10 Insane Video Game Marketing Campaigns That Actually Happened

8. Burnout 2 - The Developer Offered To Pay For Speeding Tickets

ShadowMan 2 Advert
Acclaim Entertainment

Burnout 2 came at a time before the dawn of technological peacocking in making incredibly realistic virtual car models. Instead the focus was simply on making cars go as fast as possible and limiting the realism to make sure the fun was most important. 

To emphasise this commitment to speed, Acclaim Entertainment decided to promote the game by literally encouraging players in the UK to break the law by offering to reimburse anyone who got a speeding ticket. 

Whilst this was a somewhat unorthodox way to promote speed gameplay, the marketing team somehow didn't manage to see that the campaign was also encouraging people to commit a crime and allowing them to get away with it. The UK government were understandably unhappy about the possible rise in reckless driving so Acclaim were forced to cancel the promotion before it got off the ground properly.

Proving that controversy isn't always a bad thing and that convincing gamers to break the law is somehow a good way to build up goodwill, the game was still released in the UK to some considerable critical and commercial success.

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