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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsNew in-game battle bots connected to Mountain Dew?
by Adam Holisky 
May 5th 2009 at 12:30PM
Here's where it gets interesting. One bot state is blue, and one bot state is red. These blue and red colors match up pretty darn close to the Mountain Dew product that's on the horizon. Take a look after the break for side-by-side comparisons.
But wait, there's more.
The bots have some known commands already: "Blue Battle Fuel" will "Fill up your Battle-Bot with blue fuel." And "Red Battle Fuel" will "Fill up your Battle-Bot with red fuel." This is interesting phrasing given the Mountain Dew is called "Game Fuel."
Fuel up your body while fueling up your Battle-Bot? The advertising pretty much writes itself.
Now it's entirely possible I'm feeding into some devilish marketing ploy by PepsiCo. If I am, shame on them for marketing something I'm mildly interested in. If not, Pepsi owes myself and Trasken (who tipped us off about this little coincidence) a life time's supply of the stuff.
Thanks Trasken!
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Cowdungus May 5th 2009 12:57PM
red and blue in opposing sides? OMG IN GAME ADVERTISEMENT IM CANCELING MY SUBSCRIPTON
h8rain May 5th 2009 12:58PM
This post brought to you by Mountain Dew™
Code Red May 5th 2009 1:00PM
First off, these pets will do nothing.
Secondly, code red tastes better.
Conclusion? Drink more Mountain Dew™ Code Red.
offday May 5th 2009 1:06PM
I dunno. I heard this is the same stuff as the halo 3 mountain dew, which was pretty darn tasty.
Hogg May 5th 2009 1:09PM
I'm game as long as it's not luck based. If I need to buy 6 bottles to get this just tell me up front so I can get them and get it over with. I would have loved to get my hands on some of the loot cards from the CCG but you're dealing with a random chance. I'm the kind of person that if you say buy 1 case of cards you get one of each of the loot items i'd consider doing that, but I just can't get on board with the chance of getting nothing.
Toasty May 5th 2009 1:02PM
Beautiful fools - the advertising is right here in the comments.
Look at how many times you guys have said Mountain Dew!
Clearly, the biggest two-step flow is from the bottles themselves.
Vajarra May 5th 2009 1:05PM
Yeah, red and blue also correspond to the colors of the two factions in the game.
I think calling this in-game advertising is a bit of a stretch.
BillDoor May 5th 2009 1:04PM
When can i purchase IRL Mountain Dew with in-game gold?
Bronwyn May 5th 2009 1:06PM
Ugh if this is a code thing.. I'm probably doomed, unless I can convince my soda-guzzling in-laws to collect codes for me.
Jessie May 5th 2009 1:08PM
damn them!! and here I am trying to stop drinking soda!! well, hopefully it doesn't start till July.. so I can keep the weight off for a friend's wedding and the marathon I'll be running.... damn them.. cuz I will be one of those that will make everyone drink it till I get enough points to get the stupid pets... they know my weakness!~!
katie333 May 5th 2009 1:09PM
Being in Canada, we oddly don't get everything we see advertised on American TV and such. Assuming this is related to the new products, I doubt anyone outside of the US will even get a shot at getting it. I'm not a fan of MD anyway, especially not in non-diet version. Hohum.
AishaLove May 5th 2009 1:25PM
Maybe it is a tie in, but to say those colors match the bottles colors is just plain silly, the red bot is way off and the blue one is not that close a match in color either.
Josin May 5th 2009 1:17PM
I have no problem with this being "buy a new Mountain Dew, get an in-game robot pet" promotion. This would encourage the player base to try out the new flavors, but not require excessive expenditure to do so. It would reward us for trying out a sponsor's new product, and if we like it, we'll by more, pet incentive or not. That's good marketing.
But I've seen Mountain Dew's promotions in the past, and it would be more likely "buy a new Mountain Dew, get a chance to win an in-game robot pet," which is infinitely more annoying, and insulting to the player base. I'm a big fan of Code Red, but lots of Mountain Dew flavors over the years have been mediocre at best. I don't want to have to chug down (or buy and NOT drink) bottle after bottle of this stuff just to get an in-game pet.
Sure, I don't HAVE to participate at all, but I'd happily do so for the first scenario. I'd avoid the second one.
Remen May 5th 2009 1:20PM
MD advertising works, I am definately going to track down a case at lunch.
ezmode May 5th 2009 1:47PM
I absolutely hate Mountain Dew, so I probably won't be getting any items if this is true.... Not too crazy about in game advertising either.
jlpknights82 May 5th 2009 1:37PM
I really hope this Mnt Dew does taste like five kinds of butt. Some of their "flavors" have been horrible mis-steps. Though I do like Livewire, the orange one. Hopefully one of these two flavors won't be vomit-inducing.
jlpknights82 May 5th 2009 1:38PM
lol oops does=doesn't
Mastique May 5th 2009 1:54PM
"I really hope this Mnt Dew does taste like five kinds of butt."
I spewed my Mountain Dew all over my computer screen at that line!!!
ROFL
Candina@WH May 5th 2009 1:39PM
I hope that this is a marketing tie in and the battle-bots are like the 'race cars' from christmas.
So.. you have raid downtime. Everybody whip out their battle-bot and duel while waiting for the AFKers. Each bot is 'Dew-al' spec'd either DPS Red or Healer/CC Blue ;-)
:-D In game, mini-game for the win.
Hell, I buy stacks of pet throw balls before our 25 man raids...
Lycanthro May 5th 2009 1:40PM
Firstly, QQ MOAR PLZ.
Secondly, this has nothing to do with in game advertising but an out of game promotion. I'll bet a nobles deck that this is part of the mountain dew promotion and probably collecting points from codes on bottle caps. There is NOTHING wrong with that! People LOVE that shit! The Station Marketplace in EQ and EQ2 as well as their tie-in card games are doing great and I'd love to see the numbers of how many people bought the direct tv blizzcon to get the mount (I know I did) And the collectors editions just for the pets?
WoW players will go buy this drink for the pet and non-wow players who pick it up will get points for the pet and probably a zillion leads to free trials. There is NOBODY losing from this.
tl;dr QQ MOAR
Also, in game advertising is NOT bad when it can be implemented properly. If we had in game billboards already it wouldn't make a difference if you saw Domino's Pizza there instead of a fictional ad. See City of Heroes, Anarchy Online. The companies making the games you love making money HELPS YOU!