pc2.jpgThe much-anticipated alternate reality game Perplex City came a little closer to full launch yesterday, with the first packs of puzzle cards going on sale at Playlounge in London.

The news reached players through an unexpected tip-off from wannabe-journalist
Scarlett Kiteway, just two hours before the cards were to be made available. Two players in the area were able to make their way to the store, where the puppetmasters were waiting excitedly to greet their first ever customers and take a few celebratory photographs. It was reported that the cards had only arrived from the printers that day, and the Mind Candy team had made a last minute decision to dash the first packs over to Playlounge and into the eager hands of its players.

The Sentinel, the game’s own newspaper, had run a savage indictment of Mind Candy’s “incompetence” the day before, revealing in the process that the cards would be on sale at nine stores around the world (and by mail-order from Firebox) from July 13th.

As the London players made their way home to report back, the online players were discovering a wave of new sites, from the pharmaceuticals company Cognivia to the amusingly well-observed Cheap Ceretin and Brotherhood Of The Six.

Perplex City has been a long time in the making, with launch originally slated for late 2004, but it now looks as if the game is finally set to turn everything up to eleven in the coming weeks. Make yourself very comfortable… and join in the discussion at Unfiction.