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Bethesda Demanding News Sites To Remove Fallout 4 Stories

By Daniel George

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Normally, we don’t like to share stories about how other sites report their stories within the gaming industry, but there comes a time when it gets so silly that you have to wonder if publishers have even heard of the Streisand Effect. It’s not going to work for Tom Brady, and it sure isn’t going to work for Bethesda, concerning Fallout 4.

Earlier today, multiple sites had reported that a member of Mirada Studios, Guillermo del Toro’s creative services and marketing company, had listed his work as a Contract 3D Artist on LinkedIn. His main task during December 2014 – March 2015 was in making a Fallout 4 cinematic trailer in the Greater Los Angeles area, per his CV. More than a couple hours later, those sites that reached Bethesda for comment had found not only a dismissive stance towards their report, but requests to take down their stories.

Destructoid updated their story, saying they reported inaccuracies in “breaking a non-disclosure agreement.” An email was sent to Gamatsu editor Sal Romano due to his story, stating it is “a violation of the company NDA at Mirada and inaccurate.” Seeing how neither site works for Mirada Studios, nor signed or agreed to any non-disclosure agreement, both stories remain up and the obvious conclusion met; we can logically expect Bethesda to be officially announcing Fallout 4 sometime soon. The safest bet would be at E3 2015 by my guess, with Bethesda running their first ever press conference at the annual event.

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What makes this story truly sad is just how Bethesda has handled the situation. Instead of your traditional “we do not comment on rumors or speculation” shtick, the representatives went for the loudest, wildest approach you can make with reporters; attempting to silence them based on a false claim. Because of that, stories like this very one are being reported and people are talking about it, just growing the amount of people aware of the fact that there is an NDA for Mirada Studios concerning work on a Fallout 4 trailer.

Long story short, for those looking to get into public relations or marketing; a simple “no comment” will always suffice if you’re not ready to announce something in the similar vein of a company working on a Fallout 4 cinematic trailer. Otherwise, you may have a situation where people repeat the news of a Fallout 4 trailer over and over again in an effort to make sure your silencing tactics won’t work.

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