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2K Games Fires PR Firm After Threatening Game Critics
The Redner Group is no longer representing 2K Games or Duke Nukem Forever after an ugly Twitter controversy.
Twelve years after its development cycle began, Duke Nukem Forever finally hit store shelves yesterday. Some expected an industry-wide celebration of Duke's long-awaited return, but many critics felt otherwise, calling the game "embarrassingly bad," "monumentally moronic," and "a festering irrelevance." You can read Reiner's review here. After watching the avalanche of negative reviews pile up, publicist Jim Redner lost his cool and tweeted the following:
"Too many went too far with their reviews...we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom. Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews...that's completely different."
His public statements were met with the predicable amount of derision and astonishment. One of the darker truths about this industry is that many outlets occasionally deal with public relations fallout following the posting of negative reviews, but threats of blacklisting are rarely made in public.
Once news of his tweets spread through the industry, Redner had a change of heart. In a apologetic email, he recanted his statements and said 2K Games had nothing to do with his tweet. "I would like a quick moment of your time to humbly ask for your forgiveness," he said. "I made a major error in judgment. I acted out of pure emotion without any thought to what I was saying. It is with a sad heart that I come to you now asking that you forgive me."
Redner's damage control proved too little too late.
When we reached out to 2K Games spokesman Charlie Sinhaseni about the controversy, he gave us the following statement: "2K Games does not endorse the comments made by Jim Redner and we can confirm that The Redner Group no longer represents our products. We have always maintained a mutually-respectful working relationship with the press and do not condone his actions in any way."
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