Treyarch, Activision apologises for fake Call of Duty: Black Ops III terrorist attack on Twitter

A member of Call of Duty: Black Ops III developer Treyarch today apologised for a fake terrorist attack staged on the CoD Twitter account.

Last week, the @callofduty account was renamed to “Current Events Aggregate” and then tweeted of a terrorist attack on Singapore. Though the account’s since been renamed back to the franchise’s proper title, you can see the “Current Events Aggregate” moniker in screenshots below, alongside the slogan, “Where we bring you real news”:

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/648905858529759232

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/648918298894147584

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/648910470741655552

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/648928476246986752

Many hours later, the Twitter account clarified the situation, posting the following:

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/648975005473206272

The internet lashed out at Treyarch and Activision’s stunt, with Twitter users and news outlets both condemning the marketing campaign.

Speaking with IGN, Treyarch’s Jason Blundell eventually apologised for the incident.

“Here’s my view – and again, I’m a simple director and not involved in the marketing at all,” he began. “However, it was absolutely not done for any kind of attention in any way. It was not done maliciously, or as any kind of scare tactic. I personally am very sorry for anyone who looked at it and got the wrong idea because it genuinely wasn’t meant that way.

“It was done on our channel, and it was to talk about the fiction of the world. I think we were as shocked as everybody else when it started blowing up, because essentially we were teeing up ready for a story beat. So again, very sorry for anyone who took it that way. It wasn’t meant that way at all – it was supposed to just be getting ready for a campaign element.”

What do you think of the situation?