Gaming’s Worst Marketing Stunts

So, a few weeks ago, the official Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Twitter account randomly changed its name to ‘Current Events Aggregate’ and started reporting fake news stories. At first it was a little bemusing, tweeting about fake films and fashion. Then things started getting a bit dark when the account reported "BREAKING NEWS: Unconfirmed reports are coming in of an explosion on the North bank of the Singapore Marina." The reaction was general confusion (remember that the account, for all intents and purposes, looked like a normal verified news account) and, after the stunt was over, the account tweeted “That was a glimpse into the future of #BlackOps3”. It was widely criticised for being in poor taste and a non-apology, that stated it was never meant to offend, was issued by the game director.Unfortunately, this is nothing new for gaming marketing companies. This stunt is actually pretty tame compared to some of the worst ones. Gaming advertising is typically loud, brash and attention grabbing. It’s no surprise then that some stunts leap past the realm of good taste and end up with terribly cringe results. These ill-conceived stunts are unfortunately commonplace and no one ever seems to really learn from them. So, without further ado, here are the worst of the worst:  God of War 2:Being well known for its gratuitous violence and questionable sexualisation you’d expect a certain level of gross from God of War’s marketing. Now, quadruple that level. In the run up to God of War 2’s launch, Sony hosted a party in Athens which featured topless models serving grapes, live snakes, Kratos impersonators and fire breathers. Nothing too bad so far. The issue arose from the centrepiece: a freshly decapitated goat with its still warm guts spilling out. Guests were invited to reach inside the goat and eat its innards, giving them a chance to win a PS3. When pictures surfaced, the press jumped on them. As if games didn’t have enough image issues already. Watch Dogs:This dumb idea suffers from a particular lack of foresight. Ubisoft anonymously sent an unsolicited package to an Australian gaming news outlet which, when opened, appeared to be a bomb. The bomb squad was called and the building evacuated. When opened the ‘bomb’ contained a copy of Watch Dogs, a baseball cap and a beanie. Needless to say, the journalists that they scared the bejesus out of were none too pleased. Resident Evil 5 (and 6):In an event to promote Resident Evil 5 Capcom’s marketing agency decided to spread fake body parts around London, encouraging fans to go on a ‘treasure hunt’ for them throughout the city. These ‘body parts’ were fairly convincing looking, so you wouldn’t exactly want to be a random oblivious person coming across a bloody arm stump in the park. Three years later, to promote Resident Evil 6, Capcom set up a pop-up shop in London which was designed to look like they were selling cuts of human meat. Offers included ‘Peppered Human Sausage’ and ‘Human Thigh Steak’, as well as numerous hands. I actually think this stunt is kind of cool with people more likely to cop that they hadn’t come across an actual crime scene. Although, the company did actually set up fake crime scenes to promote the game so I’m taking back those points. Dante’s Inferno:It’s safe to say that you shouldn’t expect much from a game that feature a boss fight with ‘Lust’, a naked undead woman that moans at you until you eventually defeat her by stabbing her to death in a somehow sexually suggestive manner. Ya, it’s pretty gross. Anyway, firstly they hired actors to pretend to be a religious group picketing the game outside the E3 convention centre (which is just desperate and dishonest) and then encouraged convention goers to ‘commit acts of lust’ with Booth Babes and document it on social media. Despite later stating that this was supposed to mean posing for photos with the models the ambiguous wording seemed to implicitly support acts of sexual assault. Splinter Cell: ConvictionWhen a man with a bandaged arm stumbled into a bar in New Zealand and brandished a gun at the people inside the reaction was understandable: people dived for cover, someone called the police and they arrived armed on the scene. They quickly discovered that the gun was a fake and the gunman had been hired by an advertising company to promote Splinter Cell: Conviction. It’s not difficult to imagine a much worse outcome to this story: one in which the supposed gunman was shot right in the face.  AcclaimAcclaim, a now defunct developer since 2004, had so many cringe inducing marketing stunts back in the day they deserve a unified entry. For the release date of their racing game Burnout 2 they offered to cover the speeding tickets of drivers in the UK, effectively encouraging people to drive dangerously. After a negative response from the government they ultimately cancelled the plan. In another seriously ill-conceived idea they tried to promote Shadowman 2 by buying advertising space on gravestones, claiming it would help poorer people to afford better funeral services. This plan was, unsurprisingly, also cancelled. Lastly, to promote Turok, they offered $10,000 to the first couple to name their baby Turok. The news stories disappear after the initial announcement so it’s probably safe to say that no one was dumb enough to take them up on the offer.