Atari Pulling an Eidos with Alone in the Dark in Germany
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 - 3:58pm
Atari demands a German gaming site pull down a review over claims of piracy and subjectivity.
When the site tells them to "F*ck off," they pull advertising. Sounds like Kane & Lynch with a twist. At least no one is getting fired this time around.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
To Atari's credit, there does seem to be something fishy going on here. These reviews are a lot lower than scores from just about everyone else and if they DID pirate the game it's possible they based their review on an incomplete build.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
You do know that Gerstmann's firing was never properly evidenced to be a result of the K&L review right?
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
True, but no one close enough to it was allowed to talk about it, or wanted to. Seems a little too coincidental to me.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
The 4Players review was 68/100 - nothing outrageous given the current Metacritic score. Also, they did not test a pirated version or a beta build of the game. That I know. It turned into a total PR disaster for Atari, even Germany's biggest news portal covered the story. Consequently enough, Atari today retracted all accusations and apologized.
Actually, the ad campaign was canceled as a result of a preview that wasn't overly enthusiastic. The "Screw you"-part was a response to Atari's demand to pull the review and sign a particular document.
I didn't know there was a serious doubt about it.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
Heh, Atari could've saved themselves a lot of grief by not being stupid in the first place.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
I still think the game looks fairly solid and the story looks promising. It tries to do some new things i..e macgyver and DVD chapters, overall I'm making it a point to buy this for the effort anyway instead of sticking the money into another Call of Duty or Battlefield sequel.
I'm guessing Atari is very punchy about Alone in the Dark, as they seem to be betting their future as a company on 4+ million sales. I don't recall where, but I remember seeing a statement from them about the importance of the title for them.
xbl y3llow5 | steam yellow#5 | PSN ForrestTheWicked
This is the story of human history, in a nutshell.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
Atari and their parent company are both on the edge of financial ruin. If this title doesn't at least break even, it could very well be the end of them. That said, what they're doing certainly isn't helping them reach that goal.
"Just because something's popular, that sure doesn't make it right." -Penn Gilette
"You can't fix stupid." -Ron White
blog.digital-lifeline.ca