Sony put on a good presser at E3 2009, but one has to wonder just how much more impressive the event would have been if almost every major announcement hadn’t been leaked ahead of time. I would venture quite a bit more so: 1UP’s David Ellis ferreted out info on the PSP Go over a month before the expo and Team Ico’s footage for The Last Guardian was splashed all over the interweb couple of weeks in advance. Despite his jovial, self-deprecating humor onstage at the press event, SCEA President, Jack Tretton, presented a slightly different take on the matter in a recent interview with CNBC.

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

The question still remains, however: did loose lips sink ships in this case? Or is Jack overlooking that the nature of the hype beast that thrives on rumors, speculation and leaks instead of a tightly controlled corporate message?

He also touched on the industry’s propensity to for looking to the future instead of what’s in front of them now: “This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today. We want to constantly talk about tomorrow.… You have to prepare for people to know things in advance. The frustrating thing is they only know a part of the story and that opens up a lot of conjecture and misinformation that ultimately waters down the reality when you roll it out.”

Apparently Mr. Tretton was one of those kids who didn’t like trying to find out what his birthday/holiday presents were ahead of time and was content to wait in total ignorance until Mom & Dad released a carefully worded, properly timed PR statement.

Didn’t you know, Jack? Guessing and speculating is half the fun of this job!