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Been there, bought the t-shirt

Gaming > Latest news > Been there, bought the t-shirt

There’s plenty of gaming merchandise out there, with limited editions of this or that. You probably own quite a few of them, and it’s great that you do.

The most popular fashion designers, novelists and musicians have been surprisingly closely involved with the brouhaha surrounding the world’s biggest games.

There’s plenty of gaming merchandise out there, with limited editions of this or that. You probably own quite a few of them, and it’s great that you do. Occasionally though there are names associated with the wider world of gamer goods that are really very surprising. Sometimes, they’re priceless.

But let’s start at home with British rapper Tinchy Stryder, who took his stage name from the 1989 Capcom game Strider. Apparently he’s a massive fan, though he would’ve been just three-years-old when that game first appeared. Publisher Square Enix managed to get Tinchy onside in 2011 to help promote Moon Diver, a PS3 and Xbox 360 download game made by his hero the designer of Strider.

This next one was a big surprise by most accounts. Sir Paul McCartney was hired by Bungie to write and perform the end theme for the shared-world shooter Destiny. His song, called Hope for the Future, is honestly really rather good. The video… not so much, but you can’t have everything.

For a truly rousing rendition of videogame anthems, the London Symphony Orchestra took the UK stage as part of the 2013 Zelda Symphony tour. Last year the LSO performed a Symphonic Legends programme at the Barbican joined by the London Symphony Chorus. LSO principal flautist Gareth Davies told Classic FM: "Our first video game concert was a fantastically exciting experience. Fans who attended the Final Symphony were one of the most attentive audiences I’ve ever played for.”

Staying on the subject of richly enhancing game worlds, the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Greg Bear was commissioned to write a series of Halo novels. The Forerunner Trilogy (2011-2013) received mixed reviews upon release, but since respected by Halo fans as a fascinating addition to canon. Another award winner, Karen Traviss, has penned awesome stuff for Halo and Gears of War.

Videogame sponsorship literally took off in a big way with All Nippon Airlines’ Pokémon Jet in 1998. It still flies today, between Tokyo, Bangkok, Frankfurt and Paris, and passengers are said to receive “a complete Pokémania experience” with flight crew wearing Poké-uniforms and goodie bags for travellers. If the in-flight entertainment is Poké-tastic too this could be tough on the grown-ups.

It is only high flyers who can afford the remaining items on our list. Last year, Jumbo Electronics in Dubai began selling solid gilded PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, made by Italian jeweller Gatti Luxury Lab. They were available in Rose or Yellow Gold and cost the equivalent of around £8,000. They’ve since sold out from what we can tell, but the Gatti website has them proudly displayed.

For more affordable, but still astronomical bling, pairs of Swarovski-studded microphones for the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips retailed for $680 USD (£450) in 2009. Only 100 sets were made by the appointment-only designers at Crystal Roc, who’ve customised crystal-studded accessories for celebs such as Rihanna. Lips was a terrific Xbox alternative to PlayStation’s SingStar at the time.

In 2012 the ever resourceful Square Enix publicity team worked with Arena Homme+ to stage a virtual fashion shoot of Final Fantasy XIII-2 heroes wearing Prada. The look was chosen from Prada’s spring 2012 menswear collection to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the role-playing-game series. Final Fantasy characters depicted by the computer-generated models included Sazh, Snow and Lightning. Imagery created by the Visual Works studio in Japan was featured across 12 pages of the magazine. Kudos to the characters’ original designer, Tetsuya Nomura, that they all looked so cool.

Max Pearmain, Editor of Arena Homme+, said at the time: "Our Spring issue focuses on a world of direction and escapism, and having a visually stunning video game franchise such as Final Fantasy work alongside us and a leading fashion brand like Prada to create something so unique is incredible. I've always been interested by the power of video games and their place in society, and the amount of work that's gone into this project blows my mind. We're incredibly pleased with the result."

Finally, for something really exclusive that boggled the mind, the Codemasters’ 2013 racer GRID 2 was made available as a £125,000 special edition that included a customised BAC Mono supercar. Yes, the actual car. The GRID 2: Mono Edition was, understandably, a one-off that shipped with a specially liveried-up road-legal vehicle from the Briggs Automotive Company based in Liverpool.

One customer received the 2.3 litre, 280 bhp four-cylinder car, a PS3 console and a copy of GRID 2 for PS3, making this the most expensive videogame ever sold. Full driver protective wear including suit, boots and gloves from Bell Racing ensured that the owner would reach 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds in style. BAC also ensured the driver would be safely seated by customising the cockpit for size. Neill Briggs, director of BAC Ltd. said: “BAC are immensely proud and excited at the release of GRID2: Mono Edition; a game which offers an opportunity for one lucky person to own a truly unique supercar. Codemasters have developed a stunning game which focuses on delivering the ultimate driving experience and Mono is the ultimate expression of this, in both the real and virtual worlds.”

And here we were, thinking it was an extravagance to splash out on Pokémon Monopoly or Halo Risk board-games when we had the cash. We’re happy to dream under our Skylanders Trap Team duvet.

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