Ubisoft has teamed up with Unsolved Hunts for one of the most eye-catching marketing blitzes in gaming history. To “celebrate” Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced's upcoming launch, a treasure chest of gold coins and a precious opal, worth a total of around $500,000, has been hidden somewhere in the Caribbean. A lucky admirer, either with enough money to race across 92,541 square kilometers or the ability to solve 15 puzzles and then dig it up (???), will be handsomely rewarded for their extremist efforts.
Giant game publishers have a lot of money to do all sorts of weird and wild things. It is, of course, an offer to make additional money, and sometimes it is successful. Few concepts increase awareness more easily than the prospect of free money. Which this doesn't do technically speaking qualify as, but with a $500,000 prize at stake, it's close enough.
Yes, this is completely normal
By the way did I say an opal? I should have clarified. It is a crystal skull adorned with an opal. Hardcore, right?
They're calling the reindeer hunt “The Lost Treasure of Edward Kenway,” and you can pre-order it (???) now for $39.99 on Gold & Crystal's website. There's a digital interface involved, you see, and you have to solve 15 puzzles over an unspecified release period. But if you pre-order, you'll get access to a pre-launch puzzle one week before this strange experience launches on November 9th. I'm not talking about Black Flag. It is the 9th of July. I am talking about… this thing.
There are several other tiers you can choose from, by the way, up to a $229.99 version, which gives you a lot of swag. For the record, no level contains a copy of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. Because that would be stupid.
Rooted in the history of piracy, Gold & Crystal, born from a collaboration between Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync and Unsolved Hunts, is a treasure hunt that takes you deep into the archives and forgotten secrets of the Caribbean… Armed with nothing but your intellect and perseverance, you must solve 15 riddles to find a hidden chest somewhere in the Caribbean and claim a treasure worth $0,000.
Do you have enough intellect, stamina and at least forty dollars lying around gathering dust? Ubisoft and Unsolved Hunts expect this contest of wits and whatever to last between two and five years, by the way, which may sound patently absurd. But from what I've heard, timed information releases like these “enigmas” are expressly designed to keep things extremely vague for a long enough time that, hey, yeah, this could hypothetically take that long.
Or you might just get your chance on your chest while swimming through an incredibly specific lagoon in a remote corner of the Caribbean Sea. I don't know. Good luck.
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