2K Games sacks PR company over Duke Nukem Forever blacklist threats

Posted June 15, 2011 by Lewis Denby in News.

Publisher 2K Games has severed ties with its long-serving US PR firm, the Redner Group, after the company made controversial comments on Twitter.

As we reported earlier, The Redner Group was forced to apologise following apparent threats to the press over “venom-filled” Duke Nukem Forever reviews.

The PR firm had tweeted that certain negative reviews “went too far” and that publications would receive future review privileges based on the tone of their Duke Nukem write-ups. The tweets were later removed and replaced with a public apology.

Despite that apology, Duke’s publisher has confirmed that it will no longer be working with the company.

In keeping with the Twitter vibe, a 2K rep wrote: “2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by The Redner Group and confirm they no longer represent our products.

“We maintain a mutually respectful relationship with the press and will continue to do so. We don’t condone The Redner Group’s actions at all.”

Redner claimed that the issue was not to do with review scores. “Bad scores are fine,” they tweeted. “Venom-filled reviews, that’s completely different.”

Randy Pitchford, the game’s lead, said before release that reviews of Duke Nukem Forever “didn’t matter” because he knew the game was great. But speaking to Eurogamer, he also predicted that it would receive scores in the 7-9 out of 10 boundary.

In fact, its average score on Metacritic currently falls in the mid 50%s.

Here at BeefJack, we liked the game even less than that. “The scars of a 14-year development cycle are evident, and Duke Nukem Forever finds itself embracing the very worst aspects of ’90s gaming, instead of reminding us why we loved it so much all those years ago,” wrote reviewer Jamie Donnelly, awarding a final score of just 4.5 out of 10.

Tagged as 2K Games, duke nukem forever, Redner Group