Mobile Virtual Fishing Game is Really For Real

Cell phone games are fun and all, but they’re largely inconsequential. Not this one. Ippon Zuri is a new fishing game available to NTT DoCoMo subscribers. That doesn’t sound all that exciting until you realize that by catching a fish in the game, you actually get a fish in real life.

The current deal for Ippon Zuri — which translates to pole-and-line fishing — is only for the residents of Fukuoka in Japan, but it proves to be quite a convenient way to head out to the lake without actually going to the lake. The partnership has been forged between DoCoMo, local system development company FIT, and a local fish wholesaler.

Those itching for some angling pay a fee of 1000 Yen (about $10) for three games. Anything that you catch in the mobile game — fish, crab, whatever — will then be delivered to your door by the local seafood wholesaler. Well, you have to “win” the slot machine mini-game too. They should have done pachinko instead.