10 Most Embarrassing Product Placements In Video Games
6. EverQuest II’s Pizza Delivery Command
The original EverQuest is seen as an important milestone in the MMORPG genre but its sequel unfortunately didn’t keep up the momentum. With World of Warcraft releasing around the same time, and going on to scoop up the vast majority of MMO players, EverQuest’s publishers had to find new ways to stand out.
Starting in 2005, the game began a relationship with Pizza Hut. It almost seems like a gag command but EverQuest players could type /pizza to pull a browser window up to place an order for dinner whilst continuing their grind towards the game’s level cap.
Wow! What a feat of engineering! It’s not like players couldn’t simply ALT+TAB out of the window and go to the Pizza Hut website themselves.
Firstly, it speaks down to players but more than that it almost seems to reinforce the stereotype of the slothful gamer who can’t fend for themselves or take a break. That being said, as apparently seamless as the idea was - you’d still have to actually get up to answer the door to receive this mystical pizza!
The whole thing seems not only forced (not sure what fast food has to do with mediaeval fantasy) but so supremely lazy. If you’re going to commit to ridiculous synergy between brands then at least go all in…