Fans of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 that follow the game’s official Twitter account were left scratching their heads when the account seemingly disappeared from the Twitterverse in September, replaced with an account calling itself “Current Events Aggregate,” which tweeted seemingly random movie news and had nothing to do with the popular FPS franchise.
But when the account suddenly claimed that an explosion had decimated the North bank of the Singapore marina, mass confusion followed. The account proceeded to live tweet a terrorist attack on Singapore, leaving the public wondering if the reports were fact or fiction. When it was revealed the terrorist attack live tweet was nothing but a marketing stunt designed to give gamers a “glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3,” fans were quick to deride the tactless marketing scheme.
Activision has yet to release an official statement on the debacle, but speaking with IGN, Call of Duty developer Treyarch’s senior executive producer Jason Blundell has said that he is shocked by the negative reaction to the stunt, saying:
Blundell stressed that the tweets were intended to offer fans of the Call of Duty franchise a look into the world of the upcoming game, but he understands the anger surrounding the marketing ploy, and reinforced that the tweets were not made maliciously.
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 gearing up for a November 6th release date, it’s understandable that Activision wants to build as much buzz for the title as possible. But with many upset over the game’s lack of a campaign mode for Xbox 360 and the PS3, and the decision to release timed exclusive DLC for the PS4, the last thing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 needs is more bad publicity.
Source: IGN
