Bungie uses Madeleine McCann for Halo 3 promotion
Filed under: Gaming | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: September 29, 2008 | 7 Comments

Bungie have come under fire for what looks like promotion in bad taste. Bungie, the developer for the Halo 3 expansion pack has used some parallels to the Madeleine McCann disappearance case. In the new teaser trailer we get to see a worn-torn city landscape, which is when we see a number of messages popping up. One of them asks “Maddie, where are you?”
Although it has been some time since three year-old, Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday in Portugal, it will re-awaken old memories for a number of people.
Bungie has issued a statement saying that they deny that they wanted to create any intent to create publicity for the Halo 3 expansion pack by exploiting the McCann disappearance. This is not the first time that something so tragic has crossed over into the gaming world, and I am sad to say that it will not be the last.
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HAHAHAHA oh man that’s great…
whoever wrote this article and whoever made that complaint, you are retarded.
The maddie referred to in the trailer is a character, most likely a soldier. go fight your retard crusade some where else fags.
Seriously, is the name Maddie never allowed to be used again? People automatically associate names with what’s in the news. Think about Brittany…. she just graduated from college. Yea, you never would have thought that I was talking about my little cousin because of automatic association. Maybe if people would make an attempt to use a little more of thier brains before they react to things this type of article wouldn’t be written…
Ummm… it’s not like Maddie is an uncommon name, Maddie is a character in the new expansion pack.
*sigh* Just because the name is the same, dosen’t mean it’s making fun of the fact.
Oh my god…
spelled it out for you since you must live under a rock and only use a PC to spout the nightmares that rule your simple simple mind.
Have you ever heard of a coincidence? Does Bungie need to even entertain sensationalism marketing? This game holds records for sales they dont need to use the name of an innocent child who was kidnapped and then raped by the British media to sell games.
And to quote my colleage above… “ARE YOU RETARDED?????”
this is ridiculous …. if you had any clue about bungie and their professionalism you’d know that their usage of ‘maddie’ is completely coincidental and is not a reference to the unfortunate case of Madeleine McCann. IN OTHER WORDS, they didn’t ‘USE’ her, as the title states. They used a *name* which they didn’t know would be associated with a real world event.
Why would you even think this was deliberate? Why would a respected game publisher with a solid reputation and huge fan base choose to associate their reknowned game with a kidnapped/missing child? Just imagine that design session: “Hey, guys — I know what would have drive up sales of our mutlimillion-selling game and franchise that we’ve been carefully crafting for almost 10 years …. let’s throw in a reference to a real-world tragedy where a young child has gone missing!!! Yeah!!! Awesome!!!”
Really — Do you have no common sense whatsoever?
(I might also add that in the states the case of Madeleine McCann is relatively unknown … I’ve asked several well-read and news-knowing folks about it, and most didn’t have a clue … so again: the use of the name is **coincidental** … if Bungie were an British-based development shop, I’m sure that would be different)
These people just like starting things up. It’s everywhere you go. Common sense is harder to find than four leaf clovers nowdays.
I also enjoy how after this missinformed article ends, and how “awful” Bungie is, I get to enjoy the Halo 3 Collector’s edition ads by google (lol).