What Would Matt Do

Now don't get me wrong, I read and like Joystiq, most of the time. And I've probably visited GameSetWatch the same number of fingers I have on my left hand (it's three, I promise. Stupid toaster ovens). But damn me if Simon @ GameSetWatch doesn't take Joystiq to task (and rightfully so). What did Joystiq do? Well, they spread a rumor. A rumor that got started much like a game of telephone you played when you were kids where you whispered something in someones ear and they did the same to the next person and so on, except this the internet and I don't like other men whispering in my ear…most of the time (Clive!). 

What was the original rumor? That the XBox 360 sales are well below par. The kicker? The rumor was started on Google News by article written in 2002. About the original Xbox. How do I know this? Because those guys at GameSetWatch told me so (and I think they are dreamy):

arthouse News guys simply plagiarized the first couple of paragraphs of that story (yes, plagiarized – check out the missing apostrophe and odd capitalization on 'Analysts'), adding some Australian-relevant comments as the article descends into registration-only land.

Eh, so some minor plagiarism, all 'well and good' – but the original Play.tm story, if you look closely, is very clearly dated 'saturday, 14th dec 2002', and refers to the original Xbox. Play.tm is the new name for UK site Ferrago, which has been around for a good few years, and looking at Google News further reveals that their RSS feed has gone a little lunatic, and is dumping a lot of old stories up in addition to newer ones – for example, a story on the Atari 'TV game', also from December 2002.

Now that my friends, is good shit. And good detective work (assuming it's all kosher). What did Joystiq do to fix the story?

"Update: Apparently this is a false story that has been circulating the web chain-letter style. Let's wait until the official NPD numbers come out and add them to the weekly Japanese numbers."

That's it. So much like a the big newspapers, just a little blurb to let everyone know it was a rumor…of course, that's everyone that is reading this now old story to find out updated info on it.

Oh and some tips to Joystiq (who has some journalistic integrity and so this is probably embarrassing stuff), here's some simple tips direct from your friends and mine, GameSetWatch:

If you're posting to the most-read game blog around, shouldn't you at least go check Bloomberg.co.uk and make sure you can find the story? That requires a minimum of effort. There are plenty of other giveaways here if you're on top of things – Michael Pachter's NPD preview released this morning clearly says that it's "arriving ahead of the actual NPD results, which will likely debut after market close on Thursday, December 7", and I've personally never heard of Bob Austrian, the cited analyst. (The last Banc Of America analyst related to games that we cited on Gamasutra was Gary Cooper, much to Chris Kohler's amusement.)

What does it all boil down to? Fact check before posting. I know, crazy talk.

What Would Matt Do: Point and laugh! Because it's fun!