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How gun giant Remington used Call of Duty to promote weapons to younger playersFirearms company considered games “a primary means” of reaching “the next generation”
Firearms company considered games “a primary means” of reaching “the next generation”
Image credit:Activision
Image credit:Activision
“It really is irony [sic] that video games that just a decade ago were considered the number one threat to gaining new shooters is perhaps now the number one draw,” Remington’s then-vice president of product management for firearms, John C. Trull, wrote in a 2012 email, quoted in the WSJ report.
Trull, meanwhile, told the WSJ that Remington had little understanding ofCall of Duty’s multiplayer scene at the time. “The concept of online lobbies where players engaged each other in ‘team deathmatches’ was unfamiliar,” he said. “I believe that if anyone had known then what we know now about how these games evolved, the decisions would have been different.”
All that notwithstanding, Remington appear to have hadsomesense that featuring their weapons in the wrong kind of videogame might be a Bad Look. According to the WSJ, the Freedom Group’s “Gaming Strategy” memo forbade the use of the company’s brands in games where “non-military bad guys” could be targets, but allowed for the inclusion of digital replicas, noting that this would allow the company to market their products to players without catching any blowback.
“Previous experience tells us people will seek out the brands of the guns,” the memo stated. “A lack of direct branding helps to shield us from implications of a direct endorsement while still receiving benefit from inclusion in the game.”
The ACR proved popular in Modern Warfare 2 - it returns in this year’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remake- but according to Trull, this made little difference to ACR sales on the high street. “The fact that the rifle was so popular in Call of Duty was shocking and… it was essentially the only positive thing anyone had to say about the ACR,” Trull told the paper. “The product was eventually discontinued after years of low sales volume.”
The US guns industry has often sought to scapegoat videogames as the cause of real-world gun violence, seeking to deflect calls for firearm regulation in the wake of the country’s routine mass shootings. Back in 2012, the National Rifle Association’s CEO Wayne LaPierre described the games business as a “corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its people”. Here’sa 2013 press picof LaPierre holding a Remington at an expo. I wonder if he plays Call of Duty?
