Fired PS3 Developer Speaks Out

I didn't pay much attention to this when it first hit, largely because there's always some shitstorm going on about this console's specs or that console's specs and eventually it all blurs together.

But I guess I should have paid more attention to this particular shitstorm that hit Gaming-Age earlier this month. A Sony artist working on a first-party PlayStation 3 game wrote an article basically blasting the system, with tidbits like the below:

The game that we are creating for a launch title is a “just get it out” title in my opinion. It doesn’t look next generation. I don’t see how anyone could debate otherwise. It looks good. But it looks good for a game that has come out in the last couple years or so. I mean we are talking about a box that will be with us for the next 5+ years! In 5 years will the games we are making today look good? The only way for that to be possible is if the new games coming out for the PS3 are drastically improved. [...] The game we are making isn’t even in the same league as Gears of War.

Reading this would make me happy if I was, say, CliffyB. But not if I was this guy's boss. And apparently he got fired over it, and the article was pulled from its original hosting place (that's why I linked to the GAF post).

The story continues, though, as the fan site PS3 Week (motto: "Kinda like having one") has posted an interview with Robinson today:

How do you respond to critics around the web who say that, as a 3D artist, you’re not qualified to make a technical judgment about the PS3 development?

You know the internet/forums and blogs are a strange place. If I went online right now and said the sky was blue, 100 people would probably tell me to STFU noob or argue with me and tell me I’m not a weather man.

Indeed.