Reverb Publishing recently announced that it would donate $5000 to the Humane Society for homeless kittens if its game Edge Of Space won approval on Steam Greenlight. That’s all well and good, but the company also threatened that if the game didn’t win approval by October 15 “that money will disappear, like a puff of smoke in the uncaring wind, leaving poor kitties to survive in the harsh elements, be placed in harm’s way and possibly scheduled for euthanasia.”
After a negative response to the original release, the company is now apologizing for its tack. “We issued a ‘call to arms’ press release to garner support for a game that we’re publishing, Edge of Space,” said Reverb in a release. “It’s a game that we’re really excited about and we took a non-traditional approach to garner attention for it as well as creating a chance to donate money to a good cause, but it seems as though our release was taken the wrong way by some people.”
“Even before the promotion was approved Reverb had decided to make a donation of $5,000 to the Humane Society today, this was just a fun way of drumming up some attention for the game. The release was meant to grab attention and call readers to action, but we regret if we made anyone uncomfortable or angry with its content. Millions of stray cats enter shelters each year, with the yearly cost of humane shelters resting in the billions. Our wording may have been muddled, but our intentions are good.”
“Hey everyone! There has been a misunderstanding on the marketing side of Edge of Space. We do not support guilt voting in any way and our sincere apologies go out to anyone who felt that way. This was meant in fun, if anything, Reverb’s intent was to add a bonus; if we can make it to the top 10 by the 15th, we will help out a worthy cause,” said Handyman’s Jake Crane, implying the stunt was not his idea.. “Understand that there is some dark humor in the game and they wanted to play off of that. We love cats! That’s why we have them in our game to begin with! We have sugar bears too! So we like exotics.”
Reverb vice president of business development Doug Kennedy was defensive about the company’s PR strategy. “I challenge anyone else on this board to make a donation to the Humane Society, I committed $5000, and we requested a vote of YES for the game. If anyone did their homework you would know we have made a variety of donations to animal organizations. if you don’t want to vote for the game I fully respect that, if times are tough and money us tight a ‘yes’ vote would be greatly appreciated, provided the company continues to do well, we will continue to fund and support a number of animal organizations, either way its a win – win for the kitties. (Lastly, does anyone really think that that we were not going to make the $5000 donation, come on folks, seriously I’ve been in the industry for 20 years, I remember when it was fun, lighten up a bit and appreciate the fact that a great organization like the Humane Society is getting a ton of attention and a nice contribution).”
Source: Eurogamer
