Protest of Dante's Inferno an EA-sponsored viral marketing stunt

A rather tepid "religious" protest of Dante's Inferno outside E3 yesterday turns out to have been driven by EA all along.

Protest of Dante's Inferno a viral marketing stunt

The nicely-traced Dante's Inferno logo kind of gives it away, doesn't it?

A group of about a dozen members of a group that calls itself "Salvationists Against Virtual and Eternal Damnation" meandered around outside the LA Convention Center yesterday wielding signs protesting EA's upcoming game, Dante's Inferno. Proudly displaying posters with lines like "Hell is not a game," "My high score is in heaven," and "Just Say infer-NO!!!" the protesters were in fact giving out shabbily-made pamphlets leading to an equally-shabby website: http://wearesavedgroup.org.

Scroll to the bottom of said website and you'll find a link, in misleading text, to the official EA Dante's Inferno page. Apparently, EA was behind the protest all along.

Props to EA for gutsiness, but we almost wish they'd gone the extra mile. 12 people is mildly amusing. 100 angry souls would have been spectacular! You can let them know what you think of the protest (or play along) by snail-mailing S.A.V.E.D. at the following address:

P.O. Box 4577, Portland, OR

The start of an alternate reality game or a one-off PR stunt by EA? Whatever the case, we'll keep you apprised from our E3 hub, where you can find all of GamePro's E3 Expo coverage from the week.

Protest of Dante's Inferno an EA-sponsored viral marketing stunt

Comments [24]

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Fat_bot

God, they couldn't just tell Jack Thompson about it? He's probably hurting for publicity right now.

Nightfall5

Maybe like.... A golden PlayStation, with wings, and... Aww, hell, I dunno.... I may be an atheist, but I still think it would look awesome! :P

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Sac077

Nightfall5 wrote:

Maybe like.... A golden PlayStation, with wings, and... Aww, hell, I dunno.... I may be an atheist, but I still think it would look awesome! :P

With A Halo And Cross Shaped Controllers

The_LightShow

This is just embarrassing for EA, this really is.

I'm curious how much money they paid those protesters, and/or how many people they asked around to do it for free before they had to pay them.

What I wonder is, is it protest to buy the game and stick it to those who protested, or not buy the game and stick it to EA? (Rhetorical question)

JDizzleNO1

i think this is absolutely brilliant. why not having a bunch of people protest the game and link there "saved" website to the inferno game. that is definitely a great way to increase publicity in the game.

hikayu

i dont really care about ea being anti-christ or if it's something ea pulled together just for the attention because im a gamer and an atheist . so strike me down now god , cuz i dont believe in you . .... yea , didnt think so . i dont lik EA , dont hate it . i might as well download this game and see how much i like it before buying it . so far , it looks good .

fgijonc

To be honest, this is rather...stupid of EA. I wonder who came up with this idea.

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