Fallout 4 Survivor2299 an elaborate hoax?

Update: As the ‘Nuclear Winter’ countdown approached zero, the site began going up and down. It’s now back with an additional 12 hours on the timer, putting the ‘reveal’ at around 3.30am Eastern US time or 12.30am Pacific. That seems pretty unlikely, and adds something new to the ‘fake’ column.

Update 2: The countdown now appears to be back on track for (at the time of writing) seven minutes time. Very odd indeed.

Update 3: A new coded message on the site keeps the game going a little longer: KVNGR REV ALPHA PPS VT PIZ UHMYLPVOQ CM XHWMZP. NBJB SPI’F BYQS QT D’Y BYFGEOB FI VQDYL MAQ. -NGQHT 5120- Nuclear winter has come.  Message has been decoded.

Original story follows…

For the past few weeks the Fallout community has been glued to the survivor2299.com website in the hope that it’s a marketing campaign for Fallout 4.

Since the site appeared it has been throwing out messages for the community to decipher, whether it be cryptic text messages or playing Morse code to be deciphered. There’s no doubt about it, we’ve all had a lot of fun deciphering the messages and speculating what they could mean.

But is this all an elaborate hoax? That’s the real question, because Bethesda has refused to comment on the legitimacy or otherwise of this supposed Fallout 4 teaser campaign.

Let’s take a look at the evidence so far.

• 14 November – A member of the Reddit community discovers the survivor2299.com website which is broadcasting a Morse code message which translates to the date of 11 December 2013.
• 14 November – EU Trademark discovered
• 21 November – A phone number appears in a message which reads “Nuclear winter is coming. Reserve your future home today! 877-260-2299” When called it plays the Tranquility Land music and more morse code. Line apparently goes dead after a few hours.
• 21 November – site’s Morse code changes again and when deciphered translates to “Calling any station. Calling any station. Calling any station. This is OZ. Please stand by”.
• 22 November – New message on the site is deciphered to read “MY DEAR SISTER. I’M HEADING TO THE INSTITUTE. GOD KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS PLACE NOW. THIS OLD BASTARD WILL HELP US. HE MUST HELP US. –0321–”
• 22 November  – Site message changes to “Nuclear winter is coming. Reserve your future home today! ###PERMISSION DENIED BY OVERSEER (15334) ###”
• 23 November – New site message reads “The quabbin reservoir is seven zero four two two nine nine” and “one two two seven two zero one three || one one two five two zero one three” which is two dates used to desipher the next code reveal.
• 25 November – “Nuclear winter is coming in 6days 11h 41m 25s (counting down)” and “Bridgeport, this is Concord (MA), message: Quabbin Reservoir is hit, repeat, Quabbin Reservoir is hit” appear.
• 26 November – New morse message translates to “NCRA UNIT BST 314 7 EMRG MSG NEW YORK STAGE 7 WASHINGTON STAGE 7 LOS ANGELES STAGE 7 AUSTIN STAGE 7 CHICAGO STAGE 7 NEW ORLEAN STAGE 7 LAS VEGAS UNKNOWN MIAMI STAGE 7 DALLAS STAGE 7 DENVER STAGE 7 SAN DIEGO STAGE 7 SAN FRANCISCO STAGE 7 BOSTO”
• 27 November – More code translates to “Calling any station, Calling any station, Calling any station. Boston is gone, repeat, Boston is gone. No Hope. Frequency 3450 Return Transmission. Goodbye America.”
• 28 November – EU trademark appears to be fake.

Since Thanksgiving the site has seen no action (possibly due to Bethesda/ZeniMax US offices being shut for the holiday?,) which has fans still wondering what will happen when that first clock ticks down to zero in just over 24 hours time.

During this period of weekend silence we’ve received a few “tip-off” messages which have stated that when the countdown hits zero the site will be revealed to be a hoax, and that this has been put together by a member of the Fallout community for “fun.” It has not been possible to confirm the evidence we’ve been sent is 100% legitimate, but from what we have seen it does beg the question whether this whole campaign has been elaborate hoax, and a well executed one on at that.

Based on what we have posted in the previous weeks and the information that’s appeared on the survivor2299 site, do you think that this has been a legitimate marketing campaign or something that’s been created by an over-enthusiastic member of the Fallout community? Cast your vote…

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