Sony, as a company, hasn’t been making very good decisions lately. Mostly it’s just PR, who they let talk and the stupid things these people say, but today hit a new low in sheer brain-dead stupidity. After Kotaku published a rumor on what Sony’s big announcement at next week’s Game Developers’ Conference was going to be, Sony followed through on their threat to cut Kotaku off from anything Sony related, forever. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and Kotaku was reinstated in Sony’s good graces after a few short hours, but the thought processes leading to the initial decision don’t exactly help with Sony’s current reputation for overwhelmingly self-destructive arrogance.

The initial article, reported as a rumor received from an undisclosed source, potentially spilled the beans on Sony’s big GDC announcement. Whether it’s true or not that the PS3 will soon have a combination of Nintendo’s Mii avatars and the 360’s achievement points will be revealed next week, for better or worse, but that’s not really important here. What is important is that when, prior to publishing the article, Kotaku contacted Sony’s senior director of corporate communications Dave Karraker, they were told that publishing the article would mean Very Bad Things.

Well, it turns out that meant a demand for the return of their debug PS3, a disinvitation from any meetings with all Sony reps at next week’s GDC, and a sad shaking of the head for Kotaku’s lack of professional courtesy. Just… wow.

Is it really necessary to point out that it’s not Kotaku’s responsibility to manage Sony’s press releases? That the nature of a news site is to report the news? That it’s Sony PR’s responsibility to keep their secrets? This entire debacle had nothing to do with professional courtesty, and everything to do with one party doing their job when the other one failed. The proper response to an information leak isn’t to clamp down on the press, or make a sad attempt to beat it on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper like a poorly housetrained dog. No, you look at your organization, figure out who did the talking, and deal with the matter internally while offering a neutral “No comment” to the world. Why such a simple system that’s worked so well in the past wasn’t good enough this time is something of a mystery.

Still, in the end Sony did manage to come to its senses. Kotaku was re-invited to all the GDC meetings and got to keep their debug PS3, although it took a good phone call to sort out. That it happened in the first place, however, is nothing short of pathetic.