Ex-Sony America Employee (and Tester S1 winner) Rants on Twitter

[Patticus]

Ex-PlayStation Spokesman: ‘Question The Priorities Of The Company As A Whole’

An ex-Sony PR representative has slammed his former company following a recent round of layoffs that left him out of work late last week.

It’s hardly unusual for laid-off staffers to harbor ill will toward their former employers, but ex-PlayStation PR Will Powers voiced some striking criticism on Twitter this afternoon. He had harsh words for Sony, PlayStation, and many of the company’s recent decisions.

“You have to wonder what the hell PlayStation was thinking laying off more than half of their software PR team going into the holiday season,” Powers wrote. “In typical fashion they’re sending titles out to die, because they have no PR support — [Little Big Planet Karting], Sports Champions 2, Wonderbook.

“Worst part it, the PR department was already under-staffed. I feel sorry for those that remain there, because their workload just doubled.”

Powers, best known as the winner of season 1 of The Tester, Sony’s reality show, also said scathing things about Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld.

“That being said, you have to question the priorities of the company as a whole – What the point of AdHoc multiplayer when no one has a Vita?”

In an earlier exchange, Powers wrote that “[sony's] [priorities] aren’t what they used to be. They’ve definitely [lost] touch with their audience.”

Here’s the full Twitter rant:

http://www.kotaku.co...any-as-a-whole/

That'll teach them for hiring someone courtesy of a talent show. The man's chances of being hired as a PR guy elsewhere just fell off a cliff, too; slagging off previous employers isn't looked at too favourably by many.

Still, when it comes to certain aspects of advertising and PR, Sony hasn't exactly been great.

[Tornado]

He acts as if Sony isn't hemorrhaging money and haven't been for years, and as if external PR production can't be considerably cheaper and more successful than internal ones are allowed to be because of that very same internal corporate competition he lambasts multiple times.

[Blue Blood]

Laying off big chunks of the workforce? Sending titles out to die? I thought this was a Sony topic, not a SEGA one.

[Autosaver]

Laying off big chunks of the workforce? Sending titles out to die? I thought this was a Sony topic, not a SEGA one.

To be fair, at least SEGA advertises their flagship titles. Little Big Karting and ASR are coming out in the same month and guess which one has had tons of advertising/PR?

But I get your point.

[buba]

To be fair, at least SEGA advertises their flagship titles.

Like Sonic and... well, Sonic.

[Chooch]

To be fair, at least SEGA advertises their flagship titles.

Meanwhile in the Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit topic:

I thought this game was cancelled.

Wait, this game is really coming out tomorrow??

Edited September 25, 2012 by Chooch

[Autosaver]

It's coming out tomorrow (Today?)?

Wow. I didn't even know that.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Autosaver

[buba]

It's coming out tomorrow (Today?)?

Wow. I didn't even know that.

Actually, it is out now.

Aww, you edited it.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Tmsp

[Conando]

Meanwhile in the Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit topic:

I'd hardly call Hell Yeah! a flagship title.

[Solly]

Wait what? Will Powers?

I didn't think he worked at S...Oh, wrong one.

Not very surprising news. Sony's advertising has always been terrible in some way or another.

I'd hardly call Hell Yeah! a flagship title.

Regardless, they should still really be promoting their games. Even the smaller iOS ones aren't gonna sell themselves.

[Carbo]

NeoGAF member Afro Gunsou claims that the big internal reasoning behind the massive SCEA layoffs in the PR division was because of how badly Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale was handled.

Some people are awaiting a thread with information about this since the reasoning behind this whole layoff is still kind of a big deal. Much like Will Powers said despite knowing fully well that Sony are losing money, their current PR was barely having money poured into it as-is so if it's true that it's largely a few single quality reasons, he'd pretty much be vindicated.