10 Insane Marketing Stunts That Were Used To Sell Video Games

2. Buy The Game On Day One, Win An Island (Just Cause 3)

just cause 3 skydiving
Square Enix/WhatCulture

Just Cause 3 takes place on a beautiful Mediterranean island called Medici, an open-world environment that players can explore to their heart's content. Not satisfied with just delivering an in-game island adventure though, publisher Square Enix sought to make that virtual locale a reality for one lucky player.

The company ran a competition in the run up to the game's release that would grant the winning player an island - literally - valued at up to $50,000. 90 days after the game's launch, whichever player accumulated the most Chaos Points (earned by completing missions, sabotaging vehicles and generally blowing stuff up) would win the top prize. The winner could also choose to take a $50,000 cash prize instead.

The only way to get involved with this campaign was to buy the day-one edition of the game, a sneaky strategy on Square's part that likely resulted in a lot more pre-orders and early sales of the game. Buy Just Cause 3, play it a lot, and win $50,000: who wouldn't want to get involved?

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.