News Sony decapitates goats to promote God Of War II

That's pretty bizarre and sick, but I have to hand it to Sony, whoever is doing their marketing is a genius. They're in the public eye for pretty much everything now.
Plus, boobies = great.

 

First off: this event happened 2 months ago! Why are we just now hearing about it? Secondly, the event was held in Greece! Greece!! Ok. If anyone knows anything about countries such as these dead goats are "normal". I have been to Spain and France, and if you are shocked and appalled at the dead goat, then go to the Meat Markets there and you'll see all sorts of dead, cut-open animals waiting to be bought and taken home to be eaten. Seriously, this is so stupid. So if it were a pig, then everything would've been "ok", but because it's a goat it's 'wrong'?

Lastly, Joe Martin is the most one-sided Bit-tech journalists I have ever heard when it comes to the PS3/Sony. Whatever kind of bad rep (whether it's stretched for all it's worth like this article for example) he can throw at Sony in order to make them out to be some horrible, money scrounging company, he will try. He has said things such as 'PS3 has never had PS1 BC until the newest update' along with saying that the 360 and Wii have better, more comprehensive BC than PS3 which again is totally biased and can be easily proven wrong.

I agree with Zurechial: Bit-tech should not be a online tabloid, spreading biased one-sided reports before everything is said and done. That is why I am a member of Bit-tech.net. They are and should always be THE place for truthful, two-sided information/reviews/articles/whatever, and it is with articles such as these that I am getting sick and tired and I am expecting something to be done.

Of course, Joe Martin posts the aftermath remarks (in the forums none-the-less) from Sony AFTER he posts the article. It is with these remarks that Sony shows that the article was written by a journalist that never even attended the freaking event. So wtf does he know about what happened? Secondly the publisher even said itself that the article should not be seen as 'fact' or be a representation of what actually occured at the event. Of course Joe posts a picture that anybody can take as being offensive instead of showing more pictures of the event to help sum it all up, like the super hot girls.

Does anyone else agree with me on this that articles like these should not hit Bit-tech until both sides of the story are put together?

 

three words:

Oh
My
Goodness

I'm glad to say that i never liked sony and apparently never will.

 

Cue the next publicity stunt where Sony representatives actually shoot themselves in the feet to get press coverage.

The vegetarian, animal rights activist side of me is slightly outraged... the rest of me is smiling inside that Sony is forced to do this sort of thing to get sales. Desperation much?

 

They got a pre-dead ( ) goat from a local butcher. They didn't butcher it on stage and they didn't torture the animal. No one ever touched actual goat guts.

It was STILL a crazy thing to do. Awesome, and crazy. Lets think about this rationally though.


It was only a dead goat. A goat that was going to be slaughtered and eaten anyway. They didn't have the goat slaughtered just to do this show. Millions of goats are slaughtered every year. It's not that big of a deal.

Besides, there were boobs.

Maybe they shouldn't have used an actual dead goat. I think a prop would have been good enough.

 

what. the. crap. ?

 

Thank God! Somebody who finally is thinking rationally about this whole thing. I mean using a decapitated goat was a little 'out there' and a barbaric, but it's Greece; you see all sorts of slaughtered/gutted animals in the Meat Markets there anyways so it kinda makes sense being a completely different country with different customs and cultural norms.

It is with that said that I think Joe's title is, as usual, way over-biased and over-the-top for what the situation is. I mean the fact that he titled the article "Sony decapitates goats to promote God Of War II" speaks for itself. It's like he's saying Sony decapitated the goat, which is totally untrue considering they bought it pre-decapitated, and that they slaughtered/totured it, which again is not true according to Sony's remarks. He also is making a huge deal out of Ken's retirement being a huge "let down" or something which again is bias in itself since he's now an honorary chairman for Sony which will still allow him to be involved with any future development.

 

Full story here. (Oops, CardJoe already linked it above)

Got the Mail on Sunday going a bit though...

Now they'll have to fall back on the boobies.

 

It's kinda of ironic, people getting outraged over a goat, even sorta hypocritical, I mean, that's nothing compared to the slaughter in Iraq. Friendly fire anyone?

 

No, let's get this straight: that was disgusting, the intention as much as the (apparently incorrectly described) reality. I can't believe that a stupid bloody video game publicity event was conducted this way, and I can't believe you would actually find it laudable.

 

I better deal with this in stages. Be aware I'm also working on a follow-up story to this atm.

Firstly, I think the major issue here is not that the goat was killed - which obviously happens everyday thousands of times so we can eat, but the fact that the event appeared to use the animals death in an inappropriate manner. This was then reported in a magazine that, AFAIK, doesn't have an age restriction on it. Some people obviously object to this.

It's nothing to do with the goat/pig thing. If they'd bought a dead pig on stage then I still would have covered it. Its not to do with what animal it is, it's to do with the animal being there to start with.

Well, to start with I agree I don't like Sony. I can't help that, its a matter of opinion based on how I see they've treated their market as a whole and especially european audiences. Sure, Microsoft screw us over a whole lot too (and you'll find me bitching about Vista as much as Sony) and Nintendo need to sort out their supply lines, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as Sony. Besides, nobody else had a dead goat for an event AFAIK.

As far as BC goes, I continue to think that the 360 and the Wii have better BC than the PS3 seems to have. It's a matter of opinion, which is why I do my best to keep it to the forums rather than frontline press. I know I link to other, relevant, stories of Sonys bad press. But if this were Nintendo, I can promise you I'd do the same thing. I also think its pretty obvious that the Wii has best BC, between VC and complete gamecube support. PS3 BC is something I've not experimented with massively admittedly, but I've only ever pointed out that people seemed to be happy about PS3 BC whereas I would always have expected it as standard.

I'm sorry to hear you think that, honestly. I don't think Bit has become a one-sided tabloid in the month I've worked there. This 'goatgate' as Kotaku have christened it is a massive, notable story in the games community. It had to be reported IMO. I included all details I had at the time and linked to Sonys statement afterwards. As always, I'll try and provide more coverage as new details emerge to ensure that the event is fully covered.

No, I wasn't there at the party but the fact is that Sonys statement only became available to me after the story had run. The story is not intended to imply that I, or any member of Bit, was present. We're merely reporting on a story in the community ATM, using multiple sources such as the Daily Mail, which is linked to.

In regards to the picture, I actually tried to find an image that I thouht would be most appropriate. The picture used is part of a scan of the PS2 mag coverage and I cropped it to show the butcher. I tried to cut out the pointless, pixelated (and this useless to readers) image of the goat as much as possible and I cut out the topless woman because I didn't think that image would do Bits reputation any good, nor would it be suitable for some younger readers.

As always, we at bit both welcome and appreciate your feedback and hope that you'll continue to read. If you've got anything more to say then I'd love to hear it, so PM or email me.

I can assure you that I try to be as balanced as possible in my reporting, giving opinion only where appropriate. The fact that my opinions differ from yours though is something we'll have to live with

 

Best quote in this thread. SIG!

 

Well Joe. I appreciate the reply. It's good to finally hear what you thought of my comments. Personally your opinions will affect many readers and I just feel you need to show as much of both sides as possible as to not change readers' perceptions of something that you would have of course liked it to be (bad rep for Sony). Remember, first impressions of what you post will stick in people's minds even after the issues have been corrected/resolved. I still want you to explain your BC statement on why your think PS3 doesn't offer as good of BC as 360 or Wii considering like 2500+ PS1 and PS2 games are BC with the PS3 and it's growing just as much every day as the 360. I do believe you will show both sides, but I would still try to leave the articles like this open for correction and not make it seem so set in stone. Anyways thanks for the reply and I'll be waiting for yours back.

 

Something M rated happed for the release of an M rated game? Wowowowow need to report this to the press. Sony has surely offended the masses, what with their apparent M rated event for their M rated game.....

 

My opinion of PS3 BC is that they tried to make a big show of it when really, in a world where the two other major consoles already have BC, it was something users were expecting as standard.

Obviously the Wii has the best BC. You can play all the gamecube games on it, plus VC on top of that which deals with a load of even older games.

Since I haven't posted any articles on sonys BC though, it's not really an issue - just an opinion which I have deliberately kept to the forums discussion instead of using it as an excuse to fight with Sony. I've said it before, I'm not against Sony for any real reason - I just disagree with some of their marketting choices lately and feel they treat europeans users badly. No vendetta.

 

People are WAY to sensitive these days. Someone said to me the other day they refuse to buy an Axe to cut trees down because they class it as a weapon.

Cmon, how stupid can you be.