Labels and Sourcing

This page explains how PSX Online labels its stories, how we grade the sources behind them, and what happens when the facts change. PlayStation news moves fast and runs heavily on leaks and rumors, so we want readers to see at a glance how solid a claim is before deciding how much weight to give it.

Why We Label Stories

A lot of PlayStation coverage starts as a hint: a retailer listing, a line in a patch file, a post from an anonymous account. Some of those hints turn into announcements. Many never do. Presenting all of them in the same tone misleads readers, so every news story on PSX Online carries a status label, and every claim inside it is tied to a source grade.

The label tells you where the story stands. The grade tells you how much the source has earned your trust.

The Four Status Labels

CONFIRMED

We use this label only when the information comes from an official channel. That includes the PlayStation Blog, State of Play and other Sony presentations, official press releases, publisher and developer announcements, and the PlayStation Store itself. It also covers things we can check directly, such as a feature that appears in a released firmware update.

A claim does not become confirmed because many outlets repeat it. Fifty articles citing the same original leak still add up to one source.

RUMOR

A rumor is anything not yet confirmed by the company involved. That covers a wide range, from a well-sourced report by an established journalist to a single post from an account with no history. The RUMOR label alone does not tell you how likely something is. The source grade does that, and we state it in the text.

DEBUNKED

We mark a story DEBUNKED when the claim has been denied on the record, when official information directly contradicts it, or when the evidence it relied on turns out to be fake or misread. We say which of those applies. A company declining to comment is not a denial, and we will not treat it as one.

UPDATED

UPDATED sits alongside another label. A rumor that gets confirmed will show as CONFIRMED and UPDATED, with a note explaining the change. The label stays visible so returning readers know the story is different from what they read before.

How We Grade Sources

Every unconfirmed claim we report is attributed to a source, and that source gets one of four grades.

Grade A: Official

Official sources tell you what a company says. That is not always the full picture. Release dates slip and features get cut. When an official plan later changes, we report the change rather than pretending the original statement was wrong at the time.

Some official documents need care. A listing from a ratings board is a real official record, so the fact that a game has been rated is Grade A. What that listing implies about a platform or release window is our interpretation, and we say so.

Grade B: Proven Reporter

These are journalists and publications with a long, public track record on games industry reporting. Their reports are often accurate before any announcement. They are still reports, not confirmations, so a story built on a Grade B source stays labeled RUMOR until the company speaks.

Grade C: Community or Datamine

Dataminers find real files. The problem is interpretation. A string of code or an unused asset can point to a cancelled feature, placeholder text or a test build. We report what was found and keep it separate from what it might mean.

Retailer listings usually land here too. Stores often create placeholder pages with guessed dates and invented prices, so we treat them as weak signals unless a publisher backs them up.

Grade D: Anonymous or Mixed Record

Anonymous sources sometimes get things right. They also get things wrong, and it is hard to hold them accountable. We report Grade D claims only when they are being widely discussed or when they add something useful, and we say plainly how weak the sourcing is.

How Grades Show Up in the Writing

You will not usually see a letter in the middle of a sentence. The grade shapes the wording instead. Compare:

• “Sony announced…” (Grade A)
• “According to a report from [an established outlet]…” (Grade B)
• “Files found in the latest patch suggest…” (Grade C)
• “An anonymous leaker with a mixed track record claims…” (Grade D)

If a story relies on more than one source, each claim is attributed separately. We never blend a strong source and a weak one into a single confident statement.

How We Update Stories

When facts change, we update the original article rather than leaving outdated information live and publishing a separate correction elsewhere. Our process:

1. Change the label. A rumor that gets confirmed becomes CONFIRMED. One that gets denied becomes DEBUNKED. Both also get the UPDATED tag.
2. Add a dated update note near the top of the story stating what changed and why.
3. Keep the record honest. We do not quietly delete the original claim. If we reported a rumor, the article still shows that it was a rumor and who it came from, so readers can judge that source next time.
4. Revise the headline if needed. A headline that no longer reflects the facts gets rewritten.

Minor fixes such as typos or formatting changes do not trigger the UPDATED label.

How We Handle Leaks

Leaks are part of PlayStation news, and we cover them when they matter to readers. We have firm limits on how.

• We report about leaks. We do not distribute them. We do not host, embed or link to leaked footage, screenshots, builds, source code or files, and we do not explain where or how to find them.
• We describe what credible outlets say was shown, and name those outlets, rather than reproducing the material ourselves.
• We do not try to identify anonymous leakers. We will not name, guess at or speculate about anyone’s real identity.
• We do not promote crypto tokens or coins connected to leakers or so-called insiders, and we will not mention prices or point readers toward them.
• We leave out explicit or sexual details that may appear in leaked material.

Many leaks come from stolen work or break agreements that developers had no say in. Reporting that a leak happened and what it reveals is news. Helping it spread is not something we do.

A Note on “Hacks” and Exploits

When our guides talk about hacks, we mean things inside the game: glitches, exploits, hidden unlocks and secrets that any player can reproduce on a standard console. We do not point readers to cheat tools, trainers, mod menus or other third-party downloads. Those can carry malware and can get PSN accounts banned.

Corrections

We get things wrong sometimes. When we do, we fix it in the original article and add a correction note explaining what was wrong and what the accurate information is. A correction is different from an update. An update reflects new facts. A correction admits that we made an error with the facts we already had.

If you spot a mistake, please contact us through the site with the article title and what you believe is incorrect. Supporting evidence, such as an official statement or a source we missed, helps us check it quickly. We review every correction request, and when we agree, we fix the article and say so in the note.

Our Commitments in Short

• Every news story carries a status label.
• Every unconfirmed claim names its source and reflects that source’s grade.
• Repetition across outlets never upgrades a rumor.
• Changes are made in place, dated and explained.
• Leaked material is reported on, never shared.
• Errors are corrected openly, not quietly erased.

PSX Online is a new, independent site. These standards are how we plan to earn your trust, one story at a time.