Move over 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, because Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the latest video game to feature a weirdly expensive and garish skull in its marketing campaign. Except, this time around, you can own said skull yourself, provided you want to pre-order a $40 treasure hunt and go snooping around in the aribbean sea.
That’s because Ubisoft has teamed up with the “leading treasure hunt” company Unsolved Hunts to produce Gold & Crystal – The Lost Treasure of Edward Kenway; a scavenger hunt that will require you to solve fifteen riddles and then physically travel to somewhere in the Caribbean to dig up a literal treasure chest containing “pure gold coins” and a rock crystal skull adorned with an opal, worth roughly $500,000.
To get in on the action, you have to pay a minimum of $40, but you can pay up to $230 to get some extra goodies, like a notebook and a board game. The weirdest thing about the campaign is that none of the available tiers, including the $230 “Pirate Lord” tier, actually contains a copy of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. You can get a flag and a pure gold treasure coin emblazoned with the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag logo, but that’s pretty much it.
Stranger still, this is a pre-order of a treasure hunt, as “all other elements of the game will be sent to you by November 9,” at which point the “full hunt” will become available. The Gold & Crystal FAQ also states that the treasure hunt “is expected to last between 2 and 5 years,” so I’m not entirely sure how the week’s head start you get from pre-ordering will be a “decisive advantage.”
It’s certainly a cool idea, don’t get me wrong, I’m just not entirely sure who the target market for this is. I mean, if I wanted to LARP as a pirate and sail to the Caribbean to uncover some hidden treasure, I’d just pre-order Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resyn–oooh, very clever, Ubisoft. You got me.