Call of Duty marketing finds a new level of tastelessness
It’s all about “the epic intimacy of World War II” apparently.
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The latest marketing push forCall of Duty: Vanguardwants you to believe its graphics are so realistic that conflict photographers can’t tell the difference between the videogame and reality. “Call of Duty: Vanguard captures the epic intimacy of World War II in an incredibly immersive manner,” saidchief marketing officer Fernando Machado, presumably keeping a straight face.
A pair of photojournalists were given “special camera-like portals [to enter] into the game engine itself,” where they captured images just as they would if they were photographing a real conflict. Naturally, they also raved about how realistic the experience was: “As photographers, this is what conflict looks like,” war journalist Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini said afterward. The resulting video of the two photographers at work (above) is as dramatic and over-egged as any Call of Duty trailer.
Prints of the four photos are being sold to raise funds to help US military veterans find “high quality employment” through the Call of Duty Endowment program. Which is a good cause, and a convenient thing forActivisionto keep in its pocket as a response to any accusations of crassness.
Still, these four screenshots aren’t exactlyRaising the Flag on Iwo Jimaor theExecution of Nguyễn Văn Lém. They’re being sold for $515 each.
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Jody’s first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia’s first radio show about videogames,Zed Games. He’s written forRock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue,GamesRadar,Zam,Glixel,Five Out of Ten Magazine, andPlayboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody’s first article for PC Gamer was about theaudio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he’s written aboutwhy Silent Hill belongs on PC,why Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, andhow weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.
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