Although it’s hard to believe, Microsoft’s record-breaking 2 million copies of Gears of War sold in six weeks has been pummeled to the ground by another contender–or should we say, contenders–for the fastest selling 360 game to date. Burger King’s recent promotion of bundling Xbox 360 games with the purchase of a value meal for an additional $3.99 has skyrocketed to 2 million copies of the titles sold in just four weeks. The promotion started in the latter half of November, and gamers have been snapping up the bargain priced games with their meal purchases like ketchup with fries.
The milestone numbers are a reflection of the combined total of sales from the trio of games offered by BK: Sneak King, Big Bumpin’, and Pocketbike Racer. So depending upon where you stand on how records are broken, BK’s games may or may not have actually broken the record set by Gears.
The commissioned titles for the BK promotion were developed by Blitz Games with the express intent of heavily advertising Burger King within the gameplay. Although this marketing technique is still in its infancy, the success of the Burger King video game campaign may influence other firms to consider a similar marketing plan for their prospective merchandise. This may mean that a whole new crop of low-cost, product-centric games will begin appearing in the near future. With video game prices edging towards the $70 mark, the emergence of video games for less than $5 may bring on a whole new breed of AdverGames.
