It's a scare tactics they use during negotiations, essentially "see how crazy are we? you'd better speak with us and accept all our demands", and it's usually some outrageous things (so it's widely shared in media) like bombing cancer hospital for children or Chornobyl reactor, in this case.

Would love to see some kind of "Art Direction 101 for Game Designers" guideline :) For me, the most useful sources so far were your "Building a Visual Identity" talk and "The Art of Direction" book from Ron Ashtiani, would absolutely love to see more of that.

Thank you! My favourite Far Cry as well (and not just because I worked on it :)).