Many have questioned GameStop’s business methods to improve it’s sales, but the retailer’s latests promotional ad for Ubisoft’s upcoming title Assassin’s Creed: Origins is considered little obnoxious. There is a new animated ad for the game that shows Bayek; the game’s protagonist standing on the side of a pyramid, but the image is immediately blocked by a camel followed by a black screen with the message “Sorry. The Bonus Mission Is Blocked. Unless you pre-order Assassin’s Creed Origins.” It mimics the way online publications stop visitors from reading any further without asking for any payment first. As obnoxious as this seems to some fans this isn’t exactly a new tactic by the company.
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GameStop has been using this model in order to boost it’s sales numbers for some time now. Players now see the content advertised as a reward rather than content that their missing out on. But why do they keep doing it? Because people will still continue to buy from them. The company has been using a few questionable methods ever since finding themselves lacking in 2015. This year they even plan to keep stores open on Thanksgiving Day.
Even though the company tried to poke fun with this ad, it seemed to just come off in really bad taste. The message was percieved to be passive aggressive by some and made the nature of their business model look rather greedy and rude. Hopefully in the future Gamestop will be a little less cheeky with their ads to get better feedback.