TOP-5 hardcore PR campaigns in the gaming industry: scorpions in food, heresy simulator and mayhem on the road

In honor of the release of the new part of Borat, huge almost completely naked figures of Sacha Baron Cohen floated across New York, Toronto and London, only their private parts were covered with medical masks. Defiantly? Still would! But believe me: PR people at game studios have come up with worse promotions. These are the ones we are going to talk about today.

And we'll start with a gorgeous advertising campaign that went to Dante's Inferno, not the most outstanding God of War clone. Electronic Arts marketers did their best to play on the main theme of the game — human vices.

Game publications received boxes that continuously played the famous Never Gonna Give You Up. The only way to shut up the annoying box was to smash it with a hammer — and succumb to the sin of anger. Journalists received checks for $200 to be caught being greedy (or extravagant). And shortly before the release, the developers launched an advertisement for the Christian clergy simulator Mass: We Pray — with a controller in the shape of a cross. The idea is quite funny: it's a pity that it turned out to be just an excuse to accuse the players of heresy and once again draw attention to Dante's Inferno. The final point was the release date of the game. The project hit the shelves on 09/09/09 with a discount of 6 dollars and 66 cents.

If EA and Visceral Games had put as much effort into development, perhaps Dante's Inferno would be remembered today for more than just its advertising creativity.

An honorable second place in this ranking deservedly goes to Microsoft and, perhaps, the most large-scale advertising campaign in the entire history of game consoles. Typically, to show off a new product, a console manufacturer will simply rent out a press room. But this was not enough for Phil Spencer, and an entire Stay N' Play hotel was built for the presentation of the Xbox One X.

The hotel, however, was very small and was open for only a few days. But during this time, any resident of Sydney could occupy one of four available rooms, each of which was dedicated to its own game: Forza Motorsport 7, Assassin's Creed: Origins , Call of Duty and Minecraft.

During the promotion of the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition, the corporation distinguished itself again. The French gaming press was sent lollipops with real scorpions inside (no one, it seems, dared to lick these). But in Germany they did not act so extravagantly and sent journalists a completely edible set of spicy popcorn and Scorpio soda.

Would you agree to name your child Dovahkiin? What if they give you lifetime access to all Bethesda projects? It sounds strange, but this is exactly the campaign that the game studio launched in honor of the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

It is unclear whether the company's marketers believed in the success of the idea, but just in case, they warned potential participants in the action that their child would probably be teased at school, and in general, not a single reward was worth it. Despite everything, those interested were found very quickly. Young parents Tom and Megan Kellermeyer, whose son was born on the day the game was released, named him Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer.

How things are with the guy now is a mystery. In 2020, he should turn 9 years old — quite a suitable age to ask his parents for a strange name.

The creators of World of Tanks went even further. In 2015, Wargaming filmed a commercial, in which the main role was played by comedian Vadim Galygin. In the story, a dad, an ardent MMO fan, plays hide and seek with his son. Seeing that the child is hiding in the closet, the father nails up the doors so that his son does not distract him from virtual battles.

Players did not appreciate the company's peculiar humor, accusing Wargaming of promoting child abuse. The company's PR director, Maxim Koltonyuk, immediately rushed to say that they did not want to offend anyone and that the video was leaked online by accident. Would you lock your child in a closet for tanks?

The main feature of the racing arcade Burnout 2: Point of Impact was the Crash mode. In it you had to arrange car accidents on virtual streets: the larger the accident, the more points. In honor of the release of such a controversial game, publisher Acclaim almost launched an unusual and very stupid promotion.

The company promised to pay all speeding fines issued in the UK on the day of release. Agree, promoting unsafe driving is a very dubious activity — it is not surprising that the campaign was eventually cancelled.

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It is interesting that the scandalous PR did not help most projects find the love of the audience. Maybe success doesn't depend on scandals at all, what do you think?