Hey all, don't often post on GAF, more of a lurker, but LauraKBuzz here. Feel free to Tweet me to confirm.
So, couple of bits of info here for context.
First up, I generally don't run new rumours (not citing another outlet as source but using my own sources) as news posts on Destructoid unless I have 100% solid confirmation that the news is legit.
Perfect example of this would be the VR On Rails FPS content Rush of Blood for Until Dawn. I had two solid, independent confirmed sources, both with verifiable evidence shown which I could backtrack outside of those sources. Once I was 100% I ran the rumour post on Destructoid, devs denied it, six days later it was announced at Paris Games Week and all info matched my leak from a week before.
When I post a rumour on Destructoid, uusing my own sources, you can be certain the thing discussed is legit.
So, why have I not run any of the info I mentioned on Podquisition as a news post on Destructoid? Because while I trust the sources on the info, I much of it comes from single sources. Many of the pieces of info I trust to be true, but I cannot verify with a separate independant source and backtrack comfortably to the devs.
"No Man's Sky was meant to be at a UK event called Game City as a "hands off demo", but they cancelled their appearance, apparently due to technical issues."
While it has now been confirmed as just a delay, my source on this spoke to me about the "cancellation" prior to it being public knowledge. The source 100% can be confirmed to have knowledge of GameCity dealings. At the time of speaking to them a replacement date had not been internally confirmed. Reason given was technical concerns. While the showing has now been rescheduled, and I should have noticed that info, my statement here on the podcast was based on info I was told prior to the removal of that appearance from the Gamecity Schedule.
Did not make a news story out of this as I only had a single source who knew it was not going to show up as planned, but cannot double source the reason for it not showing that day. If I had planned to do a news post, I would have followed up on updates and spotted the fact it was publicly afterwards referred to as a delay.
"Sony's E3 Press Conference demo was not on a PS4. It was running on PC
Considerable issues getting the game to run on PS4."
While this first piece of info is now several months old, while at E3 itself I was told this by two separate sources. One on the journalism side and one on the dev side, but not from Hello Games. One source told me the info while at the Sony conference. One told me while at the PC show. Both sources asked for me not to report on it at the time, but did tell me the source on their info.
The fact it wasn't running on PS4 wasn't entirely surprising at the time, but an unsubstantiated rumour from one of my sources, not backed up by the other, stated that the reason at the PC show it was announced that PC launch would be the same date as PS4 launch is they were very confident PS4 version would be the hold up.
"Optimisation on PC has been hell"
Came from the same source I spoke to at the PC show at E3, a few months later on. I know their source and can confirm they were in direct contact with HG, but I cannot source a second person to back up this info. Nothing concrete enough for me to cross check actual data points from person to person. Confident in my sources and where there is smoke, there is fire, but I won't run it on Dtoid until I have hard numbers confirmed by more than one source independently.
"Lots of technical problems getting the game to run at the scale they want"
Again multiple sources here, but nothing numbers based enough for me to cross check between sources. One source has stated VERY high PC specs currently required to run the game properly, which would explain how it's getting public appearances but not ready to run at expected levels on standard gaming rigs or PS4. I have not been able to cross check those alleged specs with a second source yet.
So, basically I have heard a lot of things from sources I personally trust, and I'm happy to informally talk about what I've heard on a podcast, but I'm not ready to run as a news story. As pointed out at the beginning of this post I earlier this month ran a single rumour on Dtoid, the news of Rush of Blood, six days before it was formally announced. I know how to do professional sourcing, I know when something sounds legit, and I know when I have solid enough sources that I can run a formal news story, confident in the knowledge it will be proven true in a reasonable amount of time.
Totally get the skepticism, I still have some of my own hence not running a formal story yet. Still, I know how to do news sourcing on unnanounced info. I'm telling you the spoke I saw and the reports of fire. I'm not ready to say the fire is real, but I see smoke and a lot of folk I trust say fire.
Oh, fun bonus - For the Until Dawn Rush of Blood news I broke 6 days early, both sources were UK gamers in the content's target demographic, invited by an outside market research firm to test the software in late August. I saw emails from the market research firm to both, as well as travel documents showing they went to Sony R&D on the days they claimed. I know enough people were invited that they can't be picked out based on that info.
Both described the content, both gave the name Rush of Blood, and one was able to show an image containing the name. The name linked up with an interview that had appeared a few weeks prior.
Both were able to confirm several bits of key info independantly, including what controller options were available, how many times they played the demo, what questions they were ask.
That's the level of confirmation I look for before running a news post
