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Bash 125. Activision's Marketing Fumbles
Jockyitch, from bashandslash.com, posted up the newest webcast. A lot of points being made about the marketing Activision has done with Modern Warfare 2. Here is what they had to say:
Though it should have been a runaway romp, the marketing of Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the iconic CoD4, has been a muddy slog.
Activision, the game’s publisher and Infinity Ward, its developer, have seen the game’s release troubled by an ever growing list of issues, many of their own making.
MW2’s ball-handlers have dropped their fair share of pig-skin in the last few months. Here are just the lowlights:
Activision brass increase the price of MW2 during the deepest recession since the Great One, just because they can. This causes great resentment even amongst the game’s fanboys. <!--more-->
The PC community forges a 170,000+ petition demanding the restitution of dedicated servers after it pieces together the dev’s plot to have their online experience replaced by a peer-to-peer system.
PC pre-orders of the game drop, as does Activision stock, soon after the news of the lack of dedi servers hits the internet.
IW devs single out hardcore CoD PC gamers as bad influences. They are effectively fired. Modders, competitive gamers and tuners go into anaphylactic shock.
PC Modders revolt after they see that their creativity is harvested and used blatantly in some of MW2’s more appealing features, without so much as any recognition (never mind any monetary compensation).
Console gamers get a hold of MW2 DVD’s and begin live-streaming SP missions over the internet. Hundred’s of spoiler alerts go unheeded as the game’s closely guarded secrets get spilled.
Pirated MW2 console torrents are being seeded across the world, two weeks before the game is officially released. This finally dispels the myth that illegal PC downloads were the real problem.
CNN ireporters call in to say that MW2 lets kids play terrorist characters. The alleged opening scenes of MW2 see the wholesale slaughter of civilians. Acid-tongued CNN readers suggest that the only terrorism is the cancellation of dedicated servers.
We all know how much the news went downhill after the announcement of the dedicated servers. Now as I even go through news I have to make sure about the spoilers that are now rampant. To top it off, the newest funny video IW released about grenade spamming is being pulled because so many people found it offensive.
Did Activision drop this ball bigtime or is it bad publicity is still good publicity? Is this fumble recoverable? What other thoughts about how everything has been handled with the game? You can listen to the podcast here. I have not heard it yet, so I do not know if there are spoilers in it.
Source
Though it should have been a runaway romp, the marketing of Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the iconic CoD4, has been a muddy slog.
Activision, the game’s publisher and Infinity Ward, its developer, have seen the game’s release troubled by an ever growing list of issues, many of their own making.
MW2’s ball-handlers have dropped their fair share of pig-skin in the last few months. Here are just the lowlights:
Activision brass increase the price of MW2 during the deepest recession since the Great One, just because they can. This causes great resentment even amongst the game’s fanboys. <!--more-->
The PC community forges a 170,000+ petition demanding the restitution of dedicated servers after it pieces together the dev’s plot to have their online experience replaced by a peer-to-peer system.
PC pre-orders of the game drop, as does Activision stock, soon after the news of the lack of dedi servers hits the internet.
IW devs single out hardcore CoD PC gamers as bad influences. They are effectively fired. Modders, competitive gamers and tuners go into anaphylactic shock.
PC Modders revolt after they see that their creativity is harvested and used blatantly in some of MW2’s more appealing features, without so much as any recognition (never mind any monetary compensation).
Console gamers get a hold of MW2 DVD’s and begin live-streaming SP missions over the internet. Hundred’s of spoiler alerts go unheeded as the game’s closely guarded secrets get spilled.
Pirated MW2 console torrents are being seeded across the world, two weeks before the game is officially released. This finally dispels the myth that illegal PC downloads were the real problem.
CNN ireporters call in to say that MW2 lets kids play terrorist characters. The alleged opening scenes of MW2 see the wholesale slaughter of civilians. Acid-tongued CNN readers suggest that the only terrorism is the cancellation of dedicated servers.
We all know how much the news went downhill after the announcement of the dedicated servers. Now as I even go through news I have to make sure about the spoilers that are now rampant. To top it off, the newest funny video IW released about grenade spamming is being pulled because so many people found it offensive.
Did Activision drop this ball bigtime or is it bad publicity is still good publicity? Is this fumble recoverable? What other thoughts about how everything has been handled with the game? You can listen to the podcast here. I have not heard it yet, so I do not know if there are spoilers in it.
Source
Iw/Acti = Massive Fail.
, but with the price will go down eventually 
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