I noticed in the description of "Australian Station" in the database it says
QuoteRenamed to Australian Station after game piracy was exposed in Next Publishing offices and Sony disallowed the use of their console branding.
I am curious if there is more information about this incident somewhere? Is it why the Official Magazine shifted from Next Publishing to a new publisher too? It seems like it would have been an exciting scandal to hear about at the time!
Quote from: IloveCats100 on Jul 14, 2025, 12:09 PMI noticed in the description of "Australian Station" in the database it says
QuoteRenamed to Australian Station after game piracy was exposed in Next Publishing offices and Sony disallowed the use of their console branding.
I am curious if there is more information about this incident somewhere? Is it why the Official Magazine shifted from Next Publishing to a new publisher too? It seems like it would have been an exciting scandal to hear about at the time!
I remember finding a couple of online references to this issue quite some time ago where iirc staff members were using copied discs on modded PlayStations on the Company premises. Can't remember the specifics but it sounded like they were caught out and were subsequently barred from using the PlayStation branding on all magazines from that time hence changing the name to simply Station from issue 20 onwards.
ACP were then given the rights to official branding of their competing magazine titles by Sony.
I wish I could remember the website where I found the details.
Quote from: Kiwi on Jul 14, 2025, 08:21 PMQuote from: IloveCats100 on Jul 14, 2025, 12:09 PMI noticed in the description of "Australian Station" in the database it says
QuoteRenamed to Australian Station after game piracy was exposed in Next Publishing offices and Sony disallowed the use of their console branding.
I am curious if there is more information about this incident somewhere? Is it why the Official Magazine shifted from Next Publishing to a new publisher too? It seems like it would have been an exciting scandal to hear about at the time!
I remember finding a couple of online references to this issue quite some time ago where iirc staff members were using copied discs on modded PlayStations on the Company premises. Can't remember the specifics but it sounded like they were caught out and were subsequently barred from using the PlayStation branding on all magazines from that time hence changing the name to simply Station from issue 20 onwards.
ACP were then given the rights to official branding of their competing magazine titles by Sony.
I wish I could remember the website where I found the details.
Thank you for the response! It's a shame you can't remember the website, I could try using the wayback machine to see if there is an archive of the post. It seems as if there's a lot of crossover of staff and writers for all the different magazines so it'd be interesting to see how the movement of individuals lined up with the shake up too!