KFC’s new VR game is a bucket of dystopian nightmare grease

KFC has recast its own founder as a spluttering, robot-wielding madman in this bizarre virtual-reality game.

As surfaced by Eater, the strange VR experience involves being locked in a nightmarish room full of clocks and robot arms, while the disembodied voice of Colonel Sanders teaches you how to cook chicken.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=J3PJQ_E7Se0

The whole thing looks like a corporate-sponsored level of BioShock, with that game’s antagonist Andrew Ryan replaced by a coughing fast-food pioneer. Make a mistake, or forget the stages needed to prepare and fry the meat, and – as Sanders hisses – “there will be consequences”.

Eater cites a press release as saying the Oculus Rift game is in fact being used to train KFC employees. Indeed, hidden beneath the whole strange setup is a basic guide to the five stages needed to make KFC chicken, although the timescale has been shrunken down from the 25 minutes to just ten.

As Eurogamer points out, KFC’s ad agency Wieden + Kennedy has precedent in making oddball promo video games, such as one for Old Spice called Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 ½ Weeks to Save the World. Nor is this KFC’s first time at the chicken-technology-crossover rodeo – the chain has previously made a KFC-branded smartphone and a box with a built-in phone charger. While there may be some level of employee training going on, the new VR game is likely a big, albeit nicely absurdist, PR stunt.

We’ve reached out to KFC’s parent company Yum Brands for clarification on the VR game, but until we hear more you can enjoy the sound of Colonel Sanders ordering a player to “leave this delicious prison and ascend”.