Creepy Sega developer kidnap video hints at April release?

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 27th 2007 at 1:24AM }

Sensitivity to grainy videos of torture will determine if you want to see an alleged Sega viral marketing video found after the break about their big April shocker announcement . Sega Nerds thinks this is an official viral marketing campaign by Sega, but we're not sure. The Nerds say this isn't the strangest marketing tactic ever used by the company.

Nothing about the video jumps out as an obvious announcement. A man is tied to a chair wearing a bunny mask with two pseudo-Geisha girls flanking him. The first thing that happens is the girls wax the victim's leg. He screams that he wont tell what the April release is. Then a man in a monkey mask pops out the right side with scissors, the camera tilts down and the man cuts off one of the mask's rabbit ears to the sounds of screaming. Finally they torture the victim with James Blunt's You're Beautiful. Once again, depending on your sensitivity the video is after the break. So, are there any hints in the video about the April release or is it all just a weird ploy for attention?

Tags: announcement, marketing, nights, sega, viral

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Mar 27th 2007 1:33AM

I wonder if this is for Nights for Wii. Hopefully they'll bring it to the Xbox 360 as well.

mccomber @ Mar 27th 2007 1:33AM

And I thought Sony was nuts. At least they have production values.

soccerdrew17 @ Mar 27th 2007 1:39AM

What you guys didn't like it?

ElChibo @ Mar 27th 2007 1:43AM

I'm confused, but the only Sega rumors I remember hearing of recently was NiGHTS on Wii, but this video doesn't give any hints for that game, or any other.

Wickedneoq @ Mar 27th 2007 1:55AM

I actually started screaming with his to the music... Good Lord, the horrible pain that man must be in. I fear the worst.

Seriously though, SJS stands for http://www.smalljapanesesoldier.com/ . I wonder what they're up to. It must be viral marketing.

Lewis @ Mar 27th 2007 2:19AM

New sonic game. You heard it here first

- Yuji Naka

bootsielon @ Mar 27th 2007 2:36AM

Yawn.

bootsielon @ Mar 27th 2007 2:36AM

Yawn.

samfish @ Mar 27th 2007 2:36AM

heh. It'd be kinda funny if they just sprung an April release on us for a new NiGHTS like they did with the Saturn all those years ago.
It'd be fitting in a way, at least.

bootsielon @ Mar 27th 2007 2:36AM

yawn

bootsielon @ Mar 27th 2007 2:37AM

oops, sorry... my browser wasn't working well

samfish @ Mar 27th 2007 2:40AM

It is mighty late.

Feh. I'm going to bed.

HoodOrnament @ Mar 27th 2007 2:43AM

Small Japanese Soldier is correct!

It has to be, the logo spraypainted on the wall in the back is the same as the one on the main page from the link posted above

HoodOrnament @ Mar 27th 2007 2:45AM

Sorry to double post, but also if you check out their site there is something about the Geisha Soldier division under support I believe, and under staff all people are wearing monkey masks, if you click steve it is the same one used in the video

Nova Scotian @ Mar 27th 2007 3:08AM

Meh, Sega, i remember when they were relevant.

Mark Korsak @ Mar 27th 2007 3:10AM

well it definitely has something to do with this small japanese soldier thing, which seems to have been created by a company called Clinic after doing some google searching and looking up the owner of the domain smalljapanesesoldier.com. it seems theyr an agency that companies hire to do sorts of advertising work, for instance, sega could have gone to them and said we need some viral marketing deal for some game were making, and clinic came up with the idea of this video. smalljapanesesoldier is nothing new though as the domain was made in '99. while searching around clinic's site you can see some companies they work with like virgin, but nothing is mentioned about sega.

hen @ Mar 27th 2007 3:21AM

project rub for the Wii?

Wickedneoq @ Mar 27th 2007 4:25AM

Would you talk about a new company signing with a major viral marketing campaign on the go? I think not!

As for Project Rub... wow... you actually might be right! Rub Rabbits for Wii would be insane. That at least explains each object of the interrogation.

I'd buy that. But it's not NiGHTS.

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Crazylink @ Mar 27th 2007 7:13AM

Didn't Nintendo make a video where one of their developers was kidnapped by sega and tourtured for N64 information?

Boss Tempo @ Mar 27th 2007 8:50AM

Ohhhh now that's cutting edge marketing for ya. Weak.

Rod Munch @ Mar 27th 2007 9:02AM

Its not Shenmue 3, and even if it was it would probably be rubbish based off Sega's recent showing, so I don't care. But if its the release of Shenmue Online... Sega...

Tmoney @ Mar 27th 2007 9:09AM

smells like plants in this thread

JS Beckerist @ Mar 27th 2007 10:17AM

Plants? Explain!

Charron @ Mar 27th 2007 10:33AM

Thought men like you were usually called a fruit.

(Don't get offended if you don't get the Clue reference.)

Muku @ Mar 27th 2007 11:52AM

"Didn't Nintendo make a video where one of their developers was kidnapped by sega and tourtured for N64 information?"

Hm, think only video I remember that faintly resembles that was the video to hype up Star Fox 64. But that was also sent out by Nintendo itself to some subscribers.