Thought strange Final Fantasy marketing tie ins were a recent development? Guess again. The Final Fantasy subreddit is abuzz with nostalgia today as one fan finds an old Final Fantasy 8 ad in a 1990s gaming magazine - showing that one of the pre-order bonuses was the chance to win a 2000 Toyota Echo.
While fans enjoy the novelty of SquareSoft giving away a car to promote Final Fantasy 8, there's still one question on everyone's mind: did anyone ever actually win it? Many have uncovered reports from 1999 that mention this unique promotion, yet none followed up on any winners.
To this day, no one knows for sure what became of the winner. Across Twitter and Reddit, some make claims that there was indeed a winner, but they requested a cash prize rather than the car.
Back in 2019, Kotaku's Tim Rogers actually tried to solve the mystery. After going on a wild goose chase, getting passed from person to person in the hopes of finding out if this car drives among us today, he, unfortunately, came up with nothing. The only hint came from a figure from Electronic Arts (Square and EA were partners at the time), who suggested it was likely the winner did indeed claim the cash prize of $10,000 (roughly $16,500 today).
Were you the lucky winner of this contest? Please, I beg of you, reveal yourself to the world. Bask in the glory of winning this once-in-a-lifetime draw, because I doubt Square Enix will ever do it again.