GTA IV Contest Insanity: Win Your Very Own Baseball Bat for Beating Prostitutes
“Wut?”
In an effort to get people even more excited (is it even possible at this point?) for the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360, Microsoft is promoting the “Grand Theft Auto IV sweepstakes presented by Xbox Live.”
It’s not uncommon to see a company trying to promote its product by giving away a few goodies, stirring the fan base like a nest of angry hornets, but what makes this one a bit different are the prizes being awarded. It seems someone doesn’t quite understand the idea that 6th place is supposed to be better than 8th place.
Confused? I’m not surprised. Below is a rundown of the 20,000 prizes available.
On or about April 23, lucky winners will be chosen from all entries to receive the following prizes:
• Four Grand Prizes: Four winners will score a four-day/three-night trip for two to New York City.
• One Hundred First Prizes: Custom Xbox 360 Elite console
• Two Thousand Second Prizes: A Rockstar baseball bat
• Five Thousand Third Prizes: 500 Microsoft Points
• Three Thousand Fourth Prizes: 1000 Microsoft Points
• Two Thousand Fifth Prizes: 1600 Microsoft Points
• Five Thousand Sixth Prizes: One-month Xbox LIVE Gold subscription
• Three Thousand Seventh Prizes: Three-month Xbox LIVE Gold subscription
• Two Thousand Eighth Prizes: One-year Xbox LIVE Gold subscription
Now, I’m not sure why third place prizes consist of 500 Microsoft points and fourth place gets double that amount, much less why fifth place gets 1600 Microsoft points.
I’m even less sure why a one-year Xbox LIVE Gold subscription is valued lower than a one month subscription, but maybe the people who designed the contests were having too much fun with the Rockstar baseball bats.
Which brings me to my next point: Why baseball bats? I mean, yeah, it’s awesome. I’ll give them that. But they’re just asking for trouble from Jack Thompson when he finds out they’re giving away 2000 Rockstar baseball bats. It’s just poor planning on their part. But at least they’re not giving out Uzis.
If you want to get your hands on some of the loot, just head on over to the site, you have until April 14. All you need is a valid gamer tag to enter, so why wouldn’t you try and win a baseball bat to act out your favorite scenes from the GTA universe?
UPDATE: The contest page is currently down, meaning this sweepstakes might be suspended until somebody figures out a prize system that actually makes sense.
Source: GTA4 Contest Page
