hackdoom Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 The PR campaign for Dante's Inferno has been quite the adventure. Booth babes were listed as prizes, game writers were sent $200 checks, and EA paid for "Christian" picketers to protest the game at E3. True, these things may have been controversial, but they were successful in their intent to get everyone talking about the game. The latest stunt is eerie, and gets bonus points for both creativity and giving the fans some fun bonuses.If you looked at the source code of certain social networking sites, as well as gaming locations, you may have found a surprise in the past few days: ASCII artwork from Dante's Inferno and a password to be put into a mysterious site. The site shows six slots for the passwords, meaning there were six hidden images scattered around the Internet. The first image was found in the source code of Digg.com, and lead to a statement about the stunt. "Since Digg’s early days, ASCII art has been ingrained in our site’s culture," Chas Edwards, Digg Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, said in a statement. "We're thrilled with the opportunity presented by our partnership with Electronic Arts and the Dante’s Inferno team—incorporating ASCII art into advertising on Digg, while providing the 40 million users in the Digg Community first access to the promotion code." Kotaku then took a look at its own source code, and was surprised to see another image (the writer claimed to know nothing about the stunt). "Loyal reader Kyle K. pointed us out to the ASCII art in the front page source for Digg, and lo and behold, we checked and found an image in ours, too," Kotaku's Owen Good wrote in the post, before explaining that Kotaku's editorial had no knowledge of the advertising campaign, or changes to the site's source code. Similar images and passwords were hidden in the sites IGN, GameSpot, Daily Motion, Games Radar, and WWE. You simply had to look at the source code for those sites to see the demonic images and grab the password. What was the point of all this treasure hunting? Fans who find all the passwords and put them into the promotional site received a large download with music tracks, wallpapers, posters, a PDF file filled with concept art, and other goodies. It may have required a good amount of legwork for the first people to find the codes, but their patience and hard work were rewarded. The images and codes were effective, as people are talking about this very unique marketing promotion. We've been playing Dante's Inferno for an upcoming review for the past few days and—in perhaps the most surprising twist—the game itself is very, very good thus far. With a PR campaign that seems designed to push people's buttons, the game has been on the lips of gaming writers across the Internet, and this may be one of the rare times where the gameplay is actually able to live up to the marketing. The image above? The password for it was "unbaptized," for, in the game you have to fight and kill unbaptized babies in Limbo. The controversy surrounding this game may not be over. News Source EA's "mysterious site" for Dante's Inferno List of passwords to enter at EA's site: excommunicate scythe grafter styx unbaptized alighieri Enjoy! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green_Eye Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 My hat goes off to the advertising team behind this game. Regardless if it fails or not. I will hold it very highly regarding the way it was advertised. (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pheee Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I think they forgot about the boxes sent out to Rick Roll people, I am sure that was Dantes Inferno. Yup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOfS2qGrGA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razorwing Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 looks like EA is going to hell for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slane Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I've read about all the things they did with this game and I haven't even bothered to look at a single screenshot. But this latest stunt has me intrigued. Imma have to look into this game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soniqstylz Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 If only they had put as much effort into designing the last 4 levels (as I read in reviews) as they did in marketing the game, it would've been awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buio Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I think they forgot about the boxes sent out to Rick Roll people, I am sure that was Dantes Inferno. Yup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOfS2qGrGA That was kind of epic. :D To bad the game didn't live up to the expectations. But as I understand it is fun an playable even if it isn't great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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