Activision has posted a series of tweets about a fictional terrorist attack that sets up the framework of events to feature in upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Shared via the official Call of Duty Twitter account, the posts began with reports of an explosion in Singapore Marina.
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 source of the explosion is reported to be at Coalescence Corporation, a fictional company that was featured in the Call of Duty: Black Ops III “Ember” teaser. The tweets went on to state that Singapore Authorities had announced an official state of emergency, and declared martial law. The final post in the series of tweets read, “This was a glimpse into the future fiction of #BlackOps3.”
The tweets confirmed a character named James Chung will be tied to the game in some way as commander of the Singapore Armed Forces. A second Twitter account titled “TheUnMarkedMan” posted conspiracy-theory style speculation in response to the tweets, further teasing story elements in the upcoming shooter.
The social media campaign has been met with some criticism (via Digital Spy), as the posts could have incited unwarranted panic. At the time of posting the series of fictional reports of the attack in Singapore, the Call of Duty Twitter account had changed its profile picture, name, and profile description to resemble that of a real-world news outlet, as seen in the screenshot on the right.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is scheduled for launch on November 6 this year for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Activision has confirmed that the game will have a few less features on the last-gen versions compared to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC counterparts.
Do you think this social media campaign for Blacks Ops 3 went too far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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