Josh Robinson's blog on PS3/XBOX360

[Carl B]

I'm still not sure that he's broken any NDA's...

Of any of the things he expressed confidence on, he expressed the most confidence in the belief that he wasn't breaking it. SOE might have actively protected their people from signing NDA's as restricitve as SCE might have liked. Who knows... And since he is working on a PC version as well, mayeb he felt he was within his 'zone' of discussion, if it's not off-limits on that side of the coin.

Who knows. If he gets fired, well he probably broke his NDA. But if he's still working there next week, well he probably didn't.

 

[Vennt]

Personally I'd think it was both the possibility of an NDA breach and the negative comments made about their own title that have probably got him into a mess if anything.

Calling your own title a "just get it out title" in a published article can't be the best of career moves, I'd say not only is he hosed at SOE, but probably hosed from the business in general.

If he'd left his own titles comments out of the piece he'd probably have been fine.

At least we know to expect an SOE title for (or close to) launch on PS3 now.

 

[patsu]

His opinions (on the quality and timeframe of a subset of PS3 launch games) are derived from knowledge acquired while working in the capacity of an SOE employee/contractor. So that would constitute a breach in a reasonably tight NDA.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Er... is his NDA releveant to the information he shared and the discussion of it, or is it rather offtopic?

 

[Carl B]

Personally I'd think it was both the possibility of an NDA breach and the negative comments made about thier own title that have probably got him into a mess if anything.

Well, like I said if he's still there in a week, then he's come out relatively ok. But if he's not, well... he didn't.

If he'd left his own titles comments out of the piece he'd probably have been fine.

At least we know to expect an SoE title for (or close to) launch on PS3 now

That's really how I'm looking at the whole thing as well. This, his talk of SOE working on the network, and the Guerilla dev's recent comments about a strong feeling for online at least among first-party devs intrigues me in terms of what Sony might be brewing for online.

(Plus, what does an MMORPG near launch mean about a hard drive? Standard? Optional yet available at launch? Both better situations than with PS2 at least)

 

[nelg]

I hope that fighting career is working out well for him!

 

[seismologist]

SOE is working on the DC comics MMORPG. I'd be surprised if that's ready for launch though.

 

[ROG27]

I dont' really question Josh's background...

I'm more in awe of his tenacity and underlying motivation for this kind of stunt...

I've been under NDA myself and just publicly talking bad about a project, the company itself, or client can constitute immediate termination. Either he was on his way to being canned in the first place, he had a deathwish, or (a little conspiracy theory I cooked up) he may have been offered employment by the competition. Funny thing is that NDA are active for a predetermined amount of time...and that is not necessarily limited by whether you are actively employed or not. Many NDAs last for several months/years even after employment has terminated. Regardless of the restrictiveness of his NDA, Sony Online Entertainment being a private enterprise can fire him for any reason they deem necessary, lest it be discriminatory based on race, gender, creed, etc.

The Deans lurking here is interesting...I didn't think DeanA would say anything at all if Josh's comments might have had some merit. The rash extremeness of Josh's comments must have prompted DeanA's reponse, though (?). As such, IMO we might have a case of disgruntled/vindictive employee here in Josh's case.

 

[Carl B]

The Deans lurking here is interesting...I didn't think DeanA would say anything at all if Josh's comments might have had some merit. The rash extremeness of Josh's comments must have prompted DeanA's reponse, though (?). As such, IMO we might have a case of disgruntled/vindictive employee here in Josh's case.

Dean seems to move in mysterious ways.

(now give us some RSX info!)

 

[BlueTsunami]

I hope that fighting career is working out well for him!

 

[scooby_dooby]

How did this guy break any NDA's?

Name me one specific fact that he states that would break an NDA.

Basically everything in there is opinion, or anecdotal, he revealed nothing about the ps3, it's games, it's launch date or anything like that.

Are Dev's not even allowed to at least speak about their opinions?

 

[mckmas8808]

How did this guy break any NDA's?

Name me one specific fact that he states that would break an NDA.

Basically everything in there is opinion, or anecdotal, he revealed nothing about the ps3, it's games, it's launch date or anything like that.

Didn't he imply that the game was a launch title and in development? Then again we don't know what his NDA says so....

 

[Titanio]

How did this guy break any NDA's?

"Hi there, we're working on a PS3 launch game". Whoops. That wasn't publically known previously.

That aside, some of his commentary and expressed opinion could fall under the rather broad terms of most employee contracts that basically say you won't bad-mouth the company etc. etc.

Without knowing the terms of the NDA, though, it's impossible to say for sure. Some NDAs are very very very strict about what you can divulge, or even what you indirectly say about something using acquired knowledge.

 

[expletive]

"Hi there, we're working on a PS3 launch game". Whoops. That wasn't publically known previously.

That aside, some of his commentary and expressed opinion could fall under the rather broad terms of most employee contracts that basically say you won't bad-mouth the company etc. etc.

Wasnt there that MS guy who was gushing over the PS3 (or cell) on his blog awhile back? I wonder if he's still there...

 

[scooby_dooby]

I would wager that the fact he mentions working on a launch title explicitly must mean that specific piece of information was not under NDA, because he seems pretty adamant he didn't break an NDA. Obviously he won't name the title though....so that seems to be under NDA for sure.

There's nothing we can point at directly that breaks NDA, like PS3 specs, or state of the dev-kits, or anything, it's just his opinion really...

 

[Titanio]

Wasnt there that MS guy who was gushing over the PS3 (or cell) on his blog awhile back? I wonder if he's still there...

Purely good-mouthing something else is one thing. But if he drew negative comparison, said "this is better than my company's product", or started suggesting things about the quality of his own company's initial titles, then..?

I don't know about the case you refer to, though, I didn't see those posts.

 

[mckmas8808]

I would wager that the fact he mentions working on a launch title explicitly must mean that specific piece of information was not under NDA, because he seems pretty adamant he didn't break an NDA. Obviously he won't name the title though....so that seems to be under NDA for sure.

There's nothing we can point at directly that breaks NDA, like PS3 specs, or state of the dev-kits, or anything, it's just his opinion really...

Come on guys it is either a different NDA than everyone else is on or he broke it. That's all.

 

[Carl B]

Wasnt there that MS guy who was gushing over the PS3 (or cell) on his blog awhile back? I wonder if he's still there...

Actually he *is* still there. Amusingly enough, a couple of days after that blog post of his got big, he had another post saying how he'd come to a new conclusion as to 360's superiority based on a developer's conference he attended.

 

[Bobbler]

How did this guy break any NDA's?

Name me one specific fact that he states that would break an NDA.

Basically everything in there is opinion, or anecdotal, he revealed nothing about the ps3, it's games, it's launch date or anything like that.

Are Dev's not even allowed to at least speak about their opinions?

I could break an NDA right now by giving you my opinion on something.

Opinions that have been influenced by anything under the NDA directly are often covered by it, especially when they are very blatant like that (for example, if I worked for a company and signed a "blackout" NDA about my work there, but then went around spouting how I've lost faith in their future products and xxx product doesn't work well... well, then I'd likely be fired). It really depends what type of NDA the guy had to sign, if its anything like the ones DeanoC/NAO/DeanA likely had to sign, he's probably in a bit of trouble. Then there is his comments about his game not looking good and being shovelware, those never make employers happy. He could have very easily broken the NDA, but it's all speculation (since SOE may very well have different NDAs than the first party crew), and it doesn't matter so much, but it was a curious point that stuck out to many (especially when relating to his integrity in general).

 

[expletive]

Actually he *is* still there. Amusingly enough, a couple of days after that blog post of his got big, he had another post saying how he'd come to a new conclusion as to 360's superiority based on a developer's conference he attended.

Heh i didnt follow it long enough to see the shocking conclusion, interesting.

Do you by chance have a link to the 'retraction'?

EDIT: and the original post would be great as well...