I find myself increasingly dumbfounded by the sheer quantity of crossover merchandising lately, and this is coming from someone who owns an entire Angry Birds bathroom set… However, this latest discovery definitely takes the “Wow, so this exists" cake. This afternoon I “played" a $2.00 Plants vs. Zombies themed Illinois scratch off lottery ticket. Yes, this is a real thing.
Unfortunately, there’s no PvZ flavor to it aside from the actual art and branding of the ticket. All you do is scratch off the sunflower numbers, try to match the zombie numbers, then belt out the inevitable “WELP!" when you don’t. It’s sort of interesting to see a mobile game available as a lottery ticket, as there’s been quite a bit of talk around the internet water cooler about how various IAP schemes feel like gambling and potentially exploit the same mental triggers that makes gambling so appealing… Except this is actually gambling.
Even more amusing, though, is that you could just buy Plants vs. Zombies ($0.99) and download Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Free) and still be a buck ahead compared to picking up one of these scratchers. Sure, you won’t win “up to" $20,000… But, I can promise you’ll have a better time.
