Over the years, gaming has been quite the controversial pastime. The media has a long-standing grudge against the industry, and we’ve heard just about everything over the years. Video games are making us anti-social. They’re turning us violent. The 3DS’s glasses-free 3D witchcraft will melt your eyeballs right out of their sockets. The slander never ends.
Let’s not forget, of course, the stereotypes about gamers themselves. Overweight nerdly nerds, raging at everyone on the Internet because it’s the only human contact they get (beside mama pushing food in through the bars of their cages a couple of times a day). We all –that’s all of us, no exceptions—subsist on a diet of Mountain Dew, Doritos and anything else that can be taken in one-handed while pwning noobs with the other.
This image has always been a cheap stereotype, of course. These days, though, gaming is becoming ever more mainstream and accepted. From toddlers with Barney The Dinosaur’s Super Cutesy Craptacular Adventure to OAPs playing Su Doku on their DSes, video games are for the many, not the super geeky few.
Some companies still don’t seem to have got that message, though. How many times have doritos run promotions for double Call of Duty XP in selected packs? Stop fuelling the fire with your sweet, sweet chips of justice. It’s all moot, anyway, because all other cheap gamers-as-snackers promotional stunts you’ve ever seen have been blown out of the water by this little doozy. Meet KFC India’s Gamer’s Box 2.0.
What do you mean, it looks ridiculous? Are you trying to tell us you’ve never seen a box of chicken that doubles as a game controller before? This experimental contraption, as Destructoid reports, is fully Bluetooth enabled (what isn’t these days), isn’t available for purchase anywhere, is only in India, and basically amounts to “a DIY chicken-filled Switch.”
What’s inside that magnificent looking box, you ask? BGR was first on the scene with the answers to the questions we’re all asking. There’s a KFC Chicken Zinger Burger, a portion of popcorn chicken, fries and a choco pie. The top is adorned with a can of Mountain Dew. When you remove said can, the magic begins.
Where the can was so lovingly nestled, lucky users of this elusive device will find a stand. This is where your Android or iOS device sits oh-so-proudly, and can be connected to the box’s Bluetooth. From there, you simply play your choice of mobile title, using the hilariously awkward-looking controls on either side of this contraption.
Now, quite plainly, this wasn’t meant as a practical idea. It’s a curious little novelty, for sure, and the sort of thing that collectors would want to have simply so they can say they own one. It is, after all, a real limited edition piece. KFC and Mountain Dew in India have confirmed that only ten of the Gamer’s Box 2.0 will be produced, available solely as a competition prize.
What was happening in a KFC boardroom somewhere the day this one became a reality? Let’s not question it, and just be grateful that it happened.
