Sony apologized to Naughty Dog studio boss Neil Druckmann for "misrepresenting his words" in a recent promotional interview."The interview has now been withdrawn.

In an interview released last week by Sony, Druckmann praised the potential of generative AI, saying it "is opening the door to working on more adventurous projects and pushing the boundaries of game storytelling."He also talked about the studio's next game, but said it could "redefine the mainstream perception of the game.""

But right after the interview went up, Druckmann took to Twitter to clarify that the reported statement about redefining the perception of the game was "not what I said.""

"In editing my rambling answer in a recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context and intentions were unfortunately lost," Druckmann said very diplomatically.

It has put it mildly: Druckmann also gave the full text of his response to questions about the game's "future innovations". As far as I know, the closest he gets is to say that, thanks to the success of Last of Us TV shows on Amazon, "even people outside the game are watching us to see what we put out next" — a far decaying rational statement.

We noted the changes in the report on the interview, but the obvious question was hanging: Did Sony thoroughly review Druckmann's answer to that question

"When reviewing Naughty Dog's recent interview with Neil Druckmann, we found some serious issues that did not represent his point of view or values?" We found errors and inaccuracies (anime, "We misrepresented his words to Neil and apologize for the negative impact this interview may have caused him and his team. Working with Naughty Dog and SIE, we removed the interview.

It's an amazing walkback, with a very large bucket of eggs on Sony's face. The interview with Druckmann was conducted by Sony, for Sony — the Naughty Dog is Sony's studio — and what Druckmann said and Sony was public consumption It is not even close. 

The end result is that Sony has not managed to inspire one of its most prominent developers to the point where he was willing to drag the company for it (Druckmann's tweet was diplomatic, yes, but also undeniably not happy), but it has also cast doubt on its wide credibility. How often is this happening, unnoticed or unmarked upon, in the past?

I THINK THIS COULD BE PURELY SPECULATIVE AS SONY HAS NO FURTHER COMMENT, BUT AS IT IS TERRIBLE AND EMBARRASSING FOR SOMEONE TO CLEAN UP DRUCKMANN'S COMMENTARY WITH AN AI-POWERED SUMMARY, IT IS PROBABLY THE BEST EXPLANATION POSSIBLE FROM SONY'S POINT OF VIEW. "We rely on the machine to burn" is not great, but it's better," we knowingly misrepresented the words of the person above, because we thought it would be a more effective PR."

I have contacted Sony for comment and will be updated if I receive a reply.