BUSINESS NEWS
Is chain cooking up a Col. Sanders dating sim?
Mike Snider
USA TODAY
Published 12:05 PM EDT Sep 10, 2019
Is KFC really cooking up a Col. Sanders dating game?
It sure looks like it. A new entry on the Steam PC game store entitled “I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator,” promises to let players see if they “have what it takes to be the business partner of and win the heart of the most famous chicken salesman of all time.”
The game, labeled as coming soon for PCs and Mac computers, places the player in the culinary classroom with the colonel “as you try to date your classmate, Colonel Sanders.”
A spacey trailer, produced in anime video game motif, shows a slim goateed and mustachioed Col. Sanders slicing up lettuce and riding a flying salt shaker. Other characters shown include rivals, friends and a Professor Dog.
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The simulation promises multiple hours of game play with cooking battles and “cute miniature food.” The goal: “Do you have what it takes to survive culinary school? Will Colonel Sanders choose you to be his business partner? Or maybe even so much more? Find out in the most finger lickin’ good dating simulator ever created—a game that KFC actually made,” the game’s description says.
So far, neither KFC nor Steam has responded to a request about the game. The studio listed as the game’s developer, Psyops, which has offices in L.A. and New York City, has not responded either.
While Psyop has created games in the past, more recently it has created commercials for Oculus Quest VR headset, Coca-Cola, Baskin-Robbins and Traveler’s Insurance.
The Psyop website says it creates content that “wins the hearts and minds of audiences and consumers. We blur the lines between advertising and entertainment by telling compelling stories, creating engaging characters and building unique worlds.”
A world based around Col. Sanders would certainly classify as unique. And the chain released this tweet today:
KFC has made some other unique moves recently. To kickoff the NFL season, the fast-food chain tabbed actor Sean Astin, who played the title character in the 1993 sports film “Rudy,” to become “Colonel Rudy” in a new TV ad.
Also recently, KFC began testing a plant-based chicken sandwich and chicken nuggets at selected locations.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.
