More TSR tomfoolery – how they stole ‘The Sims Medieval’ article from PC Format magazine

If you read the site daily, last week I published a link to The Sims Resource of 4 images as well as a writeup on The Sims Medieval (the rumored but no longer a rumor spin-off game because it actually exists, just not officially announced by EA).  Anyhow, I was contacted by EA later during the day to remove said article and images because of that fact – they’ve yet to announce it.

Well, it turns out TSR once again proves how horrible their actions are by STEALING the article and images from a UK based magazine PC Format.  TSR Must Be Destroyed has the full scoop of their stupidness, and I’d like to quote the following below:

A few days ago Steve posted an article about the new game from EA called The Sims : Medieval.  He clearly stated in that article that he got the ‘inside’ information from EA last year, and was under an NDA. He posted a short review and several in-game screenshots. As always, Steve was bending the truth somewhat!

He actually got the information and the screenshots from a hard copy of a PC magazine available to buy from many magazine outlets in the UK. Not only did he copy their review, he scanned and published THEIR screens without their permission, knowledge or consent. The PC magazine is called PC Format.

Steve wanted to be the first to announce this to the world online, so that TSR could gain all the credit and interest from the announcement, especially by beating EA to the punch. This would also prove once and for all that he is indeed in EA’s rear trouser pocket.

Things came undone when EA asked him to remove it, which he begrudgingly did, however during a TSR meeting ( in which he called EA ‘Shitheads’ 3 times ) HE decided that EA could do nothing about the article as it had already been printed in the real world, TSR was merely reporting on PC Formats article.

EA got in touch again very quickly and whatever they said to him got the article removed and he upgraded their status to ‘Wankers’  Steve was then stomping like a small child and made an ‘official complaint’ to EA about PC Format demanding they lose the right to any EA exclusives in the future. Clearly his theft of their story and pictures got him into trouble so they must be destroyed!

He then made a retraction type post on TSR, admitting he got it from a magazine, but basically blaming EA and their corporate stuff. At least he had the sense to describe their PR as “flapping” and not a “bunch of wankers” this time.

There was no mention of why he lied in the first post about getting the information from EA a year ago and signing a NDA, nor was their any credit to the magazine for the article or pictures he published and took credit for.

Now, I can’t comment on the fact that he called EA those names – I do not have proof of that, but I did catch the very first draft of the article – and I did publish it.  He did not make any mention of the magazine article – he worded it as if he was the one to attend the EA Studios to check out the game…He did not.  He completely plagiarized and stole the images – adding his own watermarks to the article so all of us fansites could link to him.  Foolishly, I fell for the trap and was one of those suckers that thought the article came from them.

So yeah, more than likely this is going to make them lose their bed-buddy known as EA for any upcoming previews, but I do feel it is important to share with everyone how these folks operate.  As for the PC Format magazine, I believe its on newstands so grab you a copy if you wish.  I still don’t think I’ll be allowed to share the information/pictures with you directly on this site …but you’ll be in for a treat if you visit the link above 😉

Thanks to reader uknortherner for the information!