and the 360 hard, and slammed the PS3.
Why? Because the retail outlets know they will be able to sell a bunch of hardware, software, and accessories for the Wii and the 360. They know that customers who hold out for a PS3 will simply spend the holidays on a waiting list, and not spend any cash at the store.
Sony's shipping projections for the PS3 are shrinking every week, and the retailers don't see any reason to bend over for Sony at this time.
Having gone through many console launches, it is amazing to see how the vast majority of the PS3 FUD is almost word for word/cut n paste six year old PS2 FUD.
And we all know how that worked out six years ago...
Right about now is when all the pre-launch FUD starts to fade away as people get first hand experience with the console and the room for wild FUD claims goes away and the FUD turns to bitter, almost self pitying, posts and stories about how Sony is once again fooling gamers 'with teh Sony Hype and Lies' as Playstation console fly off the shelves.
The only thing that is really different this time for Sony is the bitterness is ramped up a notch. There is a decent number of people that have been praying for Sony to fail for a decade now. Dreamcast fans. Xbox fans. And now Xbox 360 fans. All looking yet again at Sony dominating another console generation(execept in Japan where it will probably be pretty close between the Wii and PS3).
The Rubik's Cube exploding is pretty cool, but the crying doll is just... whack.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
It's apparent that Dave Karakker hasn't read The Cluetrain Manifesto. Or he's read it and doesn't care. I hate spin, marketese, the corporate arrogance and belief that I can't understand something without a marketroid to interpret for me. Sony doesn't have a clue, really.
Sony could take a leaf out of Snakes on a Plane's book and let the hype engine sell it. Christ, I could sell the PS3 myself by getting 1 single full page advert in a newspaper and writing the following:
PlayStation 3
November 17 2006
And that's it.
Summation 2
All I know about Sony's ad campaign for the PS3 is that the ad featuring the naked baby doll is really freaky (especially the expressions on its face when it laughs), yet also has a strong 2001: A Space Odyssey homage feel.
I love that ad.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
and pay and pay for that on-line component? It's an added "incentive" for you to give them your money, because they track your "on-line time" and give you a score for it that you can "feel good about"--it's all marketing.
People are complaining that Sony is basically pissing in the Kool-Aid and no matter what they do, everybody will still throw money at them (not disagreeing, just observing). The same thing happened with Nintendo back in the days of the NES and early SNES. In fact, they turned Sony down when they were developing the CD addon for the SNES back in the early 1990s, a decision that directly lead to Sony reworking that project as the original PlayStation console. Quite the reversal we've got going on here! Does this mean Sony is also in for a shock of some kind in the near future?
I like to think of online DRM as something akin to a college -- you pay for lessons until you learn something.
everyone has to admit that because of the higher price point and low supply the PS3 is (likely) going to sell poorly in 2006 and through the first half of 2007;
By definition you cannot sell poorly if you are selling every unit you make.
Now poor profits, that is another matter - lowered production rates will hurt them in terms of profitability until they can catch up with demand. But no-one I think expects that units will be languishing on the stores this Christmas.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You used the word "SYNERGISE" in your post, it is slashbots highly trained opinion that you are a PHB.
Please dont visit again.
Slashbot.
Have you people ever even heard of MICROSOFT? You know, the company that dupes all of its users into buying their software for extraordinary prices and then forces them to only use other software they produce with it?
Windows XP Pro costs $200. You need that to run your PC. It's either Windows or Linux and most people opt for the former and shell out the $$$ for it.
Microsoft is the company that forces all its software upon you when you purchase a Dell or an HP. They're the company that makes you agree to an EULA simply by opening the packaging to read the EULA you've just committed to. You never even read it? How can that work? You can't even view the EULAs on Microsoft's website without searching deep into the network. Microsoft is the company that makes all its software (Windows, IE, Office) work very well together but provides security holes for hackers to destroy your machine with.
Microsoft is the company that fought an Antitrust lawsuit in America and in Europe. An Antitrust Lawsuit means they were accused of essentially being an Evil Empire but now everyone is so quick to forget about this and lash at the throat of SONY who did nothing but give you all the Playstation 2.
Sony put some game importer out of business.
Microsoft has put countless software companies out of business or bought them out.
Sony is pricing the Playstation 3 at ~$600.
Microsoft will be charging about half as much for Windows Vista which is just a piece of Software.
Sony has made a lot of mistakes in the past year, but this is no reason to jump onto the Microsoft Bandwagon because if you look at the big picture Microsoft has always been an Evil Empire and Sony is just having some problems.
The problem with some PS3 commercials is that you aren't sure whether they are trying to sell you a BlueRay player or gaming machine? I say this because a number of the adverts I have seen seem to have the whole gaming experience a distant second to its ability to use BluRay disks.
The other thing I have noticed is when going into gaming stores and talking to the sales clerks: some of them are wanting to buy the PS3 to sell on eBay, but would rather have the Wii!? I want the Wii too, but it seriously needs some more high quality RPGs, such as those from Square-Enix.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Wasn't he in Street Fighter II :)?
With all the bad press and near disasters surronding the PS3 development, I was becoming more and more sceptical as to wether I shouldn't just get a Wii instead.
Until, that is I went into my favorite game store today to pick up Liberty City Stories. The store had started their PS3 promo, with big signs saying "Coming Spring 2007: PS3" and lots of pretty posters and whatnot. None of that impressed me, but:
In the center was a very good 50" HDTV rolling demo footage. The game in question was MetalGear 4. Nice! So I got closer... and closer... and closer...
In the end, the screen filled my entire field of vision. I still couldn't see any pixels, edges or blurring. The detail was jaw-dropping. That's when I suddenly noticed a caption at the top right.
Demo only, not full PS3 resolution.
In other words, once you see what the PS3 can do on a good display, you'd never buy a Wii. Perhaps a XBox360, but lets face it, to make things look good at that resolution you need a metric shitload of textures, and the PS3 can fit 50 GB of data onto a single disc.
Conclusion: seeing is believing. I'll get three, please.
Ps: You will also need extremely deep pockets. PS3 + TV to make it shine will cost you at least $4000.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
"An overall score doesn't really tell me much, it tells me you've spent a lot of time online, it tells me you spend a lot of time playing games, but it doesn't tell me how good you are at a particular game."
You know what? I -prefer- to play 360 games over PS2 and PC games BECAUSE of that score. It's the ONLY lasting recognition that I played a game. Besides that, when I look at the 1000-point gamescores, I generally remember the pain I had to go through to get to the top like that... And I remember it fondly. When I complete a PS2 game, the pain is usually the same, but there's nothing afterwards.
This is completely aside from the fact that I'm what I call a 'collector.' I always feel the need to collect things, but rarely strong enough to make an actual collection of something physical. These points fill a need for me, as sad as it may seem.
It's gotten to the point that I refuse to cheat on 360 games because it'll mess up my gamer score. Those points would not have been 'me'.
Sony misses all of this. They refuse to admit that gamers may have a different view of things than journalists and corporate executives. I can't believe they can be so blind.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
So when Sony execs were running around for the past year making bone-headed statements that were so easily disproven it made President Bush look like an idiot savant, they weren't trying to craft the message about the PS3??? I fear for this guy, and the pile of crap he has stepped into. I fear what the PS3 marketing will look like now that they are *really* trying.
Thanks Trout, I needed a complete and total diversion from anything relevant, and you heeded the call.
DK: Yeah, for us it's apples and oranges when you compare the PS3 with Wii. They've done a great job of saying exactly who they're going after, the casual gamer, the hardcore gamer, and we've said exactly who we're going after. And you can't, when you put the systems side by side technologically, and even price-wise, they just don't compare to each other.
Okay, in reality, PS3 is going after every gamer. Just like the Wii (and 360). Sure, Nintendo is trying to reach out to people who wouldn't normally game, and making it much easier for them to start. That's nice and all, but what all three companies are targeting is your time, on your TV. HD or not. Every time I see this BS about not being able to compare one system with another it gets me kind of steamed. They're all entertainment devices over the same medium. That's the bottom line. They are apples and apples every time.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Sure the interviewer was not asking "deep questions", at least at the start - but you have to at least admit the context of one of those questions made the remark reasonable:
So from Access I went to work at Allied Domecq, which used to be the world's biggest liquor company. So they own brands like Stoli, Beefeater, Maker's Mark, Kahlua, and also Dunkin Donuts, Baskin-Robbins, and Togo's, but I just worked on Spirits of North America. But then that company got bought out by a French company, and they laid off everybody here in the United States.
GS: Woah!
See? All of the sudden the reaction seems pretty natural. Bought out by a french company and laid off everyone - whoa!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://www.slate.com/id/2152794/fr/rss/
His conclusion. Can't wait for a Wii.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
let me know when krakken has something to say.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
When Sony infected already nonstandard, DRM-laden CDs with rootkits, neutered potentially useful formats with DRM, and saddled the PS3 with BluRay in order to attempt to use its leverage in the games console market to gain marketshare in the HD DVD (note space) market, its customers got the message loud and clear - they don't really matter. The people that make the content at Sony are the ones who mater, even at the risk of neutering Sony's hardware business.
The PS3 could be successful and have better buzz despite Sony's business practices and their arrogance and near-contempt for their consumers if the PS3 had been either cheap enough (no BluRay) or available enough (so retailers could be assured of selling systems and games for the holidays) - instead they managed to hose both their retailers and customers. And, of course, instead of making things better for their customers and retailers, they instead try to explain why it's all in their heads. Mmmkay.
the PS3 lights itself on fire and the DRM-enhanced Blu-Ray laser goes on a rampage to kill all humans in the vicinity.
...
I'm sure it will work.
Or you could realize the well is poisoned quite deeply, and that trying to spin things will make the fire grow that much higher
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Once Sony's gaming division goes bankrupt, Nintendo will most likely be bought out by Microsoft, and we will all finally be able to bask in the glory of the greatest software company that ever existing having a monopoly in yet another market! All hail Microsoft!
This guy worked on the 3DO and the Dreamcast! This means that the PS/3 will be the best console of the generation and still die a marketing driven death!
He also worked for Martha Stewart and KMart. So that means their is a good chance that this will end in bankruptcy or jail time.
Don't forget, he also spun the Heidi Fleiss defense in the media. I guess that means they'll be hanging out in Vegas jails after the PS3 fails.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
It seems to me that all the negative press surrounding the PS3 is largely due to it's price, and due to the fact that the average fanboy teenager can't afford it. While I too believe it's a pricey console, the box itself offers a lot of features that I've been waiting for as a gamer for a long time:
Hard drive standard - every PS3 comes with an hard disk, which means every developer can develop for it without excluding anyone.
No region encoding for games - THIS IS HUGE! Have we as gamers not been waiting for this since the beginning? It's finally here! We don't have to wait for marketing departments to choose what we may or may not like in a foreign game; it's all ours.
Card reader - hellooooo homebrew. While homebrew isn't officially supported, this makes it much easier.
Blu-Ray - 50GB discs allow for an obscene amount of storage.
But does it run Linux? Yea, supposedly it will, which means even more homebrew goodness.
While everything I've stated doesn't guarantee great games, it seems to me like they've made it so that this system has a bunch of potential.
Sony needs to capitalize more on their music and movie assets and less on their high profile failures. Most of the attention is on a small number of high profile failures, despite the fact that Sony has had the most successful movie and music releases of our time.
Yes, I've seen the comic before (VGCats and Penny arcade are really the only online comics I read regularily)- it's saying exactly what I said. Sales will be good, but profits will be poor until they can ramp up production.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm guessing that the baby is crying because the parents can no longer afford clothes or an education for the child after purchasing the PS3.
Work Safe Porn
Kilgore Trout is a known spammer. Do NOT click any of his links unless you want more mindless tripe like that to be posted on slashdot.
Todays lesson: Turning a negative into a positive
PS3: 'Frankly, how I view it is I don't care if you're great at Madden if I'm playing you in Resistance. Because that doesn't tell me you're that much better in Resistance. An overall score doesn't really tell me much, it tells me you've spent a lot of time online, it tells me you spend a lot of time playing games, but it doesn't tell me how good you are at a particular game.'" A+
Could you guys like maybe get together on xboxlive.com (or wherever y'all hang out when there's not a console story on slashdot) and decide as a group whether you want to use the "PS3 will suck because it's harder to program than the 360" argument or the "PS3 will suck because it's the exact same processor as the 360 but more expensive" argument? The current situation where you have people making both contradictory arguments in every debate just makes all 360 fans look dumb.
I'm guessing that the baby is crying because the parents can no longer afford clothes or an education for the child after purchasing the PS3.
That is a funny cynical take on it. I like the way you think.
But I didn't think of it that way; I went more darkly cynical: if you look at what is reflected in its eyes--pretty much entirely explosions from violent games--and how the tears get sucked back up into its eyes, it's almost a commentary on how kids are getting desensitized to violence and that video games are replacing family, beyond babysitter to surrogate parent. (And it gives kids telekinetic abilities.)
Which is clearly not the message they intend to convey, much like the quickly pulled TiVo ad which narcs on its owner's nudism to his date who flees when she sees what's in his Now Playing list before he can emerge from the kitchen naked with a cake.
But from another ad featuring a Rubik's Cube, it seems it is more depicting a lab experiment pitting the toys of old against the PS3 to show how the new product is superior: the baby doll wants it (calls it "mama"), the Rubik's Cube explodes to cover the room in color. That's probably the concept they wanted to get across, but the baby doll one is so insane I expect it to go viral by itself outside of the context of the ad campaign; its successful for all the wrong reasons.
Compare the new Head On ads of the form, "I hate your ad, but I love your product." They're trying too hard to ride their infame.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
in the console market, there are only 4 options (one being the pc). You simply can't take the farari approach to marketing, because the biggest sell point is the games available. To get a large library of games, you simply must have a huge install base. The problem being that the average consumer isn't going to buy the most expensive console out there. And where the average consumer goes with console money is where the games will be. ps3 will essentially be a paperweight. a $600 paperweight.
In fact, this is a major reason why I'm no longer excited about the ps3. Yes it looks great. The games announced for it sound good. But when the dust settles on the next console wars, most of the games will have either switched consoles or have gone multi-console because the ps3 is essentially priced out of the reach of most people buying a console. The average consumer walking into best buy or gamestop will see a used Xbox360 for $300, and if they can find any at all, the ps3 is twice that. Wii at $250 is even less. So 90% of the people walking in wanting a ps3 (assuming that in a parralel universe it was reasonable to assume you could find one), will walk out with the competitions console.
So Long, Sony.
Finally someone making sense. The fact is all of these posters claiming Sony only prospers due to blind fanboys are for the most part die hard Xbox fanboys/Sony haters. Please give it a rest. I own all 3 consoles from the last gen and for the most part I am happy with all of them. However there is no denying that Sony and their PS2 have given me the most amount of overall entertainment and will also support said generation for the longest period of time. Not only that but if you want a high end next gen rig what other options do you have? IMO, PC is about it. The 360 is just not a true next gen console imho. Nintendo will give you next gen gameplay innovation with the Wii and Sony has you covered with next gen hardware and media. Microsoft has given us Xbox 1.5 at a pretty hefty price in it's own right. I for one will pick up a Wii this Xmas for the family while also continuing to play plenty of great titles at budget prices on PS2/Xbox. When I have the money to burn I will probably pick up a PS3. The 360 is just a huge letdown if you ask me. I was at E3 2005 and was incredibly hyped for the release. However at this point things have been incredibly disappointing and I don't think there will be any drastic change. Gears of War will come out and be great but it won't be enough. Come this time next year the PS3 will be blowing the Xbox out of the water.
What should we sentence the White House to? Termite infestation? Maybe we could get the British to burn it again and start over. What did a building ever do to you, though?
Demo only, not full PS3 resolution
you're obviously a rather naive fellow, so allow me to explain that that is marketdroid doublespeak for this is not how the game will really look.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Well I *did* make it to page 5/5, but it sure was hard going. Unfortunately it was as bad or worse than any previous Sony "PR" on PS3.
Dave Karakker is a complete moron, that much is clear. He can't understand the topic being discussed but drifts around in a world of his own, he answers "Yeah" when he means "No", and he talks like a 13-year old. The only thing he is wonderfully competent at is saying absolutely nothing. The zero-content man.
I can't imagine why a company in deep PR trouble would hire this person. Very very odd. They sure have a death wish.
I have every model of Playstation ever produced at home, yet Sony has been unable to interest me in a PS3 so far. They must be doing something very very very very wrong.
MS has lost Billions trying to get a foothold in the console business. The economics of "slight" loss leader console make money on games has been turned into "loose money for 5+ years" by a company(MS) that can afford to loose as much money as it wants to drive Nintendo and Sony out of the market.
This assault of the Market is paid for by windows and office.
Ultimately this is bad for the whole business as a whole. I suspect Nintendo will be the first out, (unless they can inovate there way to some profits like apple computer).
The bastards, doing their job.
How dare they.
That tells me all what I need to know about the new "PR" person...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.