In a misfired PR stunt Wednesday, the official Call of Duty Twitter account sent out a string of 20 supposedly "live" tweets to 2.8 million followers reporting a fictional terrorist attack in Singapore.
To make the War of the Worlds-style farce more convincing, it switched its username and avatar on its verified Twitter account, and changed its background image to read "Current Events Aggregate" with the tagline “We bring you real news.” These have since been switched back to the original Call of Duty images and username.
BREAKING NEWS: Unconfirmed reports are coming in of an explosion on the North bank of the Singapore Marina.— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The PR stunt was meant to build hype for the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a first-person shooter video game set in the near future during a new Cold War.
UPDATE: Singapore Authorities have officially announced a state of emergency and declared martial law.— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The tweets went on to describe a 30 mile quarantine zone, advising citizens to stay indoors and close their doors and windows, with riots and gunfire ensuing. Screenshots from the game were included with some tweets, setting the stage for the opening scene of the upcoming sequel.
Shots have been fired at the newly established blockades as citizens attempt to flee the new "Quarantine Zone." pic.twitter.com/7kvZLGDtwB— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The game, due to launch Nov. 6, is set in the year 2065. Players head to Singapore to investigate the disappearance of a CIA station in the first mission of the game.
Despite public outrage calling the campaign “distasteful” and “offensive,” all of the tweets are still live and no response has been issued.
@CallofDuty - there have been too many similiar tragedies lately to joke in the way you did without making your fiction clear :/— Miss Envy (@missenvy) September 29, 2015
@CallofDuty Live tweeting a fake terror attack in this day and age, what could possibly have gone wrong?— ᴷᴶ (@xKayIeigh) September 30, 2015
.@CallofDuty Your fake news story advertisement is offensive on multiple levels. I'm not buying another CoD and encouraging others to not.— Adam Feldhaus (@cafeldhaus) September 30, 2015
@CallofDuty This was unbelievably poor taste. How about we send you to a combat zone and see how well you like makin jokes after?— Art Jam! (@jimibab) September 30, 2015
Only at the end of the tweet storm did Call of Duty acknowledge the tweets were part of a promotion.
This was a glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3.— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
However, fans of the game defended the marketing ploy, accusing critics of being too sensitive and gullible.
@CallofDuty let the haterade flow! Orson Welles would've been proud— Joseph Anthony (@NotoriousJnX) September 29, 2015
@CallofDuty People are so stupid! If anyone thought this was real then they should be euthanized— Hugh Janus (@Qweefin) September 30, 2015
@CallofDuty I thought the posts were epic. Those people are obviously just stupid if they couldn't tell it was fake. September 30, 2015
Singapore officials have not commented on the campaign.
This isn’t the first time Call of Duty has sparked controversy. In Modern Warfare 2, a mission has the player join Russian terrorists who kill civilians in an airport. This was later modified in Russia, where the mission was removed from the Russian PC version of the game.
In Modern Warfare 3, the game had a disturbing scene that depicted the death of a child and her family in an explosion.
And in the original Black Ops, Cuban authorities didn’t take kindly to the assassination of Fidel Castro, which accused the game of glorifying real attempts to kill its leader.
The previous installment, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, was the largest ever retail release for a video game at the time, according to Activision, the game series’ publisher. It reportedly sold 7.5 million copies on launch day, grossing over $500 million. It was later surpassed by Grand Theft Auto V.
We've reached out to Activision, which owns Call of Duty, for further comment.