Capcom uses creepy Twitter account for viral marketing of Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6 is one of the most anticipated games this year, and is more or less the only mainstream survival horror game right now, at least until the release of Ubisoft’s ZombiU for the Wii U. Capcom is going into viral marketing for the game now with the creation of the Twitter account @weskerson.

The Twitter account claims to be that of a butcher who sells cheap meat. Wesker & Sons claims to use an “exclusive supplier” for its meat, and has tweets such as, “Heard about some murders today. Hopefully an intake of some great new meat soon, all good deals”. The Twitter account seems to be part of an elaborate ARG (alternate reality game) by Capcom for its upcoming game, Resident Evil 6. Many game journalists are receiving tweets from the account with some graphic pictures of crime scene forensics and pathology reports from a place called Tall Oaks – the place that features heavily in the rest of the Resident Evil 6 ARG, according to Stick Twiddlers.

The ARG for the game is turning out to be pretty creepy

Resident Evil is one of Capcom’s most successful franchises yet. Resident Evil 6 was originally set to have three playable characters – Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield and Jake Muller, all three with their own storylines that will eventually converge. Though Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu later revealed that Resident Evil 6 will feature a fourth campaign that can be unlocked. The fourth campaign will feature Ada Wong as a playable character and will be unlocked once the three main campaigns of the game have been cleared.

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In an interview with Famitsu, executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi talked about some of the details about Ada’s campaign. “Ada’s story will clear up the mysteries from the other scenarios,” said Kobayashi. “Her scenario is played solo, without a partner character. When playing as Leon and the other main characters, you may end up encountering other players who are controlling Ada”.

Another big feature for Resident Evil 6 is Residentevil.net. The free online service got a trailer back in August, which showed off many of the features of the service, such as giving Capcom the capability to hold events and stuff which will reward gamers with in-game items such as skins. Here’s an example of one such event according to Capcom: “let’s say one weekend the goal is to kill 10,000 zombies. Everyone who has an RE.net account and plays during that time period will receive RE.net points that can be redeemed on the site for a variety of goodies - chief among them new costumes that appear in the actual game.”

Resident Evil 6 is scheduled for a release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 October 2. A PC version will follow soon.