Origen: The Apocalypse
I could have posted this yesterday, but I figured I’d let the initial burst of irritation pass in the hopes of tapping into some more neutral, or positive feedback on the end of the countdown over at the Origen XBox 360 page. Alas, none was really to be found.
The months of waiting, with every minute change to the site beng monitored and discussed by dozens of industry and personal blogs, were all to see a couple of whacked-out bunnies jabber back and forth in some ridiculous pseudo-philosophical lingo, and then, oh amazement of amazements, to watch European flags dangle from the doped up fruit tree. The point? To announce a European competition for a couple of tickets to the Origen launch party, to be held in the United States. What ever happened to the simple press release? If the site were to announce something truly exciting, I might be willing to watch the cute little rabbits and put up with the psilocybin-influenced effects. This however, should maybe have crawled its way into gaming forums across the world, begging to be noticed, rather than on a site that probably cost more to design and implement than the GNP of many third world countries.
This viral campaign has been soundly beaten with blunt objects all over the internet and word has it that spokesbunnies Boss and Didier (oh how camp) are said to have fired their agents for ever getting them involved in this steaming pile of horsesh–…this unpopular XBox marketing.
It has to be said though, that the bunnies did their job very well. The site drew an awful lot of traffic, and Microsoft had an awful lot of people hooked on the countdown. As a viral campaign, the site exploded onto the scene, sucking viewers in like a massive black hole, and holding them there until the company decided that it was done teasing them. Excellent job. I think however, that Microsoft may have shot itself in the foot to some extent by annoying their large North American market with this foolishness. It’s all fine and well to be creative and try new ploys to boost interest, but make sure that the end result was worth the trip for fans, or you run the serious risk of losing them.
Even the suggestion that the remaining fruit on the tree will ripen into further competitions in other areas of the world probably won’t be able to put the lost oomph back into Origen.
1 opinion for Origen: The Apocalypse
the play girlz gaming blog » Branded: Microsoft Ties To Adidas
Oct 5, 2005 at 10:42 pm
[…] Does anyone else think that Microsoft is doing a wonderful job of shooting themselves in the foot? Their unpopular marketing strategies have already gotten themselves into hot water with some gamers. Let’s see how much of their support base they can alienate prior to launch. […]
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