Interviews// Bethesda Softworks Peter Hines

SPOnG: Why do you think the blogosphere seems to be so down on Sony? With a lot of gaming websites seemingly taking every opportunity to knock Sony for the slightest reason right now…

Pete Hines: I don't think it's necessarily a Sony thing. I think when you see a little bit of smoke, then you tend to get a lot of people running in that direction shouting fire! I mean, Sony clearly had some bumps in the road getting the console out. And certainly, you have a certain group of fans - namely the Xbox fans - who are going to take any opportunity to knock the other guys at Sony and say "our console's better"…But at the end of the day, it's the internet. You have to take most of it with a very large pinch of salt… anything you read or hear on the internet.

SPOnG: With that in mind, on the one hand there are numerous pretty good websites and blogs out there… and plenty of good, so-called citizen journalists and whatnot, but then on the other side you have loads of far less reputable sites, dressed up as 'professional' journalism…

Pete Hines: Absolutely. It is a problem that we see a lot. Folks passing themselves off as journalists, who don't act as journalists. They'll run and print anything they hear from anybody as news purely in an effort to try and scoop the other guy because, as you said, there are now all these 'citizen reporters' and so they're always trying to get the drop on the other guy… putting out some piece of information first.

And it doesn't seem to matter in many cases whether they've taken the words out of context, or twisted somebody's meaning or just completely missed the point altogether. So, y'know, it is an issue and - going back to my previous point - you have to take pretty much everything you read on the internet with regards to what's actual and what's the reality with regards to this game, or this platform or whatever with a pinch of salt because of that.

SPOnG: So it almost becomes like a game in itself for many online reporters - chasing each other around in circles....

Pete Hines: It absolutely does, yes.

SPOnG: Which must be infuriating for companies such as your own, that have legions of hardcore fans, who are keen to know the latest news?

Pete Hines: Yeah, well, mostly you know it's just difficult. You could spend your whole life doing nothing but dispelling rumours and squashing misinformation. But its endless, as you said, it's almost like a game.

So, if you get into the business of trying to dispel every time a rumour pops up or when somebody invents something then that's all you'll end up doing [laughs]. So, you really have to almost rise above it and let that swirl down below and then pick and choose the moments where you're going to step in and say this isn't true, or this is the reality or whatever - 'cause otherwise you would be constantly commenting on invented rumours that weren't true. It gets ridiculous.

SPOnG: So, you basically just ignore the bottom feeders?

Pete Hines: You just take it all in and you figure out when something is beginning to swirl up and present a problem, and if so you address it. Otherwise you let it swirl down there until it fizzles itself out.