SEGA of Europe have added a disclaimer to their Aliens: Colonial Marines trailers which essentially admit that the trailers do not reflect the poor quality of the final game.
All SEGA Europe Aliens: Colonial Marines now have the following message added to their description: “The trailer footage shown uses the in-game engine, and represents a work in progress.”
This action has been taken after SEGA begun talks with the Advertising Standards Agency after Reddit user ‘subpardave’ filed a complaint.
subpardave said this on a Reddit post:
“My aim was not to get fines, compensation or any of that. Gearbox and Sega spoke very clearly – by saying absolutely nothing – and showed the purchasing community that they would rather this mess all quietly disappear.
The games industry – like any other – needs to be held accountable for blatantly deceiving the consumer. And doubly so when a wall of silence is the only response to resounding criticism for shipping a shoddy product, having shown off one with all the bells and whistles.
The ASA has little real power. But negative press? That does.”
subpardave has also published the response he received from the ASA:
“We contacted Sega Europe to discuss this issue. They explained that their online trailers used demo footage, created using the in-game engine. Sega Europe understood the objections raised about the quality of the game in relation to the trailers, but explained that they weren’t aware of these issues when the trailers were produced, in some cases several months before release.
Sega Europe acknowledged your objection that the trailers did not accurately reflect the final content of the game. They agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game. The disclaimer will be visible when each online trailer is played.”
[Source: Eurogamer]
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Tags: advertising standards agency, aliens: colonial marines, complaint, gearbox software, pc, ps3, reddit, sega of europe, subpardave, trailer, xbox 360, youtube