This is a big week for Telltale Games, as they are releasing Jurassic Park the Game. However, not all is hunky-dory in dinosaur land.
Telltale, in order to promote their upcoming title, wanted to use an authentic-looking Jurassic Park Jeep while at PAX Prime in Seattle. They found Kevin Henry, also known as BoomerJinks. He agreed to let them use his Jeep in exchange for enclosed, insured shipping both ways, airfare, PAX badges, hotel, and a per diem. They agreed.
That’s where things started to go south.
The “enclosed” shipping he had agreed to was actually a normal vehicle carrier:
Kevin claims was reluctant to let it go like this, but he didn’t want to be a jerk, according to his post on Reddit.
When he arrived at PAX, he was horrified to discover that his pristine replica was, according to his account, heavily road damaged; presumably from poor transportation.
Just one example of the damage
Including what appear to be thrown rock damage:
Anybody who’s ever taken a long road trip realizes that this is entirely possible from thrown rocks, dust, and other debris on a long drive.
At any rate, Kevin was peeved. After all, enthusiasts who replicate movie-grade vehicles like this don’t exactly take their hobbies lightly. Besides the cost involved, there is clearly a high level of passion for the craft.
Kevin was frustrated with what he felt was a lack of timely response from TellTale, and in the end they allegedly handed over responsibility to the car carrier and told him to deal with it. According to Kevin’s account of the story, the auto carrier denied responsibility.
As it stands now, Kevin appears fed up with the debacle enough to take it to the internet. He posted on Reddit today, asking for some help. At the time of this writing, the story was on top of the front page, which usually means tens of thousands of people have seen it.
Telltale’s response
Telltale got wind of the discussion that was exploding on Reddit, and that’s when Telltale’s Kevin Bruner posted a public response entitled, “About that Jurrasic Park Jeep“. The interesting thing about his response is that they don’t claim responsibility, yet Bruner offers to write a personal check to cover the damages.
The part of the Bruner’s reponse that should go down in Public Relations handbooks for all future PR people is this:
Some people seem to think that Telltale has grown into some giant corporation that doesn’t care about people anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. We started the company to make games that are about writing, acting and atmosphere and not about blowing shit up. Since we’ve gone out on this limb, we’ve had some successes (and failures) and earned the chance to work with great licenses like Monkey Island, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Walking Dead. All of our games are super faithful to the licenses, and lovingly crafted to make the best fan experience possible. Fans seem to enjoy them, which makes us super proud. We hate that most licensed games are a driver or a shooter with a license slapped on it, which we’ve never been about.
It’s a stellar response to what could have potentially been a PR disaster, especially on the eve of their launch.
Telltale’s greatest coup
History may show that Jurassic Park The Game may not be a top hit of 2011, especially when it’s up against titles like Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations… and the Jeep situation may have made their launch pretty bad—but their public response may actually do what no amount of traditional PR could have ever accomplished. For tonight, tens of thousands of gamers have Jurassic Park The Game firmly in the front of their minds (and eyeballs).
Perhaps it’s as Redditor Awesomerobot says:
“Hold on… the game comes out tomorrow? Best publicity stunt ever.”
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