Microsoft Mocks Sony With "Destiny Fragrance"

[binary solo]

starcraft said:

binary solo said:

starcraft said:

You realize it is happening right? The game is multiplatform.

@ others in this thread.

Microsoft has made a joke. Maybe you find it funny, maybe you don't. Irrespective it is indicative of a sense of humour, talent for marketing, and the ongoing attempt by all players to promote their wares.

Unless someone wants to present information on contracts between Activision and Microsoft or Sony and Microsoft that indicates this is in some way a violation, lets stop being 'salty' that Microsoft has found an innovative way around Sony's paid arrangement with Activision. I am sure that Microsoft consulted its team of very expensive lawyers in formulating this campaign.

You're displaying an uncharacteristic ignorance. Destiny is a trademarked (or copyrighted) name for the FPS game that is Destiny. That means the only people who can use Destiny to promote the Destiny game are those to whom Acti gives permission. MS was not given permission, hence MS infringed on Acti/Bungie's trademark/copyright. You don't need to see an exclusive advertising contract to know this, you simply need to know what a dev/publisher typically copyrights and trademarks about the games they publish/make. Pretty basic stuff really. So MS didn't find an innovative way around the advertising arrangment because they actually broke the law in what they did. You should stop trying to claim they did, because that's perpetuation false information and as a mod you should not be doing that, especially by, at the same time, claiming people are being salty about something that MS actually did wrong. Mods have warned people in other threads about calling people salty, so I think it's pretty off for a mod to be using the term even if it's addressed to a general "@ others" rather than a specific person.

Only going to respond to one of you!

Of those who have responded to me, including yourself, I am the only one that appears not to have drawn a conclusion from zero information. I would think very little about that is ignorant. Multiple people in this thread have speculated ridiculously, including the absurd notion that Activision might attempt to sue Microsoft for this brief advertisement.

People always seem to assume rank stupidity in the actions of major games companies, as though they don't spend millions of dollars retaining highly intelligent people to orchestrate their campaigns. Let me be clear. I am fully aware that this advertisement could, conceivably, be considered a violation of an agreement between Sony and Activision - I am saying that in this instance, it would be irrelevant. There is zero certainty that a specific *written* agreement exists between Activision and Microsoft forbidding advertising of Destiny. But lets say, for a moment, that it does. What exactly do you think are the ramifications of this violation (which Microsoft would have known the ins and outs of far better than we do)? Activision has almost *no* incentive to enforce their rights, as Microsoft is advertising their game. Sony will know better than to take public action and appear petty. And Microsoft has, for the cost of perhaps 1 hour's graphic design work, and an hour's legal consultation, generated huge discussion online about the fact Destiny is on their platform. The argument one *might* make is that Microsoft risks damaging their relationship with Activision if Sony has a go at Activision over this privately. But thats something we have even less information on than the legal ramifcations of this action.

Technical written civil law is only as effective as it is enforceable, and only enforceable where there is an economic incentive to do so. As you said, pretty basic stuff really.

As for salty. The reason I used inflection marks is precisely because people have inanely used the word previously in this thread. We're in agreement on its uselessness - but reading back I didn't make that sufficiently clear, sorry.

What the...I don't even...I can tell you with absolute certainty there is *no* agreement, written or otherwise, between Acti and MS preventing MS advertising Destiny. Under basic copyright and trademark law MS is prevented from using any copyright or trademark material in any of its promotional activities. Acti does not need to seek a written agreement from MS for MS to be subject to the rule of law. The only reason Acti is not forced into seeking damages is because MS removed the ad. MS either removed it because Acti asserted its rights directly, or MS lawyers (who were probably not consulted when the doofus UK marketing department had this "brainwave") told the marketing department they had violated the Destiny trademark and Acti was within its rights to take action. If the ad had stayed up then Sony was within its rights to seek compensation from Acti within the terms of their advertising contracts if Acti did not take action and assert its rights over the trademark. But Acti would never not assert its rights, because not asserting your rights over a trademark often invalidates the trademark which means it's open season on Destiny, and a future developer or publisher could make a different Destiny game and Acti would have no come back.  Copyright is different because it there is much stronger ownership rights when something is copyrighted. The thing about Sony getting its pound of flesh is there would be no publicity attached to it. If the ad stayed up, and Acti did nothing, then Sony would simply invoke some consequential clauses in the advertising contract about loss of exclusivity in advertising, and they could remain aloof to the whole thing in the public eye.

@italics. And that has achieved what exactly? A bunch of forum dwellers have argued the toss over the merits of the ad, all of whom already knew the game is on Xb one, and all of whom were already committed to the platform for which they were buying it (or not buying it in my case). Suggesting heated discussion on forums like this has raised the profile of Destiny on Xb one in the general public is overstating the influence of video game forums. You only have to look at Destiny Xb one pre-orders to know that there is already general awareness that Destiny is on Xb one...speaking of which where the hell are the pre-order charts for last week? Has everyone gone on holiday at VGC or something? Lets talk about the benefit to MS of this stunt if sales of Destiny on Xbone suddenly spike in a way that was not predictable from the pre-order numbers and out of proportion to the sales on PS4. Personally I don't think it's achieved anything good for anyone. What it did was create all sorts of potential legal and contractual dilemma's for future exclusive advertising deals if it was left to stay on the web and Acti did nothing. It means Sony would have a precedent defence for doing a similar thing with CoD, and we can be damned sure MS doesn't want their exclusive advertising arrangmeent with CoD to be encroached on. They might get some free advertising for this game, but the loss of value in all future exclusive advertising deals is bigger than the value of the free advertising of this one game. You're being far too narrow in your thinking if you think there aren't significant legal and contractual ramifications of this ad being left to its own devices. Acti might not have wanted to take action, but they would have had no choice. And possibly they did take action and they were the reason the ad came down. I don't know about you, but I reckon the fact the ad came down so quickly is an indication that there were serious ramifications to the existence of ad. I don't know how well you know the marketing departments of companies, but on my regulatory and legal side of the fence I know too many examples of marketing departments that go off half cocked thinking they know how the rules work but getting it quite wrong and having to be pulled back into line. This stunt reeks of such half-cockedness among the marketing folks at MS UK.

Playstation branded CoD liver oil, it's great for the constitution! Actually we're not selling CoD liver oil... and the rest of the ad writes itself.