14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Ubisoft has issued an official apology to all those concerned after an Australian office had to be evacuated and a special bomb squad was called in in the eve of a publicity stunt for the recently launched Watch Dogs that went very wrong.
A copy of the video game was sent to a reporter’s office in Sidney in a special black safe and the recipient was told to check his voice mail for more details.
The reporter did not have the function activated and the package started beeping when the company tried to open it up, which prompted them to fear that it was actually a bomb.
New South Wales police arrived on the scene in the center of the city and after checking about similar incidents, it sent all the people in the building home and then a bomb squad was sent in to open the safe.
A copy of Watch Dogs was found inside, but it seems that no one was impressed with the promotional effort, although the police has not issued an official statement on the incident.
The Local, a French newspaper, quotes sources inside Ubisoft as saying that the entire event did not go as initially planned and that there are plans to avoid all similar stunts in the future, as more Watch Dogs promotional efforts are launched all around the world.
An internal investigation will also be launched in order to make sure that all those responsible are reprimanded and the company will work closely with its partners to make sure that its marketing is not offensive in any way.
The French publisher has also announced that Watch Dogs has been the fastest selling title in the history of the company during the first 24 hours it has been on sale and that more records are expected to be broken in the coming days and weeks.
The open world experience can be played on the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, the PC and current-gen consoles and there are plans to also launch a version for the Wii U from Nintendo before 2013 ends.
At the moment, the game is affected by some big issues linked to the uPlay service from Ubisoft and the company is working to eliminate them as fast as possible.
At the same time, gamers are dealing with some problems related to the PC version of the game that have no clear fixes for now.