EA sending out severed hands to the media

And: eep.

In its ongoing PR campaign for Dante’s Inferno, EA has started sending selected members of the media a severed hand, like the one you see above. Obviously, it’s not a real severed hand, silly, though it is an impressive replica.

But hey, what’s it all about? Well, there’s a bit of a backstory, as there should be when detached human limbs are involved. A few weeks ago, EA sent several game journalists a check for $200. This, declared EA, was to educate people about Dante Alighieri’s famous poem, and in particular about the fourth circle of Hell, Greed. Would the journos who received the check cash it?

Well, because most game journalists subsist on ramen and tap water, of course they did (or most of them did, at least. Kotaku’s Brian Crecente self-righteously burnt his). Nick Chester of Destructoid was amongst those who cashed in, only to receive this grisly appendage. The following message was enclosed:

Foul Horder, The Fourth Circle of Hell Awaits

A hand that clutches gold cannot reach forth to help his fellow man. You have hoarded the wealth of the world and incurred the debt of greed, and the wages of your sin were paid by the innocent. For the wealth of one shall always come at the suffering of another.

And then Nick Chester went forth and bought a load of sneakers. Also, for the record, I’d have cashed that mother faster than you could say “How about Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box next time, EA?” Yeah, I’m full of integrity like that.

[Via Destructoid]