Xbox just announced a new version of one of its most famous gaming peripherals, this time produced in partnership with Warner Bros. to celebrate a forthcoming movie. I’m talking about an Xbox controller made entirely out of chocolate. No, you can’t actually play games with it. Yes, you can eat it, since it’s made out of 100% chocolate. And of course, it’s wrapped in a gold wrapper — a reference to the infamous golden tickets that Charlie and company had to find in order to enter Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The film, called Wonka, is a prequel to Roald Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and stars Timothée Chalamet as the chocolateer himself.
To win the “(X)box of Chocolates” — or so the Xbox release calls it — fans have to enter a sweepstakes. The terms, unfortunately, require following Xbox on X (formerly called Twitter) and retweeting the tweet announcing the context. It runs from Nov. 13 – Dec. 14. You don’t just win a chocolate controller itself. You also get five other chocolate truffles, each themed to Xbox: Achievement Hunting, Button Masher, Your Citrus Sidekic, Xtra Kick, and Wonka for the Win. You can also potentially win a replica Xbox Series X that similarly appears to be made entirely out of chocolate.
It’s been a year of blockbuster collaborations with really strong branding, and this is especially true for brand names that appeal to kids. Some of these were all-encompassing, like the inescapable number of Barbie branded items, ranging form hair clips to pool floats to inline rollerblades. And, of course, The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened up the opportunity for tons of new toys and game merch.
I don’t know precisely what types of branded merch I expected for Wonka. I assumed, of course, that there would be candy involved — chocolate even, and probably in a golden wrapper. But chocolate in the shape of an Xbox controller? Do we think Chalamet will be a gamer in Willy Wonka? If so, I presume Xbox would be his console of choice.
Nicole Clark
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