According to this site linked to Best Buy's Mario Kart 8 page, the company has an interesting promotion for customers in the United States. If you pre-order and purchase Mario Kart 8 at your local Best Buy, you'll get $10 in "gas cash" to fuel your real-life ride using a special code online.
Specific details for the promotion are reproduced below, so make sure to read the fine print before rushing off to the store:
1) Pre-order Mario Kart 8 from 27th April 2014 to 29th May 2014 at Best Buy or BestBuy.com.
2) Pay balance and receive Mario Kart 8 at Best Buy by 7th June 2014 and get $10 in Gas Cash.
3) Receive code on register receipt and enter information at www.revupyourkart.com/redeem.
4) Print out your Virtual Gas Cash reward.
The site has a FAQ section for those interested; one important thing of note is that the virtual cash must be redeemed at a retailer that accepts MasterCard.
It's certainly interesting to see a tie-in for a video game that involves real goods. Will you be grabbing Best Buy's unique pre-order bonus for Mario Kart 8? What other interesting real-life promotions could retailers use to drive Nintendo game sales? Let us know your best ideas in the comments!
Thanks to Will Beach for the tip.
[source polygon.com]
Comments 73
Believe it or not, this might actually make me pre-order the game. I always hate having to spend money on gas, and I'm going to cut corners wherever I can.
So wait. They'll give you $10 in gas for pre-ordering Mario Kart 8 over there? That's pretty cool.
$10? So what, 2 and a half gallons? I'll wait to see what other bonuses pop up, but if there's nothing better maybe I'll take this for the heck of it...
Awesome! But I already preordered it at Gamestop...
Great! I can now preorder Mario Kart 8, drive all the way to Best Buy to get it and back and effectively cancel out any benefit that could be received from the free gas.
No thanks, Best Buy. -_-
@TopLaytonsHat Or I could go somewhere else and the cost to drive is very negligible (or walk!).
This is definitely better than what game stop is offering, which is nothing. I'll wait and see how if there are other pre-order bonuses. If there is nothing, then I'll take this.
@brewsky either your car gets awful gas millage or u leave nowhere near a best buy. It would be a good deal for me as a best buy is only 10 miles away. Its a nice offer
Better than nothing lol
This is quite possibly the dumbest promotion ever. How many people with driver's licenses do you think will buy this game? I would wager not many.
Dammit NOA, you've screwed us again! I want my neat, useless trinkets again!
@Bolt_Strike (Slowly raises hand)
I'd think you'd be surprised. This was the game that I saw most of the people playing at that Best Buy E3 event last year and most of them were in their 20's or older.
yeah bolt_strike would lose his wager... a large percentage of those without drivers licenses wanting this game will be getting it purchased from their parents, let alone the vast number of people 16 - ? that will be getting it... I'm a dinosaur in gaming circles and I can't hardly wait for it...
@Bolt_Strike You'd be surprised, Mario Kart is a classic series. Lots of people grew up with it. And here we have Mario Kart 8, which honestly looks like the best game in the series. The recent Mario Kart games especially are making the perfect mix of new and old by offering 16 new courses and 16 upgraded retro courses. The Wii iteration sold 35 million units; I seriously doubt all of those were people aged 16 and under.
lol if nothing else comes up as a bonus I'll get this. Free gas!
@Bolt_Strike This is a Best Buy promotion, not a Nintendo of America promotion.
That's great and all, but this better not be our only pre-order bonus option. Still, I guess it's something, and at least it's actually useful...
Amused:( Imagine this promotion in Europe. It's sooooo not gonna happen
@ShadJV I was literally about to say the same thing. Half a tank for my mom's care is about $40. While every little bit counts, I don't really see this being too useful...unless it's for your lawnmower or something (assuming it's not a riding mower).
Awesome! I already had this pre ordered at BestBuy, I'll just cancel and pre-order again today. After 20% off with GCU, and a $10 gas card for pre ordering, that effectively takes the price down to $37.99 for a day one pickup of Mario Kart 8. THAT'S what's up.
I mean, who doesn't spend money on gas every week anyways? Gas vouchers are good as cash money as far as I'm concerned. $10 less I spend filling up my car that week is $10 more I keep in my wallet.
I just might do this.
I wonder if they do digital pre-orders for the game? I like to do digital for all my ninty games and exclusives.
GIVE.ME.THE.BLUE.SHELL
Real life IAP folks....
...This is US's answer to the UK's Blue Shell and Japan's trump cards?
This is beyond stupid...
@AshFoxX No just a best buy promo
@shigulicious And so far, this is the only form of a 'pre-order' bonus that we have in the states. We don't even have any confirmed bundles that I know of.
@CanisWolfred yeah, I just realized I'm a good 20-30 minutes from a Best Buy. Driving there and back, at about $4 a gallon... Not sure it's even worth it for me when I'm 5 minutes from GameStop and across the street from Target.
@AshFoxX Im hoping for an awesome bonus somewhere. Im sure there will be.
10$ in my bike is like a month of gas lol im sold...
@HylianJowi Yeah, I caught that later on. Still though, NoA did nothing as far as a preorder bonus, so I can still blame them.
That's amazing.
@Bolt_Strike Touché!
I like the idea of it. Something creative at the very least.
@Bolt_Strike Welcome to reality! I played the original SNES Mario Kart constantly when it was released with my girlfriend and now she is my wife and now we'll be playing it with our two kids! I have a driver's license.
@aaronsullivan Not the point I was making. Are there Mario Kart fans out there that can drive? Sure, there's definitely some older Nintendo fans out there. But enough to justify a pre-order bonus that only really benefits them? That's a little more debatable.
@Bolt_Strike Who do you think buys those games for those non drivers? Parents. Would parents not also like a perk for themselves when purchasing something for their little one? I would think so. If my option is between two games and one gives me $10 free gas, im going with that.
But the big point a lot of people seem to miss with these strange promotions is that its less the promotion the more the actual strangeness. Promotions are to market the game better, what better way to market a game then provide an unusual promotion that everyone then talks about?
If I can pre-order the digital copy for MK8, then this promotion is definitely something I'd take advantage of.
WHOA. NICE.
This is a pretty interesting/cool offer. Definitely will consider it
I refuse to take my money to Gamestop anymore, and money's tight for someone who just moved out of the Parents' house (ahem). Unfortunately that means i shouldn't be getting this game to begin with, but anyone who drives and is getting this game anyway should take this deal. free gas is better than a useless trinket (cough)@Bolt_Strike (cough).
Huh. That's weirdly cool.
@Bolt_Strike Let me put it another way: Mario Kart is popular with kids because their parents liked the previous versions. Plus, kids who played the last 7 versions got older. And younger kids get to the store via cars whether they have a license or not. Kids that have to pay with allowance are wheeling and dealing all the time. One more point: the people LOOKING for this game right now before they see their friends are playing it are usually pretty serious gamers and that skews the average age of the group this promotion would hit even higher. People in their 40s grew up with this game. As did people in their 30s as did people in their 20s.
@Bolt_Strike I'm a father and Mario Kart is one of my all time favorite franchises. I have four friends owning Wii U's who will all be buying this day one.
Seems that I might be one of the few people on this site that doesn't drive! Obviously this bonus wouldn't really benefit me, so I don't really think I'll take up this offer (unless I gave the code to a friend). I'll just continue hoping that a good bundle or pre-order trinket pops up somewhere. I need a reason to justify buying it early in my mind, dang it!
Oooooh 2 or 3 gallons of gas. You know there's going to be better promotions, and besides I kinda like digital
@DestinyMan Me either but Best Buy is on the way home from work for me. I have to fill up my car anyway so not a bad promotion. I already have this preordered from Newegg for $50 so the only enticing thing about this is a day one discount.
@brewsky Or, take a bus.
@XXIV No bus transportation where I live, I live in a town of 12,000.
@AshFoxX And nobody is really to blame but Best Buy. Don't try to pin it on NoA, as the retailers are the ones that offer these types of promotions.
@Ron1212 I fully blame NoA for not giving us anything at all!!!
That is BRILLIANT.
If you pre-order Mario Kart 8 at Target, not only will you receive a neat little key-chain, but you'll also get a $5 gift-card!
Like @KodyWB-98 said, Target is where I preordered mine. Awesome key chain, $5 gift card and the best part is I don't need to shop at Best Buy. My local store just sucks, they know it and they don't even care.
No Canada? We drive too!
LOL!
@ShadJV hang on a sec you get 2.5 gallons of fuel for $10! We Brits are getting screwed!
@HylianJowi yeah, NOA doesn't give out pre order bonuses anymore ever since they found out their sale figures will be the same regardless.
The "gas" card doesn't have to be used for gas.
Its basically a mastercard gift card.
Damin it, why not Visa? Oh it's not in Canada anyway.
erm - all those that are saying you'd use the gas to get the game, the article says you can order at BestBuy.com which presumably means it is delivered to you thus not using the gas at all?!?!?
Saving the planet one 10$ tank of gas at a time, eh Best Buy?
Nintendo should really offer a Mario Kart bundle in the United States. I am one of the many people waiting for therm to do so, to purchase one. Hwaiting!
It's typical that an offer like this only happens in America, where 'gas' is dirt cheap anyway (compared to UK), and Americans still whine about the cost. In UK we have mostly tax on our fuel, and of course no promotion like this, which would really help squeezed motorists like me.
I'm 33 and I want a toy or trinket to go with my MarioKart. Gaasssss, oh pooey...
I think I'm taking back my GS pre-order and shifting it to BestBuy. Since I spend about $45 in gas each week, gas money is like gold to me.
The closest BestBuy is about 30 miles away. By the time I go over there and back, I'd spend about $15 or more on gas. Unless we get the awesome Blue Shell bundle you folks are getting in the UK, I'm DLing this game and get the 10% eShop cash back from Nintendo.
Problem with this kind of promotions is that most of the time they are "lost in translation" between products and services. What I mean is that, yeah, 10 "virtual" bucks to spend in a 40-60$ videogame is awesome...and yeah, 2 "virtual" bucks to spend in a 5$ digital game is awesome.
But 10 "virtual" bucks to spend in gas, something in which many people spend around 100-200 bucks weekly, or at best, monthly, for many it will seem insignificant, a miserable and almost mocking "bonus".
well I just cancelled my GameStop preorder. Thanks for the information Nintendo life!
This is a great idea! What's weird about getting $10 in something everyone (or their parents can definitely use? Why are people complaining so much about driving to a Best Buy for a preorder too? Just go to their website and preorder/ pay for it and they email you the code for the gas cash, once the game comes out. How much easier could they make it? This leaves more gaming time for some of you whiners. Kudos to Best Buy and Nintendo for trying something new!
@Bolt_Strike Parents who see the promotion.
It costs about 20 dollars in gas to get to my local Best Buy... Sorry, worth it for the E3 Demos, but not for this xD
I guess don't redeem at Costco(my preferred gas, which only takes American Express).
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