Sony pulls its own interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann due to ‘several significant errors’

Last week, Sony published an interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann that included some controversial comments about the use of AI in game development and the potential for Naughty Dog’s next game to shake up the gaming industry. Now, the interview has been banished to the Internet Archive.

Sony has retracted the entire interview, and if you try to pull it up, you’ll instead find a message that says:

“In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don’t represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects).” The statement goes on to apologize to Druckmann for misrepresenting his comments and says that the decision to remove the interview was made “in coordination with Naughty Dog and SIE.” 

The interview caused quite a stir when it was first published, and Druckmann caught heat online for comments he made about AI and its potential for use in game development. In the interview he came across as being very enthusiastic about developers adopting AI, and his main concern about the tech seemed to be making sure it was given proper direction. 

People were obviously upset to hear someone like Druckmann gloss over widespread concerns about AI being used in game development, but not long after Sony published the interview, Druckmann cast doubt on its accuracy. He shared a post on Twitter pointing out how, “In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost.” 

The example Druckmann gave was from a section where the original interview quoted him as saying Naughty Dog’s next game “could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming.” The full quote that Druckmann shared made it clear he hadn’t said anything close to that. Unfortunately, Druckmann still hasn’t addressed the part of the interview where he talked about AI.

Maybe we’re supposed to assume, now that it’s been removed, the published interview misrepresented all of Druckmann’s statements, but the looming threat of AI to actual workers in the game industry is big enough that some specific clarification is absolutely warranted.