10 Dumbest Ways You’ve Been Sold Video Games
6. EA Launches Mass Effect 3 Into Space
Everything about EA sending copies of Mass Effect 3 into space (which would re-enter Earth and land safely somewhere across the U.S.) seemed entirely in-line with the bombastic space melodrama of the series.
But the scavenger hunt that followed these discs being shot into the atmosphere turned out to be one of the most ill-conceived pre-release gimmicks ever. With the GPS signal of the launches traceable on the internet, fans were encouraged to chase down these early copies in the hopes of finding out how Bioware's trilogy ended before anybody else.
Obviously, however, the games landed in the most unfortunate locations - be it private property or places inaccessible to your average fan - meaning that only the most daring people had a chance of getting their hands on a disc.
Not only that, but many websites went out of their way to find the loot before anyone else, meaning that the bulk of the copies ended up in the hands of companies who already had access to the title early anyway.