Over the weekend, we received a number of tips notifying us that a new demo disc would be
delivered to Wal-Mart's Xbox 360 kiosks that would include a playable Perfect Dark Zero demo. That's cool and
all, but we did a little digging and learned that all of the tips came from the same exact IP address, even though
the names and email addresses used to submit the tips had been disguised.
Here are all of the tips submitted by an individual (or group of individuals) all sharing the same IP address:
Name: PootAmbassador Subject: PDZ! TRY
A sales associate at Wal-mart said they get a playable demo of Perfect dark 0. Has anyone else told you or am i the only one who knows? — PootAmbassador
Name: BoyWonder Subject: new game disc
Wal mart is where my friend works and he said the get another dis that people can play on there 360! You should know! — BoyWonder
Name: ProGhostDan Subject: PDZ demo.
Wal-mart gets the pdz demo this week. That sounds sweet. — ProGhostDan
Name: Monkeymoon55 Subject: new demo
I asked the walmart peeps if new demos are coming. He said that they get one with Perfect Dark, hexsics, and some new movies. — Monkeymoon55
Name: Buttonbasher Subject: NEW 360 DEMO DISK!
Did you hear that Wal-mart gets another demo disc this week? it will have Amped 3, PDZ, and a couple others. Check my blog for the story.
The unfortunate thing about this is that we’ll only be able to bust these guys once, then they’ll learn to spoof their IP addresses prior to spamming sites like Joystiq with buzz marketing campaigns. Companies do this all the time. But is it ethical?
Here’s what Slate’s Seth Stevenson had to say on the subject when Burger King tried to pull the same one over on him: “Well, for one thing, it’s lying. All marketing is built on lies, of course (you won’t sleep with those twins if you drink Coors Light), but this is a more pointed deception than the stock fantasy offered by beer ads. At issue here is some deliberate misrepresentation.”
