Nitrome Must Die website

Nitrome Must Die website
Information
Launched	Unknown
Link(s)	Wayback Machine
Main Feature	Nitrome's 100th Game
Other
Special	First webpage launched for a Flash game.

For the game, see Nitrome Must Die.

Nitrome Must Die.com was a fake hate website constructed by the game company Nitrome as a teaser for their 100th game, Nitrome Must Die. It masqueraded as a petition created by Austin Carter, a fan on Nitrome's Facebook page later revealed to be fake and upset with the company. This caused an uprise in support for the gaming website.

Post reveal, the site used to redirect to Nitrome Must Die on Nitrome.com, but now contains the front page of Tom McQuillan's website.

History

First mentionings

Nitrome Must Die was first mentioned in a Facebook comment by Austin Carter on a post by Nitrome regarding the 100th game's coming. It read, "Right THATS IT i've had enough of all this Nitrome rubbish. Sign my petition against Nitrome. Check out the link below. nitromemustdie.com" Many people read this comment and immediately teamed up against Austin and criticized about how he was just a "hater", and that Nitrome was a decent company.

Soon, however, a small number of people realized how peculiar the site was, considering it had very good pixel art and Austin's profile picture and his friend Justin Bennet's as well. The two profiles also seemed newly created. An entire conversation emerged, and soon one fan found a reverse domain lookup incriminating Nitrome as owning a site starting with the letter "N" and registered on November 1st, obviously Nitrome Must Die. Even though the hoax had been foiled, the commentors encouraged Nitrome to go on with their stunt anyway. Nitrome's only response, in the form of Austin, was "Yeah, Whatever dudes!" staying in his character.

Nitrome links to petition

Fortunately for Nitrome, not many fans read the comments made that proved it was a fake. This allowed them to continue the charade the next day and post a link to the site, saying, "Unfortunately over the past few days there have been some negative posts on the Nitrome page on Facebook. This finally resulted yesterday in a hate campaign where a website has been launched, here people can sign a petition to stop Nitrome making games. This makes us sad. :(" Many fans rose up against the website with Matthew Killick's slogan "Nitrome Must Die MUST DIE!" Some launched anti-petitions and one fan made a promotional image proclaiming the slogan previously mentioned. Those who did know it was fake mostly sat back and let others figure it out for themselves. Nitrome was very pleased with all the positive feedback and thanked everyone who had supported them.

The reveal

Nitrome finally confessed that Nitrome Must Die was a fake website constructed by themselves to tease their 100th game, and that Austin Carter and Justin Bennet were indeed its protagonists. They showed a trailer promoting the game, consisting of the two destroying Nitrome towers as revenge for their games being so hard. Many fans confessed they were entirely fooled by the petition.

Post reveal

After the release of Nitrome Must Die, the Nitrome Must Die website was designed to redirect to Nitrome Must Die on Nitrome.com. However, by June 15, 2013 the website had been changed to contain the front page of Tom McQuillan's website. Although this was later rectified sometime in 2014, early in 2015 nitromemustdie.com was returned to displaying McQuillan's website, this time an updated version.

Trivia

• The people involved in discovering the reverse domain lookup formed a Facebook group to keep in touch called "Hatebusters," the name coming from a joke brought up in the original conversation.
• A grammar mistake is made in the website that many fans used to insult the hate campaign. It reads, "Nitrome aren't that good at making games." This mistake is implying Nitrome to be a group, not a single company.

External links

• The Nitrome Must Die website - Wayback Machine archive, November 2011