Updated story, September 22 2016: In response to our statement from Michael Pachter last night where he claimed to have never called PC gamers “arrogant twits”, the paper he was quoted by – British outfit the Daily Star – has updated its original story with audio taken directly from the interview.

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In the short clip we hear the interviewer, James Wright, ask industry analyst Pachter whether he thinks Sony’s PS4 Pro unveiling will convince PC gamers to pick up the console, given its boosted power over the original PS4.

Pachter’s response is fairly stark. As he’s previously admitted, he did indeed compare PC gamers to “racists” – something, if you scroll down to the original story, you’ll see he regrets doing – but, more interestingly, he also clearly labels them as “arrogant twits”.

When we caught up with Pachter yesterday, he disputed this part of the interview and suggested he doesn’t even know what the word twit means. I have to say, the audio suggests otherwise.

Having spoken to the man who conducted the interview, the Daily Star’s James Wright, the 37 second long audio clip taken from his encounter with Pachter is itself unedited. However, it’s snipped from a much larger stretch of audio (on a wide variety of subjects) currently under wraps for use in future articles.

Wright also contests the suggestion he hounded Pachter into saying something inflamatory about PC gamers, noting that it was the first question in the entire interview to make reference to whether PC gamers might be tempted by PS4 Pro.

In Pachter’s response to us last night, he suggested comparing PC gamers to racists came as a result of repeated questioning on the issue by the journalist, resulting in his rather provocative remarks. If the paper is to be believed, however, this appears not to be true.

The full transcript from the clip is as follows:

James Wright: Do you think for those gamers who are maybe more traditionally PC who have seen the announcements might be more inclined to maybe go for that? And fork out for those kind of…

Michael Pachter: [interrupting] I think PC gamers are like racists, you know, where they only like their own kind and they have no interest in venturing out and dealing with, you know, mixing with other races, so no I don’t think so. I think PC gamers are arrogant twits who are convinced what they do is better what anyone else could possibly do. No, I don’t think so.

Original story, September 21 2016: Beware a journalist with copy to fill and no time to spare. You can talk to them for hours on end, but they’ll always lead on the ten second slip in the middle of an interview where you said something you probably shouldn’t. Apart from me. I’m lovely.

That’s exactly what industry analyst Michael Pachter claims happened during an interview with the Daily Star carried out at Sony’s big PS4 Pro reveal in New York earlier this month.

There are two interesting quotes attributed to Pachter in the piece; firstly that he compared PC gamers to racists, and secondly that he described them as “arrogant twits”.

“I think PC Gamers are like racists; they only like their own kind and they have no interest in venturing out and mixing with other races,” Pachter is quoted as saying by the paper. “PC gamers are arrogant twits who are convinced what they do is better than what anybody else can possibly do.”

The article quickly found its way to NeoGAF where his comments were roundly criticised, before Pachter himself stepped in to claim he’d been misquoted. We made contact with the man himself for a clarification and he kindly replied, stating he was coaxed into making more and more inflammatory statements.

“The question I was asked was whether PC gamers would buy the PS4 Pro. In a ten minute interview, I said ‘no’, as I didn’t think that the PS4 Pro represented enough of an upgrade to induce PC gamers to switch over,” Pachter told us.

“When asked to elaborate, I said that PC gamers prefer the control scheme of keyboard and mouse, generally have faster CPUs, and that most have far more powerful GPUs. When pressed as to ‘why’ I thought that PC gamers wouldn’t at least give the PS4 Pro a shot, I said that I thought that PC gamers were loyal to the PC and weren’t looking to switch. I used terms like ‘insular’, made analogies to political parties, to religion, to nationality.

“When pressed further, I am sure that I said ‘like racists’. It was a poor analogy, but the reporter apparently didn’t think that anything else I had to say was print-worthy.”

More interestingly, Pachter told us the claim he called PC gamers “twits” is simply not true. “I have never used the word twit. It’s not in my vocabulary,” he clarified. “I am sure that I somehow said ‘arrogant’, but ‘twit’ is just a word I wouldn’t use. I’m not altogether sure what it means, for what it’s worth.

“The reporter recorded what I said, although we were at the PlayStation event, and it was noisy. Whatever word I used must have sounded like ‘twit’ to him. I honestly don’t remember what I said, it was exactly two weeks ago, and wasn’t important enough for me to have written down my recollection at the time.”

Pachter goes on to confirm he definitely used the word “racist”, and describes it as an “unfortunate choice.” He also adds that anyone who has watched any of his Pachter Factor videos where he routinely chats about the video games industry will know him as an “articulate and definitely affable” fellow.

“I don’t think that all people who play PC games can be generalized into any category other than PC owners, so if you’re going to write something, please include my apology for offending anyone,” he concludes. “I’m a big boy, and will live with my bad choice of words.”