Chado-Design.com

This January, to market their new game MLB 2K10, video game developer 2K Sports put up a $1 million prize for the first person to pitch a perfect game under specific conditions. The new game features all new pitching mechanics for improved gameplay and to advertise the improvements over last year’s MLB 2K9 they put up the money for the contest. They figured this new strategy would build hype for the game’s release, persuade more players to buy the game for full price on the day it is released, and invest more time playing the game. They originally estimated that it would take weeks for players to achieve the supposedly difficult feat but a mere 24 hours after the game was released they had a winner. After going through the rigorous confirmation tests to certify a legitimate perfect game, the winner was just recently announced.

Wade McGilberry, a 24 year-old Alabama resident won the cool million in just 90 minutes of playing the game on his Xbox360. McGilberry, playing as Atlanta Braves pitcher Kenshin Kawakami pulled through with a 27-up, 27-down contest relatively quickly. Although the contest succeeded in generating buzz and received positive response from fans, 2K Sports had to pay the $1 million lump sum out of pocket. Insurance companies couldn’t come up with the odds of throwing a perfect game so 2K Sports couldn’t take out insurance on the contest.

As the video game market continues to significantly increase, developers are constantly looking for unique and exciting ways to hype their new games. While some tactics have been quite successful (and others fail miserably) it will be interesting to see if contests become a new trend to increase release day customers.