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Portal 2 push pioneering alternate reality marketing

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

April 19, 2011 | 2 min read

Valve has augmented a traditional marketing push for its Portal 2 videogame with an online treasure hunt for clues hidden in gaming forums, podcasts, YouTube videos and the firms cloud based games.

Amongst the tantalising roster of imaginative teasers are blog posts that have been deleted upon discovery, messages delivered in Morse code and even an esoteric clue embedded within an audio file.

The elaborate trail of digital breadcrumbs apparently led those piecing together the clues to conclude that GLaDOS, the games wayward AI protagonist, has been attempting an internet based reboot.

Some fans who’d sunk hours into the mystery are apparently non plussed at the lack of reward for their efforts however - an early release for Portal 2 had been promised on one site if sufficient numbers downloaded games from the firms Steam distribution platform, which contained additional clues.

Thus far the title remains stuck on its originally scheduled April 19 launch.

In effect, noted gaming journalist Matt Peckham, Valve has “got gamers to pay for their own marketing stunt.”

Peckham added: “It’s one of the most clever cross exposure schemes going”.

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