While I was securing my Spicy Big Bite, Jeff was getting his Slurpee on at a machine branded with...wait...is that MapleStory? Huh? Closer examination revealed 7-11 has some kind of business deal going with Nexon, the Korean developer of MapleStory and a bunch of other free-to-play, microtransaction-fueled online games. OK, weird.
It got weirder. There's a whole section of one aisle labeled "Gaming," and in it you will find every kind of game-related, value-holding magnetic card known to mankind. A year of Xbox Live? $20 credit on the PlayStation store? Guitar HeroandRock Band-branded sums of Microsoft Points? You got it. Next to that is a set of actual video games--well, at least empty cases you can take to the register to purchase an actual video game. The weirdest thing about these was the complete lack of platform-specific branding. Even the case for Gears of War 2--a game I think we're all comfortable saying will never come to the PS3--lacked the familiar Xbox 360 header across the top. Odd.
People are actually buying games at 7-11. The cashier said Gears was their biggest mover; all but one of the six copies they'd gotten in had sold in the last couple of weeks. Call of Duty: World at War was also popular. Bafflingly, Smackdown had failed to move a significant number of units. I'd expect there to be real overlap in the clientele of 7-11 and fans of wrestling.
Japanese convenience stores started selling games years ago, and you see gift cards at supermarket registers all the time now, so I guess all this madness shouldn't surprise me. It's just that, in my mind, the only sorts of games appropriate for placement in a 7-11 involve deer-hunting and NASCAR.
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