Twisted Metal Launch Campaign - Shoot My Truck

The video game industry is now as large (if not larger) than Hollywood and as a result the successful launch of any new game title relies heavily on how much hype it can generate before release. Recently the video game industry has done  very well with this - remember the ads for Modern Warfare 3 & Call Of Duty: Black Ops? - but when it comes to the best launch campaign for a video game the social interaction campaign put together for the release of the latest Twisted Metal title takes the cake with possibly the most literal interpretation of what makes Twisted Metal fun right down to its core. Introducing the Twisted Metal Shoot My Truck  Campaign. 

The campaign begun with a call to arms (see the video directly below) which directed people to a micro site - shootmytruck.com - where the campaign came into its own 100% This is basically how it works: The Twisted Metal team set up a real M249-SAW machine gun mounted on a control desk in the middle of the desert. The gun is aimed at a perfect replica of the hot-rodded ice cream van belonging to games central character and was hooked up to a remote, online interface which meant that anyone around the world with an internet connection was capable of taking control and letting rip into the van or a selection of other unlikely targets...

The camping proceeded to roll out over 2 days over a live stream (with full commentary) allowing people around the world to watch (and take their turn at firing) more than 100,000 bullets at the truck. Personally I can't think of a better way for this game to have been launched and this has to be one of the best campaigns that makes use of the real world and the internet in order to create a load of awesome out there. Check out a summary of what went down over the two days the campaign was live below. Share your thoughts on the campaign in the comments below too!