We know that generating interest in a product before it launches is hard work, but is this the way you should go about it? Google has been caught making fake Twitter accounts to defend their Stadia platform from haters, without directly engaging with them. The problem is, they're not even doing it in a sneaky way, as the accounts obviously only follow Stadia on Twitter and even reply to users that write directly to Stadia.

via Twitter

With its Founders and Premiere Editions launching today, November 19th, along with 22 titles, Google is hard at work trying to uphold Stadia's reputation. For example, a Twitter account under the handle @Th0r16 is defending Stadia's shortcomings left and right, replying to people calling out the platform for issues such as input lag, or its competition with Microsoft's xCloud. The account was created in November 2019, and it only follows Stadia with no followers of its own at the time of discovery, nor a profile picture. As of the time of writing, it has gathered close to a 100 followers - presumably due to the entertainment value it provides - but it still has no tweets, only replies to Stadia-related tweets. Weird, huh?

First discovered through another tweet, the account could arguably belong to a die-hard Stadia fan. Except when it outs itself as one user tweets to Stadia that his order just shipped, and this seemingly anonymous account replies with...

"great :) did you get the activation code ?"

Forgetting to switch accounts, are we?

"I hope ur [sic] getting paid well to do this bud. Embarrassing," replies one user. To a question of how much Google is paying them, Th0r16 replies, "hahahaha guys you need to come out of the xbox bubble .."

RELATED: If You Preordered Google Stadia, You May Not Get It At Launch

The problem with Stadia, in the community's opinion, is that you're paying for both Stadia and any games you want to play. That is without including other problems like a lack of solution for data caps, launching the service without key features, and issues with its controller being  unable to connect to all your devices at launch. While there are those who believe in the power of Stadia, the general verdict seems to be "dead on arrival."

Google seems to be trying to figure out how to revive the hype surrounding its project, but choosing this way to tackle the problem may be exactly the wrong thing to do. After all, they should know that a large portion of the gaming community is notorious for doubling down on their opinions if they feel they're being manipulated in any way. As the user who first discovered the burner account put it, "Companies doing this sh*t makes me want to stay far away from their products. I was considering giving Stadia a chance but this ruined it for me."

Source: Twitter

NEXT: Are Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud The Future of Gaming?