Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

$200? For free? The catch? You may end up in Hell.

The latest in a line of strange and not always wonderful publicity stunts, Electronic Arts have been sending video game journalists a $200 cheque – complete with faux blood-splatters and a fancy wooden presentation box – in order to promote the upcoming Dante’s Inferno. The cheques, which are legitimate and perfectly bankable, come attached to information about the fourth circle of hell – Avarice – and a chilling warning:

By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by harding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality.

Make your choice and suffer the consequence for your sin. And scoff not, for consequences are imminent.

Translation: you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

As Joystiq have helpfully pointed out, this is #4 in a long line of strange-but-true viral events staged by EA. Firstly, there was a protest against Inferno at this year’s E3 that turned out to be utterly fake – hell circle number one, Limbo, we presume. Number #2 (Lust) was the disastrous “Sin to Win” stunt at Comic Con, where EA were offering ‘dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, pararazzi and a chest full of booty’ for one lucky winner (too bad for us straight females). Next came the so-bad-it-was-not-really-reported severed limb cake. We can only presume gluttony.

With Sloth, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treason yet to come, I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. There’s no denying that this has piqued my interest. I’m such a sucker for creative publicity campaigns.

So … what would you do? Check it and buy yourself something pretty? Put it towards your next console purchase perhaps? What about buying a gift for someone you love, or perhaps giving it away to charity (which is what many game sites are reportedly doing)? Or would you simply leave it and let it go to waste?

Incidentally, if Shane’s received a blood-soaked box with a pretty piece of paper, he’s keeping quiet about it! If it came to me, I’d check it in a flash; going on the deadly sins I’ve already committed, I’m already halfway to way to Hell anyway …

Source and image credit: Joystiq