Taking pot shots at your competition is always a ballsy move. This week, the award for biggest gonads goes to game studio Kixeye, whose raunchy recruitment ad is drawing quite a bit of attention for the small company in the cutthroat competition for gaming talent. Kixeye doesn’t pull any punches insulting its rivals in the three-minute spot. Using slightly tweaked competitor names, it depicts Zynga as a foul-mouthed child (one of the best child actors I’ve seen in ages, incidentally), eagerly shoving Yoo-hoo and dollar bills down his gullet. It lampoons EA as Eaarp, an old man who can’t remember if he took his heart medicine or his Viagra, and rounds it off by accusing Kingdoms of Camelot studio Kabam of using marketing stats and rotating plot wheels to determine its next games. The beauty is in the details, from the tiny penis clacking balls on the Zynga kid’s desk to Kabam’s hilarious plot wheel of fortune. You’ll want to watch it twice to catch it all. The spot is so delightful it gets a pass for choosing Grieg’s exhaustingly overused “In the Hall of the Mountain King” as the driving track. At the end, the CEO of Kixeye, Will Harbin, quotes Conan the Barbarian and explains that his company is about making kickass games. (Tough talk for a studio previously called Casual Collective, but nothing wrong with being a bit aspirational.) Then he dons the world’s most terrifying unicorn mask and flies away on a helicopter ladder. If you’re watching at work, just a warning that he also waves around an enormous black dildo. You’re welcome. Hat tip to The Escapist, where you can also see Kixeye's great recruitment poster.
Warning: Video contains NSFW language.