: 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. :(

In the long run this all could easily be fixed if Microsoft would just flat out either confirm or deny the rumour. If they continue to stay quiet about it then it will just fuel the rumour even more, and let's be honest the only logical reasoning for them staying silent on the issue is because it's probably happening in which case Microsoft should just announce it already.

The Xbox One has already been a PR disaster since before it was even announced, they could use all the positive gaming news they can get at this point.