News: Let the games begin.
Certain differences, rivalries if you will, have come between various groups of gamers since there have been games to argue over. Manveer Heir, the lead designer at Raven Software, has thrown down the gauntlet on a new rivalry with EA Sports' Madden franchise in a very interesting way.
Heir has posted a contest to his Twitter account that will likely go down as one of the all-time greatest marketing stunts ever: If you buy Raven's upcoming shooter Wolfenstein in August and it sells more copies than Madden NFL 10 during the month, Heir will personally pay for your copy of the game.
According to Heir, he plans to use the monthly NPD numbers to compare the sales of the two titles, so only the North American sales of Wolfenstein vs Madden will count, but international gamers can ask for a refund if Wolfenstein wins. He is also requiring that you keep your receipt as proof of purchase and that you follow his account on
Twitter. In a further update to rules, Heir
clarified...
Rules clarification continued: Limit one free copy per follower (I can't believe I actually have to state that)
While I have to give Heir credit for coming up with this, I wouldn't count on your copy of Wolfenstein being free just yet.
Madden NFL 09 sold over two million copies in its first month on sale last year and the 2010 edition will likely do similar sales numbers. In fact, it's likely Madden will sell more after one day than Wolfenstein will in the entire month. But still, it's nice to dream isn't it?
Wolfenstein will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 17 while Madden NFL 10 will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 on August 14.