Josh Robinson's blog on PS3/XBOX360

I'm going to go against all the dev posters on here and say that I'm not sure he's breaking an NDA here.

As an artist for a large company he's likely not under a specific PS3 NDA from Sony, so it'll be covered by whatever NDA he signed when he started working at SOE.

As far as I can see the only piece of "information" in the blog is that SOE is working on a PS3 game, the rest is just opinion and hear say. Assuming that fact was already public, it's likely not a breach. He is likely breaching company policy, since they wouldn't want individuals commenting on product without goint through PR.

Of course that doesn't make posting it very smart.

 

Just in case someone still cares

He's no more a SOE employee.

 

Is that verified? Wow.

 

Just to clarify, -no more- as in "since he wrote this" or as in "for awhile now, he was BS'ing us all".

 

Guys, what an entertaining thread.

I've just read it from beginning to end over the last hour.

Great story arc, especially the beginning with the validation of the guys credentials and then the ending, which you could see coming but was still satisfying.

The best bit is having actual PS3 developers drop little hints.

I read the same thread on GAF, but it was missing the credibility of real developers. This is what makes B3D so good.

 

Guys there are those that may feel this guy had it coming, but still let's not take pleasure in the misfortunes of others. When we are long-bored with PS3... and even PS4, this dude may still be suffering in the workforce due to these events here. Not saying that he shouldn't have been a little more careful - he should have - but let's put into perspective what the Internet is capable of doing to an individuals life and reputation these days.

 

It was a good story. Rather humorous at times, a tear to be shed here and there, and, at the end, the "bad guy" lost!

On a more serious note, I'm curious as to whether he did break his NDA (as ERP mentioned) or if he was just canned out of his remarks against his employer (and saying, what amounts to, the game is likely to be crap).

I guess it doesn't matter so much, really.

 

yeah but same for me - i´m reading here since ages but haven´t got any new news to contribute. i really like it here. well - hi to everyone.

 

Assuming he didn't break any NDAs, and even if he did, let's assume that it was purely by accident and could be forgiven (as he clearly didn't think he broke any).

What is amazingly stupid on his part is to criticize his employer and his current project, in a very public place. He IS asking to be fired for that. I cannot really feel bad for someone who does something as silly as that; it's very much common sense that, regardless of your feelings towards a company (if negative), you keep them to yourself if you want to keep that job. At very least you quit, get another job, and then talk about your previous employer (maybe he was in the process of doing that? or maybe hes just a bit daft). Regardless, this little spinoff of the thread's real topic (which ended up far more entertaining than the actual article's information itself) is one of those completely pointless things to talk about (it's the only thing I commented on I think, so I'm just as guilty as anyone).

I do sort of feel bad for him that he probably thought he was fine posting it, and likely went without any sort of recourse from his employer until now. All it took was some rumor mongerer to find the story and send it to some other sites to post. If we didn't have clowns searching the internet for anything sensational to post everywhere (I'm looking in your direction, OA/system wars) then he'd likely still have his job, even if he is of questionable integrity (employee wise).

 

edit: in response to zidane1strife:

Well, you are making a rather specific statement that only Cell could render yada yada yada. Is it proven that the XeCPU could not handle that as well, for one?

 

I agree it's bad if he's suffered as a result. Maybe he wasn't smart enough to know what he said was stupid, but if he's good at his job it seems a shame to be punished purely as a culprit of being unable to adapt to the information age.

Vysez : Can I ask where you get your info on this matter? Or is that NDA'd too?

 

Shi* I don't feel bad for this cat at all. I mean we all saw it coming. It's the biggest bone head thing to do. Has he seen any other Sony related devs doing the samething? Come on man the guy deserved it. At least the PS3 devs here drop little hints, educate, and tell little funny jokes that normal people won't understand.

 

pre-post edit: Oh I get it now, by saying cell alone I meant it as in cell doing it all by itself without the rsx/gpu help, though that may or may not be right. I might've recalled incorrectly.

That's not my point, my point is a few days ago there was thread at another board(gaf), where a poster, iirc, said his pc with a dual core athlon was being chocked(single or sub-single framerate) with like 20 of the same repeated xbox1 model in HL2's garry's mod. Then we see the cell handling what seems like a hundred or more ducks at the same time as doing fluid physics, cloth physics, projectile physics, handling eyetoy, all at probably 30 or 60fps. Probably handling the rendering too(though now that I think more about it not sure if that too is the case.)

 

Sometimes people get caught up in the moment; he may have felt that his home life is seperated from his work life; he may have felt that he had certain innate rights to say what he felt; he may been under the impression that his little posts would only be read by 5 other people. I'd feel a little bad for him in that case.

Then again, it could be one hell of a promotional stunt designed to get some instant notoriety at the cost of a job he apparently didn't care for too much. In which case:

 

I just wish he came with some things we completely don't knew about like secretly taken pics from PS3 games, complete spec lists, price, possible launch date.. If you are breaking something you should do it GOOD.

 

He may just be stupid in understanding how what he said would be perceived by others. Intelligence works in many different ways and not everyone has sense to understand every aspect of the demands made of them. eg. If a sculptor is great at sculpting but doesn't understand maths enough to sort out his tax return, should he be punished if he gets his numbers wrong? In that case there's other people to do the job for him, and he can employ someone who does understand maths but is crap at sculpting. In Josh's case, he may be great at his job but be rubbish at PR. That's fine, leave other people to handle PR. Only thanks to the internet everyone can get published worldwide. Things that you needn't care about saying to friends suddenly have a real impact when posted in a friendly chatty article. He's not cut out for a writer, and should never be allowed onto a public forum again, but to take away his livelihood might be unfair if it was just a stupid thing.

 

Maybe his new book, released for x-mas is enjoying very good sales, and he's decided to stick it to the man!!