Ubisoft admits video game stunt which saw bomb squad called ‘didn’t go as planned’
Ubisoft has apologised for Tuesday’s PR stunt which saw the bomb squad called and staff evacuated from Ninemsn’s offices in Australia Square after a black safe and a “suspicious” letter were delivered.
A spokesperson for the gaming company said the delivery of the safe, which had the wrong pin code attached to it, “didn’t go as planned”, after the company was unable to leave a crucial voicemail for the journalist it was addressed to explaining what was happening.
The statement from Ubisoft read: “As part of a themed promotion for Watch Dogs, our team in Australia sent voicemail messages to some local media alerting them that they’d receive a special package related to the game.
“Unfortunately, the delivery to Ninemsn didn’t go as planned, and we unreservedly apologise to Ninemsn’s staff for the mistake and for any problems caused as a result. We will take additional precautions in the future to ensure this kind of situation doesn’t happen again.”
However, the company refused to specify whether the stunt was handled internally by Ubisoft, or by an external PR firm.
Yesterday Ninemsn editor Hal Crawford told Mumbrella: “This is definitely the other side of the line in terms of what it’s safe for a PR company to send anonymously to a newsroom. The thing was black, heavy and slightly creepy.”
The stunt has divided commentators on social media with many applauding the PR stunt as clever and successful, while others have condemned it a PR fail, a waste of police time and “just bloody stupid”.
Some of the Tweets:
Linkedin
Love it – mission accomplished
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Bomb squad called to promotion of game about urban terrorism. Saturation coverage.
PR event of the year.
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Jen McLaren seems to be overreacting somewhat.
The main problem I have with Watch_Dogs is the crappy QA in the game itself, which Ubisoft is no stranger to.
Basically every title they’ve released for PC in the last couple of years has been plagued with either major issues in the internal code or antique DRM which prevents customers who’ve actually paid money for the game from accessing their property.
2006: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter – Bad port.
2007: Assassin’s Creed on PC, 5 months after console. Why the hold up, if some people pirated it completely before the 2 months left for release?
2007: GRAW 2, see above
2008: Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, horrendous port.
2009: Assassin’s Creed II, DRM locking people out of their game.
2010: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2, – unplayable.
2011: Anno 2070, 3 machine activation limit. Welcome back to 2001.
2011: From Dust, again, a sub-par and almost-broken PC version.
2012: Far Cry 3, map editor sucks and only for MP, no splitscreen as they promised.
2012: I Am Alive, cancelled for PC and then magically appearing 5 months after. (And it’s rubbish).
2013: Lazy year for Ubi, no huge probl- oh wait, AC3’s optimisation was so bad that it was literally unplayable for months on release.
Don’t even ask about AC4’s optimisation.
2014: Watch_Dogs and its pile of issues on release.
“Ubi, release a top tier game without a significant bug in it, and I’ll buy it at full price. Until then, hello steam holiday sales.” – every PC gamer in the world who doesn’t work for Ubisoft.
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Because that’s what real bombs actually look like, yes? The idiot here is the person that called the police.
Hell, they should’ve done one with a countdown clock and three wires for you to cut.
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