UbiSoft’s latest blockbuster Watch Dogs was released on May 27, 2014. Rated Mature 17+; Watch Dogs blends cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated game design into a realistic and living open world where players must use any means at their disposal to take down a corrupt system. Yesterday, a PR stunt by Ubisoft caused mayhem, as Ninemsn’s office was evacuated and police and a bomb squad were called in to investigate a suspicious package.
What happened was, Ubisoft sent a copy of the game to Ninemsn’s office but, in a safe that beeped when staff tried to open it. Feeling suspicious, they called other newsrooms and found none had received a similar delivery. The floor was evacuated shortly before 5pm, and staff sent home. Police and the bomb squad came to the scene immediately, scanned the safe and eventually opened it, only to find a copy of the Watch Dogs game inside.
“There was a bunch of reasons this ended up looking weird,” ninemsn publisher Hal Crawford said. “The PR company no doubt got carried away with their creativity and ended up sending us something the bomb squad had to open up.” Ninemsn does not cover video games.