Leaks, and How To Not Have Them

Here's Sony's Jack Tretton, speaking to Chris Morris at CNBC, on leaks:

People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry. It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties.

So true. E3 2009, otherwise known as The Year In Which Everything Leaked, was a parade of anti-climaxes because a great deal of the show's major news was revealed through loose lips weeks and months ahead of the actual unveilings.

Should Sony (and Microsoft) truly desire that this not happen again, I would tell them to follow what seems to be Nintendo's nearly foolproof multi-step leak-prevention procedure:

1. Don't tell anyone a God damned thing
2. See #1

For an example of how this incredibly complicated and elaborate method works, look no further than Nintendo's big announcement for E3, Metroid: The Other M. This would have been the perfect thing to leak, since it's in development at an outside company -- Tecmo, which has since merged with Koei. But note Siliconera:

Even Koei, which merged with Tecmo, wasn't aware the game was in development. While the merger was in process Tecmo was not allowed to disclose they were working on Metroid: Other M.

How many times have you read articles about a new Nintendo announcement that say something to the effect of, "Third-party developers were shocked to hear about the device, saying that Nintendo had not informed them that it was in development?"

This, of course, raises the question: Is it better to tell many partners as early as possible, thus raising the level of developer support for a project? Or is it more desirable to keep it as secret as you can, to protect yourself against competitors and make a bigger splash with the announcement?

I'm getting the sense that this is, more and more, a have-your-cake-or-eat-it situation.

PlayStation Prez on Info Leaks [CNBC]