2K Awarding $1 Million for Perfect Game

by pastapadre
Posted January 28th, 2010 at 9:48 am

Today 2K Sports announced a contest that will award the first person to throw a perfect game in MLB 2K10 with $1 million. Gamers on the 360 and PS3 will be eligible by choosing a match-up from MLB Today mode and selecting to participate in the “MLB 2K10 Contest” which will default to all the official gameplay settings and rules.

Rather than have the results report to the server and go off that, the requirement will be to record the entire game with a camera or capture device and then mail in a DVD to an independent agency for verification. Hopefully they will be using the recordings for double-verification after receiving the results through the server because video on its own would be more open to manipulation.

The contest begins with the release of MLB 2K10 on March 2nd and will end on May 1st if no one has achieved a perfect game. Have you ever thrown a perfect game before? Does this give you more incentive to pick up MLB 2K10? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Tags:

HustlinOwl

Desperate
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

Glad you like it. On my end it seems to have improved loading which was the main reason for the switch but it has good features and layout too.
also

They need to do this for their NBA 2k11 game win a million if you can score 95% of your points in the paint and WIN!!! Maybe then they will fix their problems with Defense.
HustlinOwl

RROD FTL
Jamez

I think this is a cool contest but part of me thinks that
1) 2K made it impossible to throw a perfect game. They lose enough $ as it is with MLB 2K
2) It sucks about how you have to record the game that will probably make some people unable
underG

you have to record the whole game? that eliminates a lot of people who dont have the capability to do so. i guess i understand why but not everyone has a camera that records to DVD.
TTO

This is MLB 2K we're talking about. Good luck getting through a game without an error. They probably left problems in from last year to prevent anyone from being able to get this million.
james

well theyve gotta lure people in to play this crap game somehow
sroeland

“Official gameplay settings and rules”…I'm guessing CPU hitting will be turned way up and User pitching attributes turned way down.

It's a nice way to get people talking about your game, 2K. After 2K9, you need all the (non-gameplay) press coverage you can get.
Lake Allen

Really they should take that one million and distribute it to the people who they ripped off last year. That would make me feel like they actually cared, not this contest which I bet no one cashes in on.
sroeland

IGN has an article up with more info…

“First, you have to be signed in online in either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of MLB 2K10 during your efforts. Second, you must be a resident of the United States and not live in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, North Dakota or Vermont.”

Also, the verification is being done by the same party that does the Guinness World Records…not sure what difference that makes, but that's who's doing the confirmation.
sroeland

Here's the link to the story:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1064663p1.html
skihawks

I will rent it….This is a weak way to try and sell a game.
Giants Rule

I dont think I will have a problem throwing a Perfect Game with my boy Timmy. But how am I going to hold my iPhone to record it and play at the same time??Scott Rowand
James

Clearly an act of desperation… kind of sad if you think about it.
okafor43

This is how bad its getting now….1 mill for a perfect game thrown…but I'm wondering how can you do this when last years game the cpu swang at anything coming across the plate! And I'm sure this years with no check swing will be similar!
okafor43

And pasta I lost all my points from the last system you was usuing for your website now i have to start a new????
okafor43

And why send it to the server when the 2k server is down 95% if the time. So hold your camcorder in one hand while you try to pitch with the other hand.
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

Sadly yes, but it was a necessary change. Those points didn't mean anything anyway. With this system you can even sort the comments based on popularity or ratings.
BL00DWAK3

Very interesting idea on 2K's part. I don't think I'll buy the game though.
But I have thrown one perfect game in my 18 years of life. Jeff Weaver on the Angels against the Mariners in MLB 2K6. Sadly I didn't know I was doing it until the game ended.
jusmegamer

Makes no sense to have to capture it yourself. Good marketing though, EA is always pulling some B.S. stunt, glad to see 2K finally getting it
http://twitter.com/agentdp009 David Porter

Good idea, way to much stuff to do. Makes it confusing. Whoever wins defiantly will have deserved it.
Bob

Looks like MLB 2K is once again thinking about the fans.
The Real N/A

This is a great marketing tool. No doubt people will buy the game just for this. However, I will not because I know someone will beat me to it. With that said, 2K should have announced the contest but not the dates of it. That way people go buy the game, then once sales peak, go ahead and announce the dates for the contest. This would give people a way to practice beforehand, and give them an incentive to buy. The odds are better than winning the lottery statistically so why not?

With that said, recording your game on your own is a bit scandalous. 2K seems to be lazy with this respect. What they should really do is get a camper like the Madden Truck and go around the country holding contests like Madden does. Have all the perfect gamers go head to head and whoever wins that, will win the $1MM. The way they have it set up now comes across unorganized and desperate and makes me think twice about the chances of actually winning.

Good try though.
budsticky

This just smacks of a sham. A million bucks and they're using homemade recordings for verification? I wouldn't be surprised if there's something hard coded into the game to not allow this. It will be interesting to see how many perfect games are broken up with two outs in the 9th inning.
budsticky

On IGN it has this wording: “Those who purchase MLB 2K10 on March 2, the day of its release, will have the opportunity to win $1 million in a contest sponsored by 2K Sports.”

To me that sounds like you have to purchase it on the day of release to be eligible? If that's the case 2k is digging harder for sales than I originally thought when I read this story.
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

I didn't see anything in the press release indicating that. I think that line from IGN is probably just worded poorly.
ryan barrow

good deal but i would rather upload results to server
carolinaeasy

Seems a bit desperate to me, but then again this could generate alot of interest. I am still buying the show, I have been burned by 2k one two many times.
jbl72

How about taking that million dollars and fixing their broken game?
Jonathon

a more difficult achievement would be to complete a game without having 5 errors in an inning on default settings…
budsticky

Exactly. They have a million dollars to give away but they can't put a check swing in their game? FTW!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-Suriano/1058356606 Anthony Suriano

Sounds good, how about one for NBA 2K10 where you score 100 points and get a free taco from Taco Bell. This is still a gamefly game for me, not a purchase.
Sean

Its really a great Idea but just another way to boost sales because 2k knows that thier game is inferior to MLB the Show.
vegastwan

ok seriously is any1 this gulliable to think 2k made it so any1 can throw a perfect game… yeah right… never gonna happen.. barely happends in real life… trust me it wont happen in a virtual video game world… to a company as greedy as 2k… this is simply a scam to make more ppl buy the game… and sadly ppl will because of this… but whats sadder is that 2k has to put on a promotion like this in order to sell a large qauntity of this game… truely LOL
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

test
TheDagda509

right, or hire 10 programmers at $100k per and fix the damn game…
sandul

Pastapadre, I'm sure you're allowed to have an opinion about this.
1) do you think they rigged it?
2) It's clear that they're just trying desperately to get people to play.
3) 1 million is the equivolent to 17,000 copies of the game sold (that's rounded up) since it sold over 200k copies last year, i guess they hope that it breaks 300k?
4) are they making money on this game?

lastly, this is just my opinion, but if someone really knows that they can pitch a perfect game in 2k7 or 2k8, then why not bite the bullet and go buy a dvd video camera? put it on a stand in front of your tv, and voila, good to go.

go MLB 10 the show!
Nick

“1 million is the equivolent to 17,000 copies of the game sold (that's rounded up) since it sold over 200k copies last year, i guess they hope that it breaks 300k?”

“right, or hire 10 programmers at $100k per and fix the damn game…”

“Exactly. They have a million dollars to give away but they can't put a check swing in their game? FTW!”

For what it's worth, there's no way that 2k is putting up the $1 million themselves. I'm sure they have a prize indemnity insurance policy for the contest, so they pay a fraction of the cost to an insurance company which will actually pay out $1 million if somebody wins the contest. That's how pretty much every promotional cash giveaway is done (half court shots, tv game shows, etc). So it's not like they're putting a whole $1 million into the contest that could be spent elsewhere.
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

1) No. But I'm sure people are going to think that when something weird happens that breaks up their perfect games.

2) Yes. Plus they have 2 pre-order bonuses

3) That's just raw sales. They only get about $33 for each new copy after the store takes a cut, production, ect. But we're still not talking profit cause they are going to lose money on 2K10

4) No. 2K has already estimated they will lose $30-40 million on MLB 2K10 because of the licensing agreement.
sandul

thanks for the reply I feel bad for 2k i guess, but that's what happens when you get all the licensing for a game before knowing whether the game you have is any good. oh well.
jbl72

Even if they only spend $1 on this sham that's $1 they could actually invest in fixing the gameplay
http://pastapadre.com/ pastapadre

There was a reason why EA turned the deal down before 2K took it on. It was a bad financial decision and they did it out of desperation.
Mike

Ya know what's funny ? Ron, the admin over at the 2K forum, said it'll probably be accomplished within the first week, LOL..

I agree that it's a marketing tool. It might even end up being a scam. Ya never know with the 2K fruit loop troop.
http://www.mathewballard.com mathewballard

I'm glad to see you goto Disqus, much better then IntenseDebate.
http://www.mathewballard.com mathewballard

I don’t remember ever throwing a perfect game. I’ve thrown no hitters (and not even many of those), but never a perfect game. It won’t get me to buy the game if it isn’t good.
lee

publicity stunt for a clearly broken game
okafor43

Oh well on the last system, this one looks a whole lot better and does load much more faster.
Aaron

I threw a perfect game in 2K9 with Jair Jurrjens. With this gimmick, no one's going to want to play an entire game. They'll want to start over once they allow a hit or walk or if a player reaches on an error. The game looks good this year. Although I have a PS3, I've always been bored by The Show. I want to do more than just tap the four main buttons. Yet I've been disappointed with the 2K series as well. It's gonna be a wait & play demo season.
Aaron

Oh, and I can't stand Matt Vasgersian's commentary in The Show. Annoying. Dave Campbell, too.