Ted Price Fires Back At Gaming Press

Insomniac's Ted Price challenges the game press to tackle more substantial issues, like the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case that could result in video game censorship.

This afternoon, Ted Price took time out of his busy schedule working on the new Resistance game to respond to a recent gaming news story. He takes issue with a recent post at CVG, and sourced from Games Thirst, but without calling out any site by name. The headline of the article in question originally read "We're Best on PS3 Insomniac Boasts" and has since been changed to "We Aim to Be Best on PS3." The news story goes on to cite a quote from an interview that Price completed with EGM.

Price states his frustration that the CVG article misrepresents his statements with the headline, and takes his quote from the article out of context. "The article used an answer I gave Tom [Russo] while he was asking me about Insomniac’s history," Price explains on his blog at Insomniac's website. "The question leading to my answer was 'Many people consider Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction the first game that really showed the potential power of the PS3. Any insights into the development of tech that helped achieve this?' The answer I gave referred to our engine team’s focus AT THE TIME on heavily using the Cell’s SPUs. We were fortunate to be on the PS3 very early and also fortunate to be releasing our second PS3 game in the second year of the console’s existence. At that point in 2007 we were very public proponents of using the SPUs because we wanted to share our positive experiences on the PS3. However the writer of the web article decided that somehow I was saying Insomniac is better than any other developer on the PS3."

Price continues by explaining his perception of Insomniac's work and his philosophy on game design. "The original headline and the revised headline ('We Aim to Be Best on PS3') are not statements that I or anyone at Insomniac would ever say or would want implied," Price writes. "While we're proud of our games, we also have the greatest respect for our peers in this industry and are always grateful when our games are supported by our fans and media alike. Our goal is to make games people love, not to crow about how awesome we think we are. We’re also particularly harsh self-critics and are always looking for ways to improve ourselves, our processes and our games. As a result the web article really struck a nerve for me because it was so far off in describing who I am and who we are at Insomniac."

Price goes on to bring up an issue that he thinks is more deserving of press attention: the upcoming Supreme Court case. The legal dispute will address the California law that would make it illegal to sell video games to minors, potentially putting video games into the same category as cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs.

"What I’d love to see are more game news outlets focusing on big issues like this," Price states. "Game sites can encourage gamers to take a stand and tell their representatives that games deserve the same protection as other art forms. We have the strength of hundreds of millions on our side. We need to take advantage of our numbers to make it crystal clear to our government that a law like this cannot stand...But the time is now. The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments beginning November 2nd and a decision will probably follow quickly. There are a few short weeks for gamers to be heard before it’s too late."