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Ubisoft Hands Out Nexus 7 Tablets At a Game's Press Event

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-must-be-new-to-this dept.

An anonymous reader writes "With Watch Dogs launching next month, Ubisoft is ramping up the promotion. That includes holding press events to show off the game to journalists, many of whom will end up reviewing Watch Dogs. One such event was held last week in Paris, and it has been revealed by attendees that Ubisoft decided to give everyone who turned up a Nexus 7 tablet. Why? That hasn't been explained yet, but in a statement on Twitter, Ubisoft said such gifts were 'not in line with their PR policies.' You can see how it would be viewed with skepticism; after all, these are the individuals who will give Watch Dogs a review score, which many gamers rely on to help them make a purchasing decision."

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. More Shocking... by mythosaz · · Score: 2

    ...it would have been more shocking if they hadn't been doling out swag bags to their press events.

    This is news?

  2. Saving face by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    It's intresting the people attending the press event had to sign a NDA and when it came out that press got a goodie bag with a tablet in there Ubisoft quickly says "its not sanctioned".

    To me it looks like saving face because 20.000 dollar worth of tablets have to be vetted somewhere in the chain.

    Also remember a couple of weeks ago when ubi got caught with doctoring images and they replied with "well those images where the vision of what we had not actual game play" but at the time they where saying it was game play.

    Ubi shows it's shady business practices again.

  3. Bribing Journalists = Bad Game by DrGamez · · Score: 2

    The game will be bad, or is being completely oversold.

    I'm trying to think of a case where this level of PR blitz/buying people off has ever resulted in a truly "good" game.

  4. Watch Dogs Tablet App... by Theaetetus · · Score: 3, Informative
    Rather than bribing journalists, it may also have to do with the Watch Dogs tablet/smartphone offline game play features:

    This time, however, the demo concluded with a demonstration of a real-time iPad app that supports a kind of meta-game - much in the manner of Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass.

    Here players were presented with a wireframe map of futuristic Chicago, drawn in a similar style to the one that used in the press conference demo. The map can be scrolled and zoomed, with pop-up boxes and icons providing real-time information about the game in progress.

    "As we said, everything is connected - and we've extended that to mobile devices," said the Ubisoft demonstrator. "We have Chicago in the palm of your hand. Everything that you've seen in the game will be accessible, so different shops - pharmacies, gun shops - will also be available here. You can see everything."