Gamers in Shanghai were able to download a link to a video game by scanning a giant QR code created in the sky above the Chinese city by a formation of more than 1,500 drones with their smartphone.

The drones were equipped with LED lights and formed images depicting the characters and logo from Japanese role-playing game Princess Connect! Re:Dive, before turning into a QR code that linked to the game’s landing page.

Chinese video-streaming company Bilibili staged the display over Shanghai’s waterfront to promote the first anniversary of the game’s release in China — an event that it also used a giant QR code to promote.

“When the game debuted in China a year ago, the company printed QR codes across Shanghai’s bus stop billboards and put up a giant QR code outside its own office building,” according to Vice magazine.

“The marketing stunt itself became the talk of the Chinese internet. In a comedy video by Bilibili, chief executive Chen Rui acted surprised by the massive QR code, after he ordered employees to come up with adverts that were big and camera friendly.”

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest QR code remains one that was also created in China, and covered some 36,100 square metres of a wheat field in Hebei province in 2015.

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