The marketing of Splitgate 2 was in the news for all the wrong reasons at the end of the Summer Game Fest, where the CEO of Splitgate and 1047 Games, Ian Proulx head to the stage wearing a hat that said “Make FPS Great Again”, channeling the MAGA slogan and his jab at the Call of Duty release ruffled a lot of feathers in the online world.
On his Call of Duty remark,
“Now, with the help of our great community, we have developed Splitgate 2. Why? Because I grew up with Halo and I am tired of playing the same Call of Duty every year, and I wish we had Titanfall 3.”
Many jumped to the online forums to talk about the cheap attack at the Call of Duty yearly release. Attacking COD is nothing new; the series has received a countless number of criticisms from prominent figures in the online world. Hearing the same type of language from a CEO of a game company did leave people questioning the marketing tactic. Ian Proulx gave his side of the story on his Call of Duty remark on the stage, by saying:
“Our intention was simply to express our frustration with the state of FPS. We took a swipe at Call of Duty, the game, at SGF, not their developers. We know Call of Duty is filled with talented and great people, some of whom we have hired and many of whom are our friends. We mean no disrespect to them.”
When asked if he would’ve done things differently on stage to deliver the same message, he replied with, “I stand by my intent and overall message that the state of FPS is stale, needs innovation, and isn’t what it used to be, but yes, I would have done things differently.”
He went on to praise the Splitgate 2 community and did mention the controversy didn’t affect the Splitgate 2 future planning by stating: “No it hasn’t, but it is a good reminder for us to double down on being community first and prove to the community that we listen and act on their feedback.”
Sharing an opinion in the most flashy way possible on stage is a surefire way to get a lot of negative attention, even if the opinion is justified. Unfortunately, Splitgate 2 did receive a lot of negative attention from the internet when the whole debacle played out, which could’ve easily been avoided. Hopefully, in the upcoming months, the game will win over the people, and the news or controversy will be far behind.
