In what may have stumped Electronic Arts for the title of "most insane promotional stunt ever," THQ yesterday filled a car with 100 copies of Red Faction: Guerrilla and then parked it in the middle of London, encouraging passers-by to "smash and grab" to get their hands on one.
A sledgehammer was chained next to the car, and anybody lucky enough to be near the spectacle could crack open the vehicle and get a free game. The contrived link between the car and the game is of course Guerrilla's fully destructible environments. THQ felt it would be "an interesting experiment to find out how many people, going about their everyday business, would stop in a busy city street to work out some stress by smashing their way into a car to earn a copy of the brand new game."
Amazingly, this story does not end with the words "... and six wounded." Well done to THQ for managing to somehow keeping the death toll at zero.
London public unleash their own strategic destruction to earn copies of a brand new video game
A car filled with over 100 copies of a brand new video game was left in busy central London areas yesterday, with passers-by encouraged to 'smash and grab' in order to celebrate the launch of Red Faction Guerrilla on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and get their hands on one of the first copies of the game for free.
During the day, footage captured hundreds of passers-by picking up the sledgehammer left chained next to the vehicle in Covent Garden, London, and smashing their way to success and grabbing a copy of Red Faction Guerrilla, a new destruction-based game released by THQ on Friday 5th June.
Simon Watts, PR Manager, UK & Europe for THQ, said: "Because Red Faction Guerrilla features the world's most realistic destruction engine, we thought that it would make for an interesting experiment to find out how many people, going about their everyday business, would stop in a busy city street to work out some stress by smashing their way into a car to earn a copy of the brand new game."
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 06.11.2009
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Yeah, my high school was kind of redneck.
"... and six wounded."
First thing that came to mind.
Canada never gets ANY cool promo stuff, EVER! Why is that?
Firstly, how can 1 car be in several areas? Secondly, the way they say it was "left" implies there weren't a dozen PR people standing around making sure people actually take part in the smashing. PR stunt is a PR stunt.
I know I fucking do...
But seriously, a sledge hammer.
Awesome.
2) Did someone take 16 copies and put them on eBay?
3) Did someone try to steal the car afterwards?
4) Was there really no psycho who took the sledgehammer to passers-by?
It'd be a blessing if any major media outlets picked up the story and bitched about it, even a little.
also no video? LAME.
thanks, for thinking of others.
Damn europeans.
omg,i'm so confused.Need video! :D good thing no ostriches were harmed during the promotion of the game lol
they also should have a giant videogame pinata for the next "Viva Pinata" game
not that i play those games, but still that would be badass