: I don't know if anything GameZone published on this subject is close to being
: accurate. I don't know why GamerZone didn't pass the transcript of this
: document to Steve Downes for verification before publishing that his
: responses seemingly verify H2A and Halo 5 in 2015. GameZone was less
: interested in being responsible and instead took the low road and
: published a self serving conclusion.

: See, I have an automatic bias against GameZone because I've never heard of
: them and at the same time I have a bias in favour of Steve Downes who has
: been very amicable and open to Halo fans for many years. If I am to
: believe someone in this scenario, I'd automatically pick Steve Downes. I
: am not saying either party is lying. I am saying that for the lack of
: evidence, I am siding with Steve Downes' side of the story.

: MS may have tried to clarify Steve Downe's statements but to out right lie
: about it doesn't make sense to me. Surely MS knows the doubters will
: continue to doubt no matter what and from that knowledge interference
: would be worthless. Silence has always been MS' strong point on rumours.
: It's a perfect response in the days of instant communication.

: Steve Downes may have said exactly what GameZone published but he may never
: have intended for it to have the inferred meaning. If GameZone had told
: him what their intentions were, he may have clarified his position.

: If I remember properly, these Voice Actors know very little about game
: production until they are called into the studio, and even then are only
: shown what they need to know. Am I correct in my memory that the voice
: actors are called in for their part quite late in the production cycle?
: Does he have first hand knowledge of Halo 5-ish or a potential H2A? I sort
: of doubt it.

I'm not suggesting that either Downes or GameZone is lying. I know we've reported news from GameZone going back to 2007, including decent interviews with Marty O'Donnell and Certain Affinity. I think if I had to guess, I'd say that Steve was careless about what he said, and nobody ran the content past a 343 rep before going live. That's as much Steve's fault as GZ's, if you ask me. (In almost every interview bungie.org has ever published, the content has gone back through SOMEONE for a quick read-through before going live, and more than once we've been asked to cut certain bits. We do this, because we understand that the parts we cut aren't being cut because 343 (or Bungie before them) are trying to lie to the fans - but because they're managing a message, over a long period of time, and often things come up in an interview that get in the way of that management.)

I'm certain that if Steve had shot his answers back to 343 (or if GZ had, before publication), they'd have been asked to make changes - and they would have, most likely.

HOWEVER: once the interview is out on the web, retracting those statements becomes much, much more difficult - because now it LOOKS like message management, directly. (It always WAS message management - but there's a difference between 'behind-the-scenes' and 'after the fact'.)

So: from my point of view, everyone screwed up here. Steve screwed up by not asking to be allowed to vet the final product after it was written up, but before it was published. GZ screwed up by not suggesting he do that. And MS screwed up by not accepting the leak gracefully once it had already happened.

Leaks happen. People say things that they didn't mean to say - things they'd forgotten they weren't supposed to talk about, or things that maybe they didn't even KNOW, officially. Information gets out - and if you're unsuccessful at KEEPING it from getting out, you only make yourself look worse by trying to cover it up after the fact.

If Steve had contacted GZ and said what he said ("I misspoke - I don't really know anything about H2A") and MS had kept mum, my attitude would have been different; Steve has every right to try and fix his own screwup (whether or not it's a screwup, even), even if the drive is coming DIRECTLY FROM MS. But when a 3rd party (in this case, MS) steps in and says "hey, you got it wrong, please retract what you said"... now the hole is just getting deeper. :(