Capcom's severed limb stunt turned out to be a disaster

12:00 PM on 03.12.2009   |   Jim Sterling

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When we reported that Capcom was marketing Resident Evil 5 in the UK by making fans hunt for severed limbs and wave them around on Westminster bridge, we predicted it would end in tears. What we didn't predict, however, was that the tears would be ones of depression. The gimmicky stunt turned out to be a disaster, but not the kind of controversial and ridiculous disaster we'd hoped for.

It all just went a bit rubbish. 

Negative Gamer was at Westminster bridge on the day of the event, and reported that the entire sum of the contest consisted of "a zombie in a bin bag and a group of bored looking photographers and that’s all really." Pictures show an incredibly small crowd of students doing very little. Perhaps asking typically self-conscious Brits to wave body parts and shout "Kijuju" in public wasn't the best idea.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the contest was undermined from the get-go thanks to a number of the hidden body parts getting stolen by what we could only assume were short-sighted necrophiliacs. Hold on though, because somehow it gets even worse than that. It turns out that Capcom used uncooked chicken livers to add to the gore, which of course runs the risk of poison. 

"The body parts are very realistic and we don't want people to be alarmed by them," warned a Capcom spokesman. "They've all been taken from their original positions, but we now have no idea where they are. If you have them, please either return them, or dispose of them in a responsible and careful manner. In addition, chicken livers were used for added gore, and, uncooked, they can be dangerous."

The contest was won by 26-year-old Steve Long. If he hasn't got salmonella already.