Nintendo doesn't much care for bees

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 October, 2004

Samus owns viral marketing.

Nintendo's unusually amusing this month. With Metroid Prime: Echoes due out on GameCube in the States on November 15th (and in Europe on November 26th), the platform holder has struck upon an unusual method of promoting its prized first-person adventure title. Fake websites.

First of all there's Channel 51, a conspiracy theorist's, um, dead end, given that most of the footage is from Metroid Prime, and that the site's principle correspondent is a young lady called Samantha "Manus" from "Sumas, Washington". Then there's Orbis Labs, which specialises in futuristic military technology including a "Battle Sphere"...

But the one that's been causing the most amusement amongst the childish likes of us is probably the simplest, and at the time of writing it's something that Nintendo UK representatives weren't taking responsibility for. You'll remember Microsoft's ambitious www.ilovebees.com campaign for Halo 2 (outlined in detail here if you've let it pass you by). It's clear Nintendo - or somebody on its side - does though, judging by www.ilovetease.com, www.iloveseas.com and around 30 other variants, which up until they became unavailable to us this morning had been carrying a very simple proclamation suspended under a picture of Samus' visor: "All your bees are belong to us. Never send a man to do a woman's job."

Whatever next?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Royal Fool #1 7 years ago

    Unavailable? Still works here, at least ilovesneeze.com.

    In any case, I have my suspicions that this is not Nintendo's doing, it doesn't seem like their style. The sites are, strangely enough, connected to 2advanced.com which is a professional web design/flash studio, and they also did those Orbis Labs and Channel 51 sites for Nintendo. Maybe a fan at 2Advanced did this?

    Who knows.

  • Eighthours #2 7 years ago

    EG guys having Internet problems as well today then? Half my "favourites" aren't working this morning. Bloody BT!!

  • Spanky #3 7 years ago

    Blimey do 2advanced actually do sites that don't look like there own company site. They're like a stuck record.

  • bunglebonce #4 7 years ago

    All your viral marketing are belong to Samus.

    Either my English is worse than I even imagined, or the syntax isn't quite right.

  • Dant #5 7 years ago

    Go to raw.wwe.com and everytime there are the letters "DS" in a word, the letters look like the DS Logo.

    Nintendo`s advertising is becoming rather strang........
    (in a good way!)

  • Blerk #6 7 years ago

    Are you the only person on Earth who hasn't heard of 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us'? :-D

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #7 7 years ago

    Either my English is worse than I even imagined, or the syntax isn't quite right.

    Someone get the lynch mob, this guy isn't in on it!

  • bionutz #8 7 years ago

    Either my English is worse than I even imagined, or the syntax isn't quite right.

    The mentioned words bunglebonce come from an old game translated wrongly from Japanese, whose wise words propagated to us "All your base are belong to us!". <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_ posts.php?thread_id=19487&forum_id=1>here forum link</a>

  • gizmo #9 7 years ago

    Er, Nintendo, either you or your cronies stop wasting time and actually release some decent games in Europe. Or anywhere actually.

    /that is all.

  • IronGiant #10 7 years ago

    What a waste of webspace.. all the fake websites in the world won't stop Master Chief ;)

  • MikeP #11 7 years ago

    Ah, marketeers & their kerrazzy viral campaigns, don't you just love them?

    No.

    Viral = Worst advertising strategy ever.

  • Blerk #12 7 years ago

    All that time I spent trying to convince people that Metroid isn't a FPS and isn't anything like Halo, and Nintendo go and do this. Gits.

  • MBar #13 7 years ago

    www.iloveknees.com

    teehee.

    clever, but really, halo2's hype completely out-strips prime2's. and this is coming from a nintendo fanboi ; ) however, it has been little to do with that ilovebees nonsense. halo.bungie.org refused to cover it at all and banned it from its forums. and quite right too.

    i'll be buying both, so i don't care. although no doubt halo2 will be out about six months before prime2. i feel another import for use with the good ol' freeloader....

    edit : they are missing one vital one, www.ilovecleese.com, i mean who doesn't love john cleese, eh?
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/04 @ 13:53

  • posh_geordie #14 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • MBar #15 7 years ago

    ^^^ really? shit! (thats an exclaimation of joy btw).

    too many games in november (as bloody usual...)

    edit : have Nintendo changed their ways or something?
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/04 @ 14:23

  • Concept #16 7 years ago

    Prime is 60hz only. That's why the release over here is so early.

  • Blerk #17 7 years ago

    Rumour has it that the PAL Metroid Prime 2 is 60hz only. Might have something to do with the 'incredibly quick release' over here.

  • Blerk #18 7 years ago

    Bugger bugger! Curse that 'internet timeout'. I nearly beat you. :-)

  • Concept #19 7 years ago

    Don't you realise? I'm too super-quick for everyone. ;)

    This 60hz move is a good thing though. Hopefully if more publishers adopt this attitude then we may see quicker releases between the US and UK in the future.

    No doubt it's going to suck for those who own a pre-90's non-60hz/RGB/NTSC-compatible TV though.
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/04 @ 15:35

  • Blerk #20 7 years ago

    Cube does PAL60 not NTSC, so it won't matter that much. But there will still be some incompatible tellies.

  • Concept #21 7 years ago

    I'm aware of that.

    More or less, I'm talking specifically about the influence this could have if it branches over to PS2 or a Sony-endorsed console. In which case NTSC-60 would probably mean simulataneous US-UK releases if it ever went mainstream.

    And let's face it... Most modern TVs that can handle PAL-60, are probably going to be able to handle RGB and NTSC.

  • onyxbox #22 7 years ago

    I had a 60Hz wide screen telly... most games didn't support Wide screen and looked crap on it.

    I bought a new big 4:3 telly and now all the games look great but it doesn't do 60Hz, so it looks like Echoes is off the radar :-/ shame really I was really looking forward to it.

    This won't kill the game's sales because of people not having 60Hz, it will kill game sales because it has a warning sticker on it telling people it might not work on their telly.

    One of the great things about consoles is that a UK game for a UK console will 'work' no matter what kind of TV or Audio system you had connected.

    What this says is: "You can buy a game for the console but it may or may not work depending on what telly you have and if it does support 60Hz you might need to change what mode the telly is set to already in order to get it working"

    And if you ask me, personal feelings aside, Nintendo has made a bad decision to try and get at least one game worth owning out this year.

  • Destria #23 7 years ago

    Hey, if you can play in PAL-60, you'd be nuts to play in NTSC-60. Unless my Multimedia lecturer at uni was fibbing, the only aspect about PAL that was inferior to NTSC is the refresh rate. It's got more vertical lines, and the colours are better.

    As my lecturer put it:

    "NTSC - Never Twice Same Colour"
    "SECAM - System Essentialy Contrary to American Method"
    "PAL - Perfection At Last"

  • Concept #24 7 years ago

    NTSC-60 is inferior, but I'd still jump at the chance for gaming over to here to adopt it as a primary format.

    Simply because due to our language similarities, it would mean US-to-UK releases would then be virtually identical.

    I wouldn't know about the rest of Europe though.

  • onyxbox #25 7 years ago

    Callous B :

    It's a cheap Sanyo TV from ASDA.

    I do have the Ocarina bonus disk so I'll give it a go, although I switched my XBox into Pal-60 mode to play Burnout and all I got was a black screen.

    Thanks for the advice.

  • bunglebonce #26 7 years ago

    The mentioned words bunglebonce come from an old game translated wrongly from Japanese, whose wise words propagated to us "All your base are belong to us!".

    Oops, my bad.

  • Bezzy #27 7 years ago

    Do not feel bad for not knowing what "All your base" refers to. It was funny for about a week 3 years ago.

  • Nikanoru #28 7 years ago

    I have phillips TV that's over 15 years old. It does 60 hz.

  • #29 7 years ago

    My advice; Buy a new TV regardless.

  • Bender #30 7 years ago

    Did Bungie ever say Halo 2 was a FPS? What if they've been calling it a FPA!! WHAT THEN?!! OMG!!!

  • Scimarad #31 7 years ago

    Metroid is not a FPS, it's an exercise in finger-tangling.

    "To activate sub-weapon D Hold both triggers, the A button, the B button and..uh...stand on your head!"

  • #32 7 years ago

    I don't think so, frod.. but it helps.

  • Smiggs #33 7 years ago

    More or less, I'm talking specifically about the influence this could have if it branches over to PS2 or a Sony-endorsed console. In which case NTSC-60 would probably mean simulataneous US-UK releases if it ever went mainstream.

    It won't happen for the PS2 because the cable you get out the box isn't 60Hz compatible, actually thats a point what cable would be 60Hz compatible? At the moment I get black and white pictures with 60Hz from my ps2 but my cube is fine.

  • #34 7 years ago

    Your cube is fine.. So, what's the problem? This game isn't coming out for the PS2.