Official Battlefield account pulls insensitive tweets after outcry over #justWWIthings

UPDATE: EA has offered the following comment on the issue. "We would like to apologise for any offense caused by content in the last 24 hours posted on the @Battlefield Twitter account," comes the official response. "It did not treat the World War 1 era with the respect and sensitivity that we have strived to maintain with the game and our communications."

ORIGINAL STORY: The official Battlefield account tried to get a hashtag trending on Twitter - only to find its attempt backfired.

Two tweets tried to push the hashtag #justWWIthings, the first depicting a soldier with a flamethrower with the caption: "When you're too hot for the club", the second a picture of a soldier brandishing a pistol while an airship goes down in the background with the caption@ "When your squad is looking on point."

It's a slightly different tone to that taken in the game itself, with Battlefield 1's campaign a relatively mournful affair while its multiplayer makes lip service to the nature of the war in its chaotic Operations mode, even if it can't escape the inherent silliness of online multiplayer first-person shooters.

Still, people picked up on the tonal discrepancy and the hashtag became a source of both disdain and mockery this afternoon.

The tweets have since been deleted, though not before they were captured for posterity by games journalist Holly Nielsen.

EA and DICE's Battlefield 1 has enjoyed strong sales in its first two weeks on the shelves, and its well-drilled multiplayer - perhaps the best since Battlefield Bad Company 2 - is going down well with players. Better than some of its social media campaigns, anyway.

We've asked EA for comment.