8 Video Games That Pushed Petty Feuds
2. Water Vs. Red Bull - Dying Light
The growing allegiance between video game developers and energy drink manufacturers is a worrying an insidious one, with popular new releases being bundled with packs of beverages such as Monster Energy encouraging children to stay up all night chugging the over-caffeinated garbage and swearing at each other online until their inevitable heart attacks at 17.
My own moralising aside, Techland, the developers of the brilliant and underrated Dying Light, threw some serious shade at Destiny developers Bungie and their evil overlords Activision when they called them out over such a promotion.
Bungie had announced that by buying specific cans of Red Bull, players would gain access a one-off XP boost and a quest exclusive to anyone stupid enough to buy into such reprehensible marketing.
Techland's response to this was to launch its own campaign, where players were rewarded with a premium weapon cache for tweeting a photo of themselves drinking a glass of water accompanied by the hashtag #drinkrightdyinglight.
Their initial tweet, reading "we're jumping on the latest trend in game marketing!" included a promotional image almost identical in layout to Bungie's Red Bull promo, featuring a simple glass of water in the centre. The promotion was wildly successful, and is an absolutely priceless swing at a company whose marketing has become increasingly cynical and problematic.