Spider-Man 2 has seen its fair share of unusual, occasionally absurd marketing tactics deployed to get players hyped for the PlayStation 5 exclusive’s release on October 20. By far the most hilarious bit of marketing was PlayStation UK’s infamous tweet beckoning fans to buy Spider-Man 2’s expensive Collector’s Edition and treat themselves to “19 inches of Venom.” Now, popular breakfast cereal Wheaties is getting in on the action, offering boxes of brand-name wheat flakes with the masked faces of Spider-Man 2’s dual heroes plastered on them. That’s not unusual, but the price certainly is; the priciest of these boxes will run you 70 bucks.
Wheaties announced its limited-run “novelty box” for Spider-Man 2 on Thursday. The cereal box designs aren’t much to write home about, being just extreme close-ups of Peter Parker and Miles Morales in their Spider-Man uniforms. Regardless, Wheaties must think its breakfast box is reaching some untapped market for video game-branded cereal collaborations because it printed 2,000 cardboard and 500 custom acrylic-cased Spooder-Man boxes for Triple-A video game prices. The limited edition Spider-Man cereal box and its special acrylic case version are on sale for $US45 and $US70, respectively. For perspective, a run-of-the-mill box of Wheaties from the grocery store costs around $US5.
“As the Breakfast of Champions, Wheaties is proud to feature two equally amazing Spider-Men who inspire the best in all of us,” Wheaties wrote on its website.
Read More: Spider-Man 2: The Kotaku Review
The real value of these pricey collector’s edition cereal boxes is what comes packaged with them. Each limited-edition box comes with a copy of PlayStation and Insomniac Games’ tie-in Spider-Man 2’s prequel comic. The “Gamerverse” comic basically fills in the gaps on what Peter, Miles, and Mary Jane Watson have been up to since the events of Spider-Man and Miles Morales. And there’s one more thing, as Wheaties explains on its website:
Through PlayStation Stars, PlayStation’s loyalty program, each limited-edition box will also come with a PSN voucher code redeemable for an exclusive digital collectible of the box that can be showcased in a variety of display cases on PlayStation App on mobile.
Time will tell whether Wheaties Triple-A-priced cereal boxes will sell like hotcakes or if gamers will come to their spider senses and spend their money elsewhere. Might I suggest buying a standard or deluxe version of Spider-Man 2 and visiting a local comic book store to pick up the prequel comic instead?
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