Another clever Giant promotion: turn in your old ZT Online 2 accounts and items for cash money

Giant Interactive is launching a pretty unique promotional campaign for its big MMORPG, ZT Online 2 (also called Long Journey 2) next week as it debuts new information about game updates for 2014. Specifically, one of the updates is a new trading platform for buying and selling in-game items, and to help promote this platform Giant has announced that it will be purchasing 100,000 accounts and items from players for prices of up to 10,000 RMB ($1,600) apiece.

The prices obviously vary depending on the account level and the rarity of the items you have to sell; presumably very few players will actually be able to command prices that high for their gear. But it’s still a pretty unique and eye-catching way of promoting the game and of rewarding longtime players for their loyalty (assuming that they’re offered a fair price for their accounts and items, of course).

Giant isn’t China’s biggest gaming company, but it does have a reputation for pulling eye-catching unique promotional stunts. Earlier this year it put faux-propaganda ads up in Chinese train stations just as everyone was headed home for the holidays, and last year it put a major ad with a controversial term on a billboard in Times Square.