Armed police swoop on Ubisoft PR stunt

A promotional stunt for Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Conviction in which an actor brandished a fake gun at members of the public has been condemned by police authorities.

Armed officers were called to the Viaduct Basin area of Auckland, New Zealand, as an actor threatened pub customers with an imitation pistol, reports the NZ Herald.

"We consider these types of stunts to be very ill-advised and have real concerns a similar one may one day end in tragedy," said senior sergeant Ben Offner.

Marketing firm Monaco Corporation blamed a third-party company for using fake weapons, and said that it was not the intention to provoke controversy in order to hype the game.

"This was by no means an attempt to get cops down there and get this sort of exposure," offered Duane Mutu, marketing manager for Monaco. "We do apologise, we shouldn't have had guns down there.

"It was just marketing gone wrong."