Shoryuken their minds with a Street Fighter IV arcade machine
Price: $16,950/£11,270
Where: Highway Entertainment

Christmas will be a real 'Sonic Boom!' when they tear off the shiny paper and discover a real working Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet waiting to greet them. But a word of warning: remember that crazy excited Nintendo 64 Kid? Expect an even more intense version of that. Kind of a nuclear blast remix. Watch out for exploding heads and hernias.

Pack them off to Video Game World (aka Akihabara, Tokyo)
Price: Varies depending on the flight operator, although you'll be looking at anything between $500 and $1500
Where: Google 'Tokyo flights'

Everyone has a Mecca, it's just in a different place for different people. For Muslims its in Saudi Arabia. For stoners it's in Amsterdam. And for gamers it's in Tokyo. A trip to Akihabara is the closest a gamer will ever get to a spiritual pilgrimage. Send them there and they'll love you forever.

Buy them their very own games publisher to play with
Price: $100,000 for 80 million shares, although this may vary depending on which company's shares you're buying
Where: The stock market

If your gamer friend has talked about making a career in gaming but has resolutely failed to get off their lazy behind and do anything about it, what better gift to give than their very own games company. What an opportunity!

Think it's out of your financial reach? Wrong. An investor recently paid a measly $100,000 for 80 million Midway shares. That's a controlling stake. He's practically bought himself the bosses chair. Sure, it came with the burden of $70 million debt. But still. What an opportunity!

Upgrade their home entertainment set-up with the largest HDTV in the world
Price: $35,000,000
Where: Make Jerry Jones an offer

So they thought their fancy pants plasma screen bad-ass was future proof, huh? Imagine how thrilled and amazed your eternally grateful gamer friend would be watching articulated machinery winching in this behemoth of a stocking filler. It measures in at over 11,000 square feet (160'x70'). Admittedly there's only one in existence and it's being installed into the Dallas Cowboys' lavish new stadium, but if you make Jerry Jones an offer he can't refuse, it could be yours. Just stand well back to avoid eye meltage.

Give them the opportunity to browse their favourite web site in style
Price: $20,000 (laptop), $23,250 (mouse)
Where: Pat says now (mouse), ego (laptop)

If your friend's a gamer, then they'll obviously love GamesRadar. And GR patrons deserve to surf in the kind of luxury normally reserved for presidents, drug barons and high class escorts. So what better gift to give them than this diamond encrusted mouse and leather laptop combo. At just a whisker over $23,000 the 18-carat white gold optical USB mouse is obviously worth every penny. While the $20,000 Ego for Bentley laptop is the cream of high society wank.

Fly them to the moon
Price: $100,000,000 for the lunar mission
Where: Space Adventures

By their very nature gamers love exploration. And with many, many games set in the deepest reaches of outer space, imagine how stunned your games-playing buddy would be to receive a $100,000,000 ticket for a flight around the moon. If you think this might be a strain on your bank account, why not consider the suborbital spaceflight package, which rings in at a much more affordable $102,000. Or experience the delights of zero gravity flight for the economy price of $4,950.

And since Tabula Rasa developer Richard Garriott (officially recognised as being one of the Top 10 sexy sexy game gurus in the world) boldly blasted into the final frontier, space has become this season's must visit destination for the gaming elite.

Dec 08, 2008

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