10 Insane Video Game Marketing Campaigns That Actually Happened
9. Dante's Inferno - People Were Paid To Protest The Game
Dante's Inferno manages to combine part of an epic 14th century poem with the demon ass-kicking prowess of John Constantine. And naturally, with all the Christian imagery and references to Lucifer, EA thought that the game would get a big boost in publicity by jumping on the whole protesting bandwagon. Unfortunately, EA jumped on the wrong wagon and took a turn down the Westboro Baptist Church route.
During the 2009 E3 exhibition in Los Angeles, EA decided to hire 20 'protesters' to complain about and oppose the game on the streets. Armed with signs and loudspeakers, the 'protesters' played their part in labelling the game as sacrilegious and suggesting that EA is the anti-Christ.
The lack of homophobic slurs on the signs and the crazy gleam in each protester's eyes immediately led to people believing that the 'protest' was a mere publicity stunt, which EA owned up to pretty quickly. Whilst the game's release was relatively unaffected, EA did catch the ire of Christians who weren't too happy about having their reputation dragged through the mud for a video game.
Admittedly, it was a slight shame that it wasn't an actual protest from the Westboro Baptist Church as the E3 crowd of Red Bull-filled gamers and cosplayers would've eaten them up alive to the amusement of all.