Eidos involved in yet another PR controversy

You’ve got to love Eidos. Last year, as everybody has reported extensively, the publisher was in the soup for its alleged part in the sacking of Gamespot editor Jeff Gerstmann. Then, a couple of months ago, it was in hot water for asking that journalists who intended to give Tomb Raider: Underworld a score under 8 postpone their reviews until after the first weekend of sales.

And now the publisher is in a bath of some tepid fluid for what may one day come to be known as ‘Bubble-gate’, although it almost certainly won’t. This time, the PR idiocy took the form of voting repeatedly for Soul Bubbles in Australian games magazine Hyper’s annual poll using a company email address. In a statement on its forum, Hyper’s deputy editor made the following announcement.

"The 2008 Game of the Year Awards are off to a solid start, with numerous votes being cast for a wide range of games. Many of you are voting and participating in the spirit in which the awards are offered, and for that we thank you. However, we ask others who are voting in an opposing manner to please rethink their actions.

As an example, we can appreciate a game publisher's allegiance towards one of its titles, but would prefer it if an account using an "@eidos.co.uk" e-mail address would not vote for one of its own games across a number of different categories.

We realise that such motivations do not apply to the lion's share of members and participants, but nevertheless, we do need to make it clear that we will not accept such a practice. We would like to see games win honestly, voted for by honest people.

Thank you for your time."

The funny thing is, Soul Bubbles is quite good. So is Tomb Raider: Underworld, the game at the centre of the last scandal. The major strategic error Eidos is making is to invest both in making good games and in trying to hoodwink the world into believe they’re good.

One or the other, guys. Not both.