this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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It's definitely a marketing campaign. The logo is literally the Black Mesa logo, and it has a picture of a headcrab on a scientist. I guess the team is releasing a new campaign or something.
This site is actually for a real company that has the same name and logo, but yea there's some fun stuff going on here that I wanna see figured out
That's how you know it's not real. Valve owns the rights to the logo, especially when combined with the name Black Mesa.
Yeah, who would go to the internet and infringe copyright and trademark laws? That has never happened before.
/s
But for real. It's a viral campaign for something but definitely not for a video game. Look at deadlock, that's how valve does marketing now. They don't even need ads or webpages anymore.
Says them?
Their address is a house.
Where do you see the address?
https://corp.sec.state.ma.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSearchResults.aspx
9 ALFRED CIRCLE BEDFORD, MA 01730 USA
So I went for a little drive...
https://i.imgur.com/gXWIXj4.jpeg
See that little black placard?
https://i.imgur.com/oglXV45.jpeg
Valve has the resources, yes, but wouldn't go that far for no payoff. I'm convinced they're a real company, not an ARG.
Pahaha if op keeps this up they're gonna get this lab in trouble for cribbing half life ip
Apparently they reached out to Valve and got the OK from someone to use the name and variant logo, according to a comment I saw either here or on reddit.
Not if contributing to actual research, for which they applied for govt grants (and received) contributes to a tax write-off.
They have the means.
I'm not sure if you're serious. Technically yes, Valve could set up a real biotech company, staff it, apply for government grants, receive money, and do actual biotech work... But it doesn't make sense to do for a video game marketing stunt.
Why would it not make sense for them to do it? It is the most anticipated videogames of all time. The videogame community has basically taunted Valve saying they're afraid to make the games and valve has been firm that fear does not guide them. So obviously they will go as big as anyone's ever gone.
It in fact makes less sense that a biotech firm would call themselves black Mesa, and start up a faux ARG for the lulz.
What does spinning off a biotech company achieve for marketing HL3? Especially when Black Mesa has already been released and isn't even Valve's game?
We are talking about HL3 as a result.
That is how marketing works.
That's a big reach. It's spending a lot of money for not much gain, when they could spend that money either on regular advertising or on a real ARG campaign.
If it was an ARG for HL3, why would it be based on Black Mesa? That's the HL1 remake fan project that's already done.
What money is it spending exactly? A lease for a small building and a small town in Massachusetts? Maybe 10 grand a month? A salary for, as far as LinkedIn tells us, 2:00 to 10 individuals, we'll call it a million dollars.
Are you telling me that Valve isn't willing to invest 2 million dollars in advertising the most anticipated video game of all time?
What do you think valves marketing budget is?
Do you think there's a modulation when it comes to expenditures for half-life 3 should they arise?
When was the last time you saw an ad for a valve game outside of the steam ecosystem?
Bedford isn't a small town. There's a bunch of other biotech facilities in that area. It looks like it'd be a relatively cheap building to lease, but not as cheap as you're thinking.
I think if they were going to spend $2m on marketing, they'd actually use it for marketing, not spinning off a biotech company.
Oh right. All those ads you saw for all those games they put out. Yeah. No, good point, valve definitely has a tradition of spending their marketing dollar just like every other company out there. If half-life 3's coming out, we'll probably hear about it in the Sears catalog. 🙄 What was I thinking.