Xbox World 360 has apologized for quoting Cliff Bleszinski saying that Japan lags behind the U.S. technologically, a misquote that left the Gears of War designer hopping mad.
In the newest issue of Xbox World 360 magazine, Epic man Cliff Bleszinski compared the videogame industry in Japan with that of North America in a none-too-subtle fashion. “Part of the problem is, technically, Japan just can’t keep up with the U.S.,” he said.
Except he didn’t actually say that at all, or anything even remotely similar. Soon after a report of the interview appeared on CVG, Bleszinski turned to Twitter. “Internet tabloid alert: I said *nothing* about Japan not being able to keep up with the US regarding tech,” he wrote. “There are plenty of existing and upcoming Japanese titles that look amazing. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those devs.”
He also took a shot at game journalists, who he accused of intentionally misquoting people in order to generate heat. “If this ‘journalism’ continues devs will only be able to recite fact sheets verbatim,” he continued. “Websites intentionally publish misquotes and out of context pullquotes to create forum flamewars which generates traffic and profit.”
Bleszinski’s anger appeared to be directed at CVG but it soon turned out that the real culprit was Xbox World 360, which ‘fessed up today. “It’s come to our attention that, due to an error in the production process, a quote from Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski has been taken a little out of context,” a company rep wrote on its blog. “The first sentence of his reply: ‘I personally think that part of the problem is, technically, Japan just can’t keep up with the US. Would they benefit from using the Unreal Development kit?’ should have been part of the QUESTION.”
The actual question and answer went more like this:
Q. Epic have plans to move into markets like Japan, Korea and China? I personally think that part of the problem is, technically, Japan just can’t keep up with the US… Would they benefit from using the Unreal Development Kit?
A. To be frank, this is largely not my department. It’s a strategic decision by Epic to continue to provide Middleware solutions to developers all around the world. My department is: ‘Ooh, let’s make the fun!’ But yes, it’s very much a strategic play; knocking on Japanese doors and saying: ‘Hey, if you use this you can cut through a lot of the costs of building your own engine plus have a better game that comes out sooner and costs less money.’ It’s pretty much that simple.
So the interviewer made the comment about Japan lagging behind the U.S. and it somehow ended up attributed to Bleszinski, and that’s “a little out of context?” I’d love to see what qualifies as a genuine screw-up over there.
