In what’s either a beautiful stroke of irony or a potentially very expensive (and probably illegal) PR stunt, an AR campaign for the hack-centric paranoia-filled game Watch Dogs has accidentally revealed real subscriber email addresses.
Ubisoft started an alternate reality campaign focused on Joseph Demarco, a fictional character featured in Watch Dogs. Demarco (not real person) runs the dotconnexion art gallery (not real place) seen in the trailer. Real people were asked to sign up for updates with their (real) email addresses on the website (real site, fictional content).
An update in the form of an email arrived in inboxes this morning:
“It is with great regret that we inform you that Joseph Demarco passed away in a tragic, yet unexplained accident. Being one of the most important philanthropists in the local digital art scene, his demise has left a deep void in the community. Out of respect for his friends and family, the dotconnexion exhibition will be cancelled. Sincerely yours, The dotconnexion Team”
Problem being: The (real) person/s responsible for sending the message added the subscribers’ email addresses in the Cc field, rather than hiding them with Bcc. This meant many, many email addresses have been revealed to subscribers.
It appears that only those with email addresses starting with a letter towards the beginning of the alphabet have been affected. Kotaku has a screengrab of the email, a blurred screengrab of course.
If you’re wondering why so many are thinking this could be a publicity stunt, then you’ve probably not seen or heard much on this game. Have a look at the trailer below and you’ll see what I mean. It would be a crazy route to promotion for Ubisoft to take but if it wasn’t deliberate then the accidental irony boat has docked in glorious style.
The themes involved in Watch Dogs are focused on the paranoia suffered in our society in relation to data-hoarding, digital footprints and hacking; If anything, this PR disaster/win is highly appropriate. Take a look at our preview if you’d like to know more on the game itself (it looks stunning).
Ubisoft hasn’t yet commented on the matter.
