Capcom Will Give You $70,000 to Find Evidence of Real Life Monsters

In one of the most bizarre PR stunts we’ve ever heard of, Capcom is offering UK residents £50,000 ($70,500 USD) to find hard evidence proving the existence of one of ten mythological creatures.

Last week, Capcom released its hotly anticipated title, Monster Hunter World. The game sees players gear up to venture on quests to battle fearsome creatures, progressively improving their hunting abilities as they play. Presumably figuring the experience would have its players in an adventurous mood, Capcom has decided there would be no better way to promote the game than sending them on a wild goose chase to find old wives tales and boogie monsters grounded in as about as much reality as its own fantastical game.

Laura Skelly, Senior PR Manager for Capcom explains:

“When planning the upcoming launch of Monster Hunter: World we couldn’t help but keep coming back to the real-life monsters we’ve all heard stories about since we were kids. Speaking to the world’s leading real-life monster hunter, Jon Downes, we were inspired to re-open investigations into a select list of top 10 beasts, setting a huge bounty to really encourage people to get back out hunting for evidence. Much like in the new Monster Hunter: World game, we through it was only right that the scale of the reward fit the task at hand”.

Indeed, Capcom is taking this extremely seriously. The company has recruited Jon Downes, a real-life monster hunter and Cryptozoologist, to help select the monsters that still exist across the globe and assist with the skillful examination of evidence, once submissions have closed.

Downes explains that “there are stories of monsters from around the world, and while some may be flights of fancy, not every one of these monsters can be made up. It is one of life’s great mysteries and similar to Monster Hunter: World, I’ve spent the majority of my life traveling across the globe to hunt for evidence of these creatures.”

Before you get your hopes up, though, he also admits that while he’s “had some successes”, he’s “yet to find that elusive proof and it is time for me to offer my help as I throw down the gauntlet to the next generation.”

So if Downes, an expert that has dedicated his life to finding these monsters can’t do it, we’re not too hopeful for any big breakthroughs in the fives months between Jan. 30 and June. 30 that Capcom is giving punters to deliver. If you’re interested, though, here are the ten creatures it wants to be found:

1. Bigfoot: an ape-like animal, usually walking on its hind legs that inhabits forests, especially those of the Pacific Northwest.
2. Scottish lake monster: a dinosaur-like creature with a long neck and barrel-shaped body reputed to haunt Britain’s largest lake.
3. Mongolian Death Worm: a beast shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor leg and it is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death.
4. Mermaid: Grotesque humanoid creatures with the torso of a human being and the nether regions of a fish.
5. Earth Hound: a mysterious dreaded sort of animal, believed to live in Scottish graveyards.
6. Yeti/Almasty: a collective term for one of two or three different animals reported in the foothills of the Himalayas and surrounding areas.
7. Chupacabras: a Puerto Rican semi-bipedal beast with spines down its back.
8. The flying snake of Namibia: an African snake that launches itself into the air, gliding from tree to tree.
9. Yowie: a baffling ape-like creature from Australia. Baffling? Yes, because as far as we know there has never been any primates in Australia apart from man.
10. Cornish Owlman: a grotesque, feathered bird-man in and around the churchyard of Mawnan old Church, near the village of Mawnan Smith in Cornwall, UK.

Sadly for US gamers desperate to leave the comfort of their couch and travel the globe tracking down myths that have likely been disproven by thorough scientific investigation (you know, one of the those Discovery channel shows), this exciting opportunity is only available to UK residents. Boo! Applications are to be sent to [email protected].

Don’t worry, though, we think you’re far better saving your money and playing the excellent Monster Hunter: World.