If you’ve got a massive open-world to play with and build content for, it’s not at all surprising that you might use some of it to make fun of what’s happening in real life. And that’s what the Watch Dogs 2 developers have done, building in a little side quest to poke fun at the real-life Hanna-Barbera villain, Martin Shkreli.
The mission is basically a virtual spin on last year, when Shkreli paid millions of dollars for the sole copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”.
The 31-track double-album was bought by Shkreli in real life for $US2 million, although the contract contained a weird clause allowing “active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or Bill Murray” to legally steal it back. Later on, Shkreli announced that he was considering destroying the album, saying that “I want to be the world’s heel”.
Obviously, he’s a bit of a dick. So Ubisoft poked fun at the pharmaceutical executive by adding in a mission where a group of hackers dupe in-game pharma CEO Gene Carcani over the auction of an upcoming album from rapper Bobo Dakes.
Unsurprisingly, Shkreli wasn’t too impressed.
“Pretty lame, but happy I’m in a video game,” Shkreli said after watching the gameplay video. But he then proceeded to give Ubisoft a serve on Twitter, shortly after posting a lengthy Periscope video that included him adopting an accent, ranting about spelling, pointing a knife at the camera, holding up a syringe saying “it’s a cure for cancer” and holding up another bag of … something.
trash game https://t.co/0tEboCc2zW
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 26, 2016
No man sky much better. Ubi worst game company on the planet. https://t.co/KPxqVxdUa3
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 26, 2016
watch doge is a grand theft auto rip off with ridiculously stupid premise–not even a Hollywood writer could come up with. sets back genre. https://t.co/P45Lobhpv2
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 26, 2016
Ubisoft revenue -11% Y/Y 🙁 The Company barely breaks even LOL. Maybe try raising prices? @watchdogsgame @Ubisoft https://t.co/Sl4gD1ENT4
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 26, 2016
To their credit, Ubisoft doesn’t appear to give the slightest of shits. Here’s the mission in full, if you’d like to watch it without crappy audio or Shkreli’s presence.
Comments
34 responses to “Watch Dogs 2 Mocks Martin Shkreli, Provokes Twitter Rant”
“I want to be the world’s heel”
Ok, here you go.
“That’s lame, the game is bad, your company is terrible, everything is shit”
He has to know his opinions carry weight with no one based on him being such a huge piece of shit, so my instinct is to get on my knees and suck this game’s dick right off. With that in mind, what are the chances this dickhead owns Ubisoft shares and knows his vitriol will drive sales?
That description about how youd play this game… :s
Now I’m just waiting for a YouTube video of somebody beating Dark Souls that way.
Beating off Dark Souls?
oh thats right there is someone more self indulgent than Trump, forgot about this narcissistic lunatic. I love that he thinks that he is interesting, relevant or popular… he got his celebrity by ripping off the sick and dying, he is worse than the diseases themselves.
aside from your rant Shrkeli – do you think its clever to get on the trump bandwagon with paltry attempts at sounding intellectual?
You live in australia, get a hold of yourself.
All these ‘worldly’ wanker looking for anywhere to interject their ‘worldly’ views in any contect available.
…and yes, im not a republican or a democrat – wrong country.
Before you attack someone for trying to sound intellectual, you might want to look up the difference between ‘contect’ and ‘context’.
Also, for the record, it’s the ‘anti-Trump bandwagon’. The Trump bandwagon refers to his supporters.
Personally, I think the comparison has merit…. you can’t really talk about narcissism in today’s world without comparisons to The Donald.
Trump is a scary, self indulgent narcissist, who is in capable of admiting flaws or faults or telling the truth, even on subject where there is video/print/audio proof.
The anti-Trump movement has nothing to do with intellectualism (though listening to him insults my intelligence, in every single moment) and it most certainly has nothing to do with politics, it is to do with the ability for some people to recognise a snake-oil salesman from a trained diplomat. One doesn’t need to be American to see through smoke and mirrors and the selling of fear as hope.
board of directors make such decisions. He willingly took all the heat as I’m sure there would have been a good pay salary bump to become “the most hated guy”
I’d do it.
In other news, Ubisoft announces expansion for watch dogs 2 where duped pharma company CEO goes on a Twitter tirade only to realize that his social media presence has been hacked and replaced with pictures of bunnies.
Nothing to really add here, but can I just say something in regards to the on-going site overhaul.
ENOUGH
WITH
THE
DAMN
CRYPTIDS
The site overhaul has caused me to check Kotaku considerably less these last few days. It used to be my one-stop shop, now I just skim on Twitter.
They’re going to keep it until you click on it.
You click it :p
No, you click it 😛
You’re right man, I’d much rather know where the where the Academy of Interactive Entertainment can take me
Am I the only person that thinks Martin Shkreli is actually not a bad guy lol?
Yes
eh I guess people only take surface value on things without doing their research 🙂
The more I listen to him in interviews and see the way he reacts to his infamy, the less I’m sure whether he is an arrogant dick, or just hasn’t developed sufficient interpersonal skills/emotional faculty to understand how to relate to people and see how his actions affect others. Maybe he’s on the spectrum.. I wouldn’t be surprised. Either way, while I don’t agree with his business practices, I’m not sure he’s the evil incarnate I first took him to be…
I’ve done my research. Can confirm that he is unequivocally the largest wart on the slimiest arse of society. For comparison, Trump is probably more like an in-grown hair on that same arse, but nonetheless both are buried deep, deep, within the crack.
I feel like this is derailing a bit but what makes you feel like he is worse than Trump? To me, Shkreli is predictable in his awfulness. I absolutely disagree with his business model of price hiking life saving drugs but he’s open about his practices and, as a person, he appears relatively benign, if a bit whiny. Trump has awful and offensive opinions about so many different things, will say whatever people want to hear to look favourable, and his narcissism is dangerous. Everything about him makes me sick. I mean, they’re both awful, but yeah…
People who leap to Shkreli’s defence accuse people of not doing the research, but you never seem to be able to provide an explanation for why people are wrong.
confirmed
So, you agree? You’re defending Shkreli baselessly and have no evidence that anyone is wrong about him?
Never said he’s a saint. Same can be said about your comment, the information is out there it’s up to the people to educate themselves.
It’s just you and his mum. Unless you’re his mum, in which case, yeah, it’s just you.
Here you go.
Pretty sure that Bill Murray clause was debunked…
Whatever shit that is flung at him, to be honest. The man is detestable.