I don’t quite understand what was going through the minds of those who conducted the goings on at the GMA’s on behalf of Grainger Games, however, they are currently on their knees apologising for it. A promising independent retail company who had a good chance of pitching themselves as a viable investment, last night completely tarnished any chance they had of being taken seriously again.
Last night was the Games Media Awards in London, better known to most people as the GMA’s. GMA’s 2011 was sponsored by Grainger Games, the UK’s “One stop shop for gaming”, but last night may have been the last time they represent anything, let alone the GMA’s.
Details right now are rather sketchy and there is no video or photo evidence as far as I can find, but according to reports around the web Grainger Games made an appalling first impression and it got progressively worse from there.
Arriving in a large orange Hummer seems tactless at the best of times, but given their company logo is equally as ugly, it wasn’t too bad – that was until the doors opened and out poured a circus of “comedy dwarves” and barely legal, barely clothed glamour models.
For a company that needed this opportunity to get closer to the gaming community, their entrance was definitely an important one and they failed in all aspects of trying to impress.
Grainger Games later sat down at their table which was littered with Grainger Games branded condoms. Given the fact they were spread in front of their Jaffa-orange girls, it was obviously some kind of unwelcome sexual innuendo to really trash up this otherwise classy event.
Before the madness had chance to settle down, Grainger Games were yet again the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. The comedian approached the stage and the heckling began. It’s almost a comedians job to be heckled, so while eyebrows were being raised it was far from the end of the world, but then later heckling during the actual awards show and trying to talk over it is far from professional and quite blatantly just rude.
Could it get any worse? Actually, yes. At one point a PR of Grainger Games got up on stage and pelvic-thrusted towards the audience whilst somebody was trying to claim an award.
Was that all? Nope, not at all. Two Grainger Games representatives were allegedley caught by various staff members at the event snorting cocaine in the toilets.
The rest of the night is a blur as far as Grainger Games adventures go, so I’m assuming they were either thrown out or the show ended with no further problems, probably after they got ‘told-off’ and put in their place by inbetweeners star and host of the GMA’s, Greg Davies.
Grainger Games have stepped up and offered an apology on their official website however it’s not much of an apology and it really is more of an insult to the people they affected rather than an apology, it’s almost as if they really don’t understand the sincerity of what they actually did that night and how much they affected peoples special night and possibly more important, to them, their reputation.
Their apology read (And yes, this is in full) :
“We wholeheartedly apologise if we offended anyone at last night’s GMAs. It was never our intention to upset anybody. We sponsored the awards to show our support for everyone involved in games media and we continue to value and appreciate all their hard work and commitment.”
Xbox LIVE editor, MrPointyhead or Daniel Maher, said the following on the subject:
In other news, Grainger Games are an absolute disgrace. Complete disrespect for the industry they’re supposedly a part of.
Etc. First up, they cheapened a pretty classy venue with barely legal glamour girls, ‘comedy’ dwarfs and condoms.
One of our chaps caught two of them being collared for powdering their noses.
THEN two of them attempted to physically and verbally intimidate me after I’d told them to shut up.
Stuart Dinsey, the managing director of Intent Media has issued an official apology on behalf of the awards and Intent media. That can be found on their official website.
Dinsey stated,
At last night’s Games Media Awards, many friends and partners of Intent Media were, quite understandably, upset and offended by the behaviour of the event’s headline sponsor, Grainger Games.
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise wholeheartedly for this – and to make it very clear that Grainger will not be welcome back in any capacity to the GMAs, or any Intent Media events.
He went on to say;
Grainger Games’ behaviour and attitude was the antithesis of what the GMAs are about. Next year we will give the event back to the media and work only with partners we know understand what the event is about.
I quite often feel terrible after the Games Media Awards. I’m sure a lot of you do as well. But this morning I just feel a bit embarrassed and extremely apologetic. I really do hope to see everyone who came last night back again next year. Well, nearly everyone.
As far as we know, no further action has been taken on the matter. We can only hope that no other sponsors follow in Grainger Games’ footsteps.
Personally at GamerEuphoria, we feel incredibly sorry for Stuart as an amazing event was ruined by what were supposed to be a reputable company. I think it’s safe to say though, that Grainger’s mission of “being closer to the media” wasn’t a success.
