Pizza Hut Tempts Gamers With a $10,000 Gaming Setup

Now when you are trying to decide which late-night temple of crusty dough and burnt cheese gets your dinner vote, there may be an extra moment's pause for Pizza Hut. Along with a free 30-day GameFly membership, you also have the chance to win the gaming setup of a decade. Including a Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and a 60-inch plasma TV, this package would be sure to make any gamer's heart skip a beat. Unfortunately, it also means you have to break that typical gamer diet of soy and bean curd, good luck.

But...

[NoobixCube]

I like my soy and bean curd diet!

Re:

[FooAtWFU]

I'm actually trying out this flaxseed/peanut-butter hot cereal. Tons of omega-whatevers and fiber, or something like that, decent (less bland than oatmeal) and darned easy to make. Amazing things, grains.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you go with hot grits instead? You ask a naked and petrified Natalie Portman to bring them to you.

Re:

[Deagol]

You should try porridge, made with toasted steel-cut oats. Now *that* is some yummy oats. Good Eats had an episode about oats, which described the dish.

Thanks

[ucblockhead]

Without Slashdot, I would have missed Pizza Huts' advertising campaign!

Can you alert me next time Coke has one of those bottle-cap things? I always miss those...

What are you doing here?

[frovingslosh]

If you object to an onslaught of advertisements and self serving "press releases" thinly disguised as technical articles, then you really should be here. Slashdot jumped the shark and went to the dark side some time ago.

Re:

[Stolovaya]

I think in this case it's just that \. is for nerds, and many nerds are gamers. And many of all those eat pizza (guessing, no numbers to back it up). \. is just reporting on video game related stuff.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

shutup you windows loser. Everyone know it's /. and not \. . Only a M$ buffoon would put \.

Re:

[Your.Master]

^ See? Nerds.

Re:

[hansamurai]

Am I the only one who saw "^ See?" as a regular expression?

Re:Thanks

[CrazyJim1]

I liked the old bottle caps that told you if you won on the spot. These new games make you enter personal information on a website before they even tell you if you won. To me it seems less of a game and more of an experiment of who is willing to be advertised more to for being paid about a nickel on average. It is more than a waste of time.

Re:Thanks

[Jarjarthejedi]

Dr. Pepper's new Indiana Jones contest lets you know if you've won something on the cap, but not what you've won until you've registered on their site. Most of the prizes are pathetic too, they advertise a '1 in 6 chance of winning!' which is easy when half your prizes are Wallpapers and Screensavers, of the type that most people give away.

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Without Slashdot, I would have missed Pizza Huts' advertising campaign!

When I read the headline, I thought it would be about $10,000 gaming kiosks in Pizza Huts. That, while advertising, would at least be interesting.

I also challenge the $10,000 valuation. The parts look like thy might run $5,000 (I don't know about the sofa) if you price shopped.

Re:

[KGIII]

Mod this as something OTHER than funny, will ya? Bullshit. How much did /. get paid to post this?

Re:

[Hoi Polloi]

I look forward to Slashdot alerting me next to a cousin of the deposed president of Nigeria who needs help getting some money out of a bank there.

Enter without a pizza

[ExploHD]

http://pizzahut.eprize.net/gamefly/index.tbapp [eprize.net]

Re:

[Brian Gordon]

Except that the prizes are crap. Sell the whole package on ebay, buy a $10,000 gaming workstation.

Re:Enter without a pizza

[Jarjarthejedi]

More like sell the Wii on ebay and buy a $10,000 gaming workstation :P.

Re:

[kesuki]

not quite $10,000 but you can probably set a reserve of $1,200 for the wii, and if you roll your own setup $1,200 buys a nice HD capable PC to hook into that 60" plasma TV.

my folks bought a 50" plasma, it caps at 720P, so it was a lot cheaper than 1080P, but still, the only reason to get 1080p is if you're going to play HD video games*, and even then, it's a significant waste of money to get 50% more pixels.. (not to mention many 720p displays are actually 1366/768, so the same display hardware can be sold

$2,500 times four?

[tepples]

Sell the whole package on ebay, buy a $10,000 gaming workstation.

You meant four $2,500 gaming workstations, right? Otherwise, how are three people who visit your home going to play? One advantage of video game consoles is that console games' multiplayer modes tend not to have the one-machine-per-player mentality.

Re:

[Brian Gordon]

You mean the makes-actual-sense mentality?

"makes-actual-sense"?

[tepples]

the one-machine-per-player mentality

You mean the makes-actual-sense mentality?

Not all video games are first-person shooters or real-time war simulators. In games like Bomberman and Smash Bros., all four players see a view of the playfield that encompasses either the whole playfield (e.g. Bomberman) or the parts of the playfield that the players occupy (e.g. Smash Bros. and Tecmo Bowl). Why does it "make actual sense" to have four computers in the same room rendering the exact same thing?

Interesting choice of the microsoft logo for icon

[wayneo13]

Interesting choice of the microsoft logo for the icon for the website

How well does Pizza Hut Pay?

[izakage]

ScuttleMonkey? Advertising? Who would have expected that? I have nothing against ads, but I'd really like to see them recognized as such, rather than presented as actual content.

Welcome to the 21st century

[spun]

Sorry, we don't do separate ads nowadays. Consumers have gotten too savvy, there are Tivos and Ad blockers and whatnot. You want ad supported content, you will fucking well look at our ads, capiche? I don't care if we have to pack every story, every TV show, every song, every painting, every fucking poem full of ads, you will look at them. I don't care if we have to pay random people on the street to talk about our products. If we could beam our ads into your heads, we'd do that too. Because you aren't our

Why...

[Gigiya]

Is ScuttleMonkey permitted to post all this disreputable spam about (usually poor) games?

They need spend that on paying there drivers gas..

[Joe The Dragon]

They need spend that on paying there drivers gas money as they are under paying them buy a lot.

Re:

[Kamokazi]

Kind of like how your school district under-funded its English classes?

(I'm not one to bash foreigners trying to learn the language, so if you are, my apologies, your mistakes just look like they were made by a native speaker with poor grammar.)

Re:

[Joe The Dragon]

You have to cut words to get stuff to fit in the Subject line.

Re:

[darkgreen]

wow... I was all set to say "YHBT HAND" yadda yadda, but it looks like he was serious. hell, he was serious enough to defend it by adding letters and spaces to get things to fit, even.

yep.

A fucking sweepstakes?

[RockMFR]

Surely you can't be serious.

Re:

[PixelScuba]

I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

Obligatory Airplane!

[computerman413]

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Re:

[bdcrazy]

Be the 50th caller to win a change to be in a raffle to compete to possibly win a game piece.

I usually don't complain...

[badboy_tw2002]

But this is an ad. Lets just call it an ad, or a "sponsored story" and move on. If you guys didn't get paid for this thing then that's even sadder. I don't mind the ads on /., it keeps things going, but please don't try to pass them off as content. There's nothing in this story that at all meets the (admittedly low) editorial bar for submissions here. Its product placement, pure and simple.

Re:

[bigstrat2003]

That's a matter of personal taste. I think that it's cool that they're giving away a hot gaming setup like that, and I'm glad I know about it. You do realize that, if you get right down to it, pretty much every story posted on here is an advertisement, right?

Re:

[Killjoy_NL]

Personally I just wish with a lot of those contests, that they weren't restricted to the US, I'm just a poor silly dutch boy who would like to win some cool gaming gear :)

Code Geass

[Zekasu]

$10,000? I'd prefer an anime-themed pizza box over that. C.C. was pretty cool.

Re:

[samwh]

Actually I think the Pizza boxes were only in the original TV broadcast, not on the dvds, which the USA releases are based off of.

Re:

[morari]

I don't think that Pizza Hut's pizza is too bad. It's that thin, crispy crust that makes pizza taste like cardboard. All of the grease from pork products does nothing to help the flavor either...

If you're ever in Ohio, passing through Dayton, make a detour and stop in Yellow Springs. There's a place there called Ha Ha Pizza. It is honestly the best pizza I've ever had, by far. Also, it's all organic to boot! You want soy cheese? They have that too. ;)

Re:

[bladesjester]

If you're ever in Ohio, passing through Dayton

If these two things are ever true, we'll feel sorry for you. :P

I live in Ohio. I'm allowed to make those jokes =]

Re:

[morari]

I don't live in Dayton myself, so I'd actually tend to agree. I visit family up in that area however, so I know a little about the surroundings. I prefer the country setting of the southeast part of the state, myself. ;)

Re:

[bladesjester]

I grew up in the southeast part of the state, actually.

Pretty country and some decent people, but also more than a few people who would not look out of place on the set of Deliverance. =]

Sadly, a not insignificant number of the people there are also *ahem* rather conservative and fairly isolationist and extremely resistant to change. That, in my opinion, is one of the worst parts about the area and why a lot of the nation still takes a sort of dim view of the area.

As far as pizza goes, my favorite in this

Re:

[rk]

Ohio: combines the warm, down-home friendliness and charm of the East Coast with the sophisticated urbane cosmopolitanism of the Midwest.

Re:

[morari]

I hear you. For a time, I lived in the very southern tip of the state, just across the river from Kentucky in a little place called Portsmouth. It was actually the county seat of Scioto County, but was decayed and decrepti as far as towns go. Anyway, we always used to joke about the denizens having the "Portsmouth Look". If you've ever read H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" then you'd know what the pun signifies; a complete and utter lack of jaw and/or chin. It's sad, but true.

I have plenty of

Re:

[bladesjester]

I am quite familiar with Portsmouth as I dated someone from there many years ago.

I grew up in Jackson County. lol

Re:

[sleigher]

It is not hard to make a decent pizza. It is very hard to make a decent pizza while maintaining a decent profit margin. Or perhaps it is only hard on that scale. Seems all the local spots make at least halfway decent pizza while chains couldn't make a pie to save their life!

More like my gaming nightmare

[greg1104]

Wow, something that combines eating Pizza Hut pizza and listening to Bose speakers? Just when I thought neither of those two could get any worse...

Where the $10,000 goes.

[Animats]

Here's where the $10,000 goes:

• LG 60' Plasma TV $2,417.99 [google.com]
• Nintendo Wii $325.00 [google.com]
• XBox 360 $449.00 [google.com]
• Sony PS3 $399.00 [google.com]
• Bose Lifestyle 28 Series III Home Theater System $1300.00 [google.com]
• Berkline 3-seat home theater seating, curved. $2697.00 [bostontables.com]
• Commercial popcorn popper (5' tall) $569.00 [google.com]

The big-ticket item is the furniture.

Did they throw in any games?

Re:

[Pichu0102]

I'd assume that the idea is the person would get games from Gamefly instead of getting some with the setup.

Re:Where the $10,000 goes.

[Jarjarthejedi]

You're assuming they bought it all at retail, and, in the case of the Wii, markup beyond retail. That's a fairly unlikely assumption.

(And what's with your numbers for the consoles anyways? I can't find anything on the linked pages to support your prices at all, if we go by cheapest they're $285, $315, and $195 for the PS3, 360, and Wii respectively. If we go by actual retail the prices are $399, $350 or $450 (basic and elite), and $250 for the PS3, 360, and Wii respectively. All my data was taken off Amazon's prices, which mirror standard retail in 90% of cases, except the Wii which was simply priced according to my knowledge of the system's prices.)

Re:

[antic]

"You're assuming they bought it all at retail, and, in the case of the Wii, markup beyond retail. That's a fairly unlikely assumption."

Err, valued at, not what it cost them. Plus, you're quibbling over shrapnel like you've never seen a "prize valued at" promotion before.

Re:

[ravrazor]

Don't forget the one year of free pizza...though that might add another 10 bucks or so for me, I'm sure someone else could get their (prize value) money's worth...

Re:

[kesuki]

"Did they throw in any games?"

one year of gamefly, and one year of free pizza.
the game fly is $275, and they give you $499 in free pizza. so your numbers are 'lower' than what pizza hut claims.

"Approximate Retail Value (âoeARVâ): $10,355. The ARV of electronic prizes is subject to price fluctuations in the consumer marketplace based on, among other things, any gap in time between the date the ARV is estimated for purposes of these Official Rules and the date the prize is awarded or redeemed."

No thanks

[the_Bionic_lemming]

The only problem with the promotion is you have to be able to actually purchase something from Pizza Hut.

The last time I attempted to, my stomach leaped out of my mouth and dragged me pert damn near fifty miles - then proceeded to slap me around the head while burping vindictives that haunt me to this day.

I learned a lesson that day, I found out it was more nutritious to suck pond scum from a fetid Florida swamp, then to attempt to consume anything that pizza hut calls a pizza.

I need to start a therapy group.

Re:

[ProppaT]

I was gonna say, gamers love the hell out of some pizza. Wouldn't it just be easier to tempt them with edible pizza?

Re:

[kesuki]

"The only problem with the promotion is you have to be able to actually purchase something from Pizza Hut."

not true, you can enter once a day online, for free (but if you do ordering online doesn't add any extra 'chances' you're limited to 1 entry a day, order or not)

someone else posted the website, but i assumed you might not read that so here goes http://pizzahut.eprize.net/gamefly/ [eprize.net]

eprize com/net has a lot of contests going for a lot of companies... but their page is entirely broken to firefox... i wonder

Re:

[kesuki]

nice, their site is so broken, you can't even read their privacy policy in firefox.

No purchase necessary

[tepples]

The only problem with the promotion is you have to be able to actually purchase something

In most U.S. states, having to purchase something to earn an entry in a sweepstakes is considered gambling. That's why sweepstakes tend to be "no purchase necessary".

Re:

[DaFallus]

I found out it was more nutritious to suck pond scum from a fetid Florida swamp...

So you're saying you prefer Domino's?

Don't plasma displays still suffer from burn-in?

[Bones3D_mac]

Last I heard, gaming on a plasma display still caused a burn-in effect similar to really old CRT computer displays. Has this changed recently, or is it still far safer to use an LCD display for this sort of thing?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

This has changed, and not recently. There is image retention, which means that if you leave your display on the same, high contrast image for a while, you'll see the bright bits on very dark screens for a couple of minutes. It's nothing even remotely permanent, and it never happens in motion video.

Unless you're showing airport departure times 24/7 (where I admit burn-in is likely), plasma screens are awesome. For gaming in particular, the total response times on plasma are typically better (try the calibrat

Re:

[kesuki]

"This has changed, and not recently. There is image retention, which means that if you leave your display on the same, high contrast image for a while, you'll see the bright bits on very dark screens for a couple of minutes. It's nothing even remotely permanent, and it never happens in motion video."

partially wrong, Plasma TVs have a nice built-in Image Retention detection chip, they cycle those pixels often enough for the display to avoid burn in, also, you can have screen savers set to prevent 'uneven pho

Personal computers

[Mishra100]

Although I don't care about these contests, I wonder why the PC wasn't added.

Is it because it's not popular anymore?

Or is it because a 3000 dollar addition is a little too much?

Re:

[svennv]

Maybe serious gamers are just not part of their target group.

Hmm....

[sesshomaru]

Hmm, so basically, I have a choice of a real pizza or a Pizza Hut pizza with an incredibly small chance of winning an ultimate gaming set up.

I'll take the real pizza, please.

Incidentally, anyone remember Pizza the Hut from Spaceballs? He was cool. (I'm just trying to make this article somewhat relevant to this site.)

Taxes?

[Flyin Fungi]

Anyone know what you would have to pay for taxes on this stuff. It still costs to money to win free stuff.

this just might make of for the pizza

[DragonTHC]

Winning this stuff would go a long way towards apologizing for the state of pizza hut pizza.

Gamefly?

[VeNoM0619]

What good is winning the 30/60 day free membership to Gamefly if I don't own any systems? I say they give me the grand prize first, then we will talk about this free membership deal.

Re:

[kesuki]

the '30 day' membership isn't a prize, it's 'free to anybody' normally gamefly only gives you a 10 day trial, so 'giving pizzahut customers' 30 day memberships, with any pizzahut online purchase is easy. all you get is an extra 20 days of free trial, they've done 30 day free promotions before, anyways.