At the start of the month we reported that Capcom UK was planning a grisly and macabre PR stunt to mark the HD release of Resident Evil: Revelations. The plan was to fill a swimming pool with blood-coloured water and dismembered body parts, as well as employ "zombie" lifeguards. Our roving reporter Javier Santana Panero was all set to attend and had even invested in a new pair of swimming trunks, but we've now heard that the event has been cancelled.
Yesterday, a British soldier was killed in what is being treated as a suspected terrorist attack in Woolwich, UK. Following the killing, a man with his hands covered in blood was filmed saying he performed the brutal act because British soldiers are killing Muslims every day — a reference to the current conflict on the Middle East.
Here's what Capcom UK had to say:
In light of yesterday's sad events we're cancelling our Revelations pool event. Thank you for your understanding.
Common sense has most definitely prevailed in this case — it would have been spectacularly poor taste to run the event after such a tragic occurrence — to be honest, it was probably poor taste regardless.
Let us know what you think — are you disappointed that the stunt isn't going head, or do you think Capcom made the right choice? Perhaps you feel that the whole thing was a bad decision anyway? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 69
Good choice, Capcom.
I think we still have A LOT to evolve before we can be considered a "civilized" species.
The world could do without such wastes of mass.
Terrible news.
Crap like this does warp your view well, at least mine.
But what about those poor people who can't get a chance to sink into a relaxing blood filled swim?(Also R.I.P to that British soldier).
The right call to cancel. To be fair it was a pretty tasteless promo in the first place anyway imo
It wasnt more tasteless than the promo for RE6. To be honest, THAT one was even worse. They made up a store for human meat and sculptured body parts from mince meat and such. It was so effective, that people actually believed it.
But it was right to cancel it, although im no fan of "wussing out from terrorist attacks" it may be better for the people that are directly involved with it.
Besides the whole tastelessness of it, does Revelations even have any zombies in it?
Right choice.
Don't let the terrorists win by cancelling your daily lives. This is just as bad as putting their video all over the news. Why are we giving these idiots the time of day?
Stay classy Capcom!
It still could've gone ahead I'm sure but it was probably a smart move on Capcom's part.
good choice capcom
R.I.P
Goof move Capcom.
Definitely the right choice...
It's unfortunate for Capcom, but it was definitely for the best that they cancelled the it.
I'd have liked to see it still happen because life still goes on, (I feel people people can be a bit over-zeolous when it comes to cancelling things in light of other, sometimes unrelated things) but the tabloids would have had a field day with this, and Capcom would suffer a PR disaster had they gone ahead with the event.
@edhe yep - for 'carrying on regardless' everyone would have to be on-board. I just wish everyone (mainly the press!) would turn their back on these disgusting people.
My condolences to the families involved.
I'm actually pretty glad that the event's not going ahead though. I can't see how this could possibly not go badly, considering some other gory advertising tactics (Dead Island torso ahem). Let's leave the violence inside the games and not bring it into the real world.
@SilentHunter382 Goof troop?
everyone should buy revelations in his honor R.I.P
@Damo My proofreading skills are at an all time high.
Very good move Capcom.
@farfromsleep
No, it hasn't. But there are a lot of corpses or parts of them. And a lot of water and some swimming, too. However I doubt that the people who came up with the blood pool idea went much farther than "Hey it's Resident Evil there are zombies and blood and stuff!"
As for the perpetrators, I cannot but think that they're like people driving by night at full speed with lights off: youngsters doing terrible things "just for kikcs" and youtubing them for good measure.
@Damo hey man you rock!!!!!
@jon45030 Thanks! I'm here all week, too.
They wouldn't cancel a driving game promo because of a car accident, seems weird that zombies and terrorism are now linked......
It is hideous what happened but please dont report things like this again. The world is bad enough as it is dont make me feel even lousier i play games to escape let the evening news report stuff like this.
@Master-Nas
I'm sure @kaisersalsek was referring to the two men who butchered the man in broad daylight, and not their creed.
Sad to think it needs a killing like this for Capcom to figure out their PR stunt was in bad taste to begin with.
@Master-Nas EXCUSE ME??? I was referring to the a****les who mindlessly butchered a soldier in the street - THEY are disgraces to the human race. I am saying don't give them a platform to get any message across to any other extremists by playing the video with him preching his hate on national news. I am in no way against muslims - I have just learnt/am learning Arabic and work in equal opportunities - there's no one that could be more FOR diversity than me! Don't put words in my mouth!
Not as tasteless as that headless butchered woman for a PS3/XBOX360 game. This is the reason parents buy their kids Nintendo systems.
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2013/01/dead_island_riptides_busty_collectors_edition_is_hideous
Dear Capcom,
What if instead of filling a pool with fake blood and human parts, you go make a Mega Man game? Stop wasting money of stupid worthless stuff and start investing time in what might help you as a company.
-a Mega Man fan.
@kaisersalsek Was about to say exactly that but you beat me to it.These monsters get more spotlight than filmstars.Publicly ignore,but give local warnings ofcourse,and arm the police in the area with gums.End of. Giving them mass coverage like this will make things worse as some will get off on the attention
Oh great, another so called Muslim ruining our reputation. I fear one day going out and being shot/beaten/raped because of how people view us.
And what a horrible thing for him to do, what'd that soldier do wrong?! NOTHING, but put his life on the line for his country, people, and family!
cancelling this event for such an unrelated reason is like accrediting that games/films violence would be responsible of real-life violence
Right call be Capcom. Yes they could of gone ahead with the promo, but then the Press would of ripped into Capcom giving them front page negativity.
Media and Various groups around the world are always looking to blame/criticize the the gaming culture, wether it be a parent claiming 'X' game made their son shoot someone or if a game or some sort of promotion has some sort, no matter how remote, link to a tragidy, or tragic situation.
Besides, Capcom still made the right decision, purly in that it shows respect to those brutaly murdered.
We cancel weddings in other parts of the world with "double-tap" drone strikes, guess it's only fair.
listen up guys: please keep remarks to the article. this is 'news' for NL because it affects gaming, ie capcom deciding to cancel an event due to a rl incident. not reporting on it doesn't make it go away. it is not letting the terrorists win. it is just reporting on what is happening.
this is not the place to discuss the incident ifself in regards to race, religion, political policies etc.
these incidents bring out the best in people, but they also bring out the worst.
there are plenty of forums on other sites to vent your anger about what happened. let's keep it off NL.
I hate this bull **** of canceling something because something bad happened and they don't want to offend anybody.
I remember when they canceled the team rocket vs team plasma episode of the pokemon anime because of the Japan earthquake. Apparently there had been widespread destruction involved in the episode. So they canceled it and ruined the plotline that had been developing for quite some time. It was stupid and pointless of them to do it. I don't get it. Delaying it I would support but canceling it outright was just stupid and aided in making the Unova Saga yet another disappointing and poorly made season of pokemon.
Or like what happened with MGS2.
I do agree the event was pointless and perhaps tasteless but there was no reason to cancel it because of this tragic murder. Sad as it is people get killed every day. We shouldn't stop doing things because they might remind somebody off whatever tragic event happened recently.
Of course this sadly isn't really possible for a large because the media will go berserk and label you Satan because they are overly sensitive and just LOOOOOVE anything that can get people watching.
Works of art/fiction/events should not be canceled just because something bad happens in real life that bears a similarity to it.
/rant.
Re: keeping politics out of it - it would have helped if NL hadn't used the image of the flowers at Woolwich, and including the second paragraph as they did.
Just annoys me, as there is no reason to cancel it, aside from the press acting out of proportion, which shouldn't happen in an ideal world. As a massive fan of gaming, horror and the resident evil franchise, I was really looking forward to going. It makes me angry that something so unconnected has cancelled this, and irritates me that we can't just get on with our lives, because of the press.
A horrendous event, so it was only right of Capcom to have cancelled their event. It would be a shame, but the circumstances are extraordinary.
The brutal death of a man means you're not able to go on a piddling trip. Terrible that.
but it shouldn't mean that, because it's not remotely connected. Last time I checked, zombies aren't real (!). The press are the problem.
Awful news, my heartfelt condolences are with the family's involved.
In a way I'm glad to see that capcom recognize these things can sometimes be distasteful, and took the action they did.
I respect their decision
1st: condolences to the familiy and the UK-in-general.
2nd: Not being from the UK I am less affected but I understand the grieve and shock. However imho: giving in to these nutcases is not the way to go. I think this promo was a great / fun / campy / tasteless idea. Any zombie franchise is in "poor taste" anyway and it should be. Cancelling an event like this shows their action has actually achieved it's goal. Do not let them win!
3rd: I understand companies treading carefully in cases like this but maybe a explanatory press-release and a fund-raiser (for the familiy) combined with the original event would have been better.
I think the promo was a great idea there was nothing wrong with it and it was defiantly not in "poor taste". I would have loved to have the opportunity to go it sounded really fun. I dunno if it was right or wrong to cancel the event.
Definitely the right choice.
@Damo You might want to touch-up the above link to Javier Santana Panero's profile.
There's actually a swiming pool of blood and BOW parts in the game, why does everyone say it's unrelated to the game?
@kaisersalsek
have you ever heard of the phrase: 'erring on the side of mercy'?
the terrorist incident and the game have nothing in common, but perhaps capcom sees the tastelessness of having a swimming pool filled with fake blood when real blood was on the pavement so recently. not from an accident, not from neglect, but murder.
surely you can find something else to do this weekend.
@k8sMum of course I do, no need to be rude or condescending.
it wasn't my intention to be rude. however, i think a sense of proportion about the whole thing is important.
Can't really say it was a good idea to begin with. Sounded like a PR disaster waiting to happen.
Capcom definitely made the right choice. Anyone to say otherwise is heartless. I think it was a good stunt and I woulda loved to see it but I'm glad they cancelled it.
Bad decision from the get go. Doesn't exactly make video games look good, in light of the "violence in video games" accusations lately. "Violent video games don't inspire or influence people... Now lets make a pool of 'blood' and body parts and swim around in it to celebrate a game release."
It was a creepy promo, but I don't get why they would cancel it over a completely unrelated event. What happened was tragic, but it had nothing to do with Capcom's promo. It's not like Capcom's promo involved shooting a soldier in the street. I doubt anybody would have connected the two if Capcom hadn't cancelled the even. It's like cancelling a birthday party because someone you don't know got a bad haircut.
@Zach777 I can't stop laughing! You made my day!
The whole thing was in poor taste in the first place in my opinion.
Everybody please calm down. Here is a picture of a nice boat with soothing music: http://youtu.be/YtuAOT_c2EA
@JoostinOnline
It's like cancelling a birthday party because someone you don't know got a bad haircut.
extraordinarily bad analogy.
@k8sMum I disagree. Both are examples of things getting cancelled because of completely unrelated events. There is no connection at all between a hate crime and a swimming pool with red water.
perhaps it has more to do with sensitivity and not wanting to seem frivolous. no one is saying they are in any way connected, but sometimes the timing is just wrong.
@neumaus He was a british soldier in uniform, and therefore he was killed. An individual was not attacked, UK was, because of what british soldiers do to muslims, according to the guy with bloody hands and a knife. He was a symbol, and that symbol was killed.
While I do wish stuff like this wouldn't happen, I do understand why, and I respect them for fighting back for their country, for their people.
Although I need the full story to completely make up my mind about this, according to what the media has reported, that is what I think.
@Jukilum Most of Capcom's Resident Evil PR stunts are. I'm guessing it's because they're running out of ideas to sell the same game to consumers twice a year.
@b23cdq
actually, i don't believe he was in uniform.
@k8sMum if he was not in uniform, it's different. but then they shouldn't make a big deal about him being a soldier, unless the killers knew this already, which would make it a planned murder.
But I think I'll have to wait until details energe.
it's being reported that they did know he was a soldier from comments they made.
The islam, is 'trying' to take over, but they already lost, for they are loosing themselves, and moral value, submitting to hate, they have fallen already.
we have to stand our ground as one.
even though the event has nothing to do with the attack
if cap com had gone ahead with the stunt someone would have complained.
"die young" stopped being played on the radio after the elementary school shootings
which is silly but still makes more sense than this
people are over sensitive these day
they made the right choice avoiding the drama
they cancelled it before they got complaints which is respectable
The box art of ZombiU is a bit tragic too in the circumstances.
The problem is this:
Once a huge story like this hits the press there's a public desire to read/watch more and more about it. This means the press & rolling tv news need to keep finding fresh angles on the story to keep it interesting. Take this horrible attack for example. Day 2's angle was all about trying to apportion blame so they start to ask questions about MI5 and why the security services couldn't stop them. I can see the next new angle being how these vile people were radicalized by extremeist groups.
Thing is with this kind of blanket news coverage can you imagine what the next angle would have been if somone at any paper or news outlet got wind of an event to publicise a video game using pools of blood and body parts when a soldier has just had his head hacked off in the street?
It would have been pretty disastrous PR wouldn't it?
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