14 DAY TRIAL // Two winners of a space-bound copy of Mass Effect 3 who tried to auction it off might face legal consequences because their initiative was illegal under both state and federal United States law.
Michael Davis and Miguel Droz, who are video makers and avid gaming enthusiasts, have tracked a copy of Mass Effect 3, which was launched by BioWare and Electronic Arts to the upper reaches of the atmosphere via balloon, to the Arizona desert.
They then decided to launch lottery for the copy of Mass Effect 3 they won, with anyone in the United States able to pay 5 dollars in order to get a ticket and a random number generator used to determine the winner.
30 percent of the money they made would be donated outright to the Child’s Play charity, which offers gaming opportunities to sick children, while the rest would be used to start up a company for the two video makers.
But the fact that they planned to profit from the lottery means that the gamers are breaking the law and could see them land in jail and pay thousands of dollars in fines.
Since the legal issues came to light, Miguel Droz, one of the pair of space-based Mass Effect 3 winners, told Kotaku that, “So as of now we are officially cancelling this entire thing, and refunding everyone's money through PayPal.
“Sorry about that, we should have done our homework first, but in the rush to get this done, hopefully do something cool for charity and get ourselves a kickstart to start our company, we just didn't do our due diligence. Again, we super apologize for wasting anyone's time.”
Space launches for Mass Effect 3 are continuing this week and during the weekend.
The official Earth based launch of the BioWare action and role-playing mix takes place on March 6 on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and three days later in Europe.