Marketing is just like Pokemon – we never understand how they keep coming up with new ideas. In a recent reveal by European retailer GAME, it was announced that the preorder incentive for Pokemon X and Y would come in the form of a 3DS cartridge holder. At first glance, this might not sound like much, but take a look at the picture below you'll see that it's actually quite unique:
The holders are actually shaped like Pokeballs, which house the trainers' Pokemon in-game. This is a nifty little low-cost trick that has not been done before and the fan reception has been extremely positive thus far. Furthermore, as you can see in the bottom-left corner of the picture, the stand features a "detachable base" so that you can throw your 3DS games across the room when you run out of Pokeballs trying to capture Yveltal or Xerneas.
Who knew that something so simple could satiate the ever-growing appetite of gamers? While this might seem a bit gimmicky to some, it is good to remember that this is simply a preorder offer. Considering GAME was just going through administration last year, it's good to see that they'd landed on their feet with their buyer – OpCapita. This purchase saved more than 3200 jobs and helped to start the process of paying off GAME's £85 million in debt. Maybe a new guiding hand and some hard times are just what the bigwigs at GAME needed to get back on the right path.
It will be interesting to see how Pokemon X and Y fare when they release later this year in October. The smart money says that the titles will be successful. Game Freak and Nintendo have injected some smart, innovative points to the franchise as a result of criticism from fans and media regarding the repetitious nature of the Pokemon franchise.
