A beeping black safe thought to house harmful contents merely contained game developer Ubisoft's latest "Watch Dogs" video game.
According to GameSpot, a bomb squad found the interactive entertainment inside a coded box after Ninemsn staff notified police to investigate the situation after receiving the safe, along with a message to check their voicemail.
Employees discovered no other publication reportedly received the suspicious box.
Ninemsn's editor told Game Spot that the company was overly excited about the game's release.
"The PR company no doubt got carried away with their creativity and ended up sending us something the bomb squad had to open up," Hal Crawford said.
Ubisoft said company officials left voicemails for a few local media organizations about the game's arrival, but ran into a snafu at Ninemsn.
"Our team in Australia sent voicemail messages to some local media alerting them that they'd receive a special package related to the game," Ubisoft said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the delivery to Ninemsn didn't go as planned, and we unreservedly apologize to Ninemsn's staff for the mistake and for any problems caused as a result. We will take additional precautions in the future to ensure this kind of situation doesn't happen again."
Ubisoft launched "Watch Dogs" Tuesday on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC, according to Game Spot.
Game Spot threw 3,500 midnight launch parties to celebrate the kickoff. Ubisoft's senior vice president of sales and marketing previously said the influx of people who pre-ordered the game showed a strong interest in the visual technology.
"These strong pre-orders are a clear indication of player's anticipation and excitement for Watch Dogs," Key said on the company's blog. "The teams have worked tirelessly to ensure that players will enjoy a top quality game with enormous scope, and we can't wait to get the game into their hands."
