Following a marketing stunt where the official Call of Duty Twitter account was putting up non-Call of Duty related news that depicted a fake terrorist attack, one of the developers decided to apologize for the marketing stunt.
IGN did a brief interview with Treyarch producer Jason Blundell, who apologized for what went up on the Call of Duty Twitter account...
Here’s my view – and again, I’m a simple director and not involved in the marketing at all, [...] However, it was absolutely not done for any kind of attention in any way. It was not done maliciously, or as any kind of scare tactic. I personally am very sorry for anyone who looked at it and got the wrong idea because it genuinely wasn’t meant that way.It was done on our channel, and it was to talk about the fiction of the world. I think we were as shocked as everybody else when it started blowing up, because essentially we were teeing up ready for a story beat. So again, very sorry for anyone who took it that way. It wasn’t meant that way at all – it was supposed to just be getting ready for a campaign element.
Originally the Call of Duty Twitter account switched over its theme and name and began posting up non-gaming news. It all culminated in a series of tweets about a terrorist attack in Singapore.
Most of the followers questioned what the account was doing and shrugged it off, but the news media reproached Activision and Treyarch for posting about a fake terrorist attack from their social media account, which has a couple of million followers.
The publicity stunt ended up doing what Activision was probably hoping for from the start: get people talking about Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. It seems like Black Ops 3 could use the extra buzz. Following the game's limited beta and the news that Treyarch would be fixing various issues with the beta, the game has mostly just wafted through the media circuits with very little fanfare.
Then again, maybe Call of Duty didn't need this publicity at all. Nielsen Media's stats show that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is actually the most anticipated game of the fall. They rank it just a percentage above Fallout 4. It's hard to believe, considering how much attention is paid to Bethesda's post-apocalyptic action-RPG and DICE's Star Wars: Battlefront. by gamers and critics alike.
