Xbox One Atari E.T. excavation film kicks off Xbox documentary series in 2014

[KN1GHTMARE]

A new original documentary series about the rise of the digital age will debut exclusively on Xbox consoles next year, series creators Xbox Entertainment Studios and multiplatform media group Lightbox announced today. This series is the first confirmed content to come from Xbox Entertainment Studios, the 125-person studio founded earlier this year to create "true interactive content" beyond video games for the Xbox brand. The studio is also working with 343 Industries and Stephen Spielberg on the Halo television series and reportedly a reality show about street soccer.

The series' premiere film will investigate the mysterious Alamogordo landfill in which developer Atari is rumored to have dumped millions of unsold copies of the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game in 1983. Lightbox, in conjunction with Fuel Entertainment, will excavate the landfill and present the urban legends surrounding it with the greater context of Atari's company history.

Source: Polygon

This actually sounds great and I'm excited to see such a well though out and gamer centric idea actually get picked up. I'm glad MSFT was smart enough to not make the original content idea cheesy and have only shows based in video game universes or shows about dumb, mountain dew drinking, skaters...you know because that's what they think we are. Anyways, what do you guys think? Sound off below!

 

[Outrun]

Xbox One Forums demographics show a dip in the Mountain Dew and Skater user base, KN1GHTMARE. Dorito eaters remain steady. To the topic, I think it's pretty cool to go with gamer centric stuff. Especially retro/old school stuff that a lot who came in during (maybe) Gen6 and (definitely) Gen7 wouldn't be familiar with at all.

 

[knives0302]

Xbox One Forums demographics show a dip in the Mountain Dew and Skater user base, KN1GHTMARE. Dorito eaters remain steady. To the topic, I think it's pretty cool to go with gamer centric stuff. Especially retro/old school stuff that a lot who came in during (maybe) Gen6 and (definitely) Gen7 wouldn't be familiar with at all.

Yep. Totally agree. It's good to see things going for the gamer centric topic.

 

[MetalSwift]

That's cool. The Atari E.T excavation should be led by Geraldo. I'm still looking forward to the over the top Atari E.T adventure from AVGN. Maybe the next documentary could be finding out what happened to the other treasures from that one Atari game that offered a crown, a sword, and a lot of different stuff for completing the games and puzzles.

...that's something they should bring back as promo as well.

 

[Kerosene31]

That game was horribly awful. It should stay buried

 

[MetalSwift]

Oh it won't. You can't keep Atari E.T buried.

 

[sillylucy]

That sounds like a cool documentary series. I would love to watch it. I guess I have to get back on Live if I want to see it.

 

[Outrun]

Oh it won't. You can't keep Atari E.T buried.

Sad but true. No one will forget Atari ET even if they never played it. We can forget the Mystique Atari adult games, but ET doesn't get the pass...nor should it.

 

[thedoodseven]

Whoa. Now that sounds like a nice way to jolt a start for Xbox programming. A documentary about the game that sucked so bad huh? I wasn't even born that time but being able to see a documentary about it should give a wee bit education on what the E.T. game really gave to the world.

 

[marthyrocks]

Wow, this is nice. At least we'll see the truth about the landfill. It can also give us some insight about this. But really, the question I got is: is it really true? I'm really curious about this. Well, let's see what they got. But nice content for the programming. It's gonna be awesome.

 

[thecreed4life]

Awesome! I am so going to watch this one. This looks like homework to me. I'm a gamer so knowing a lot of the history before I was born can definitely educate me, especially this particular piece of history. And I really wonder: did people really dump cartridges of E.T. Atari games in a landfill?

 

[MetalSwift]

I wouldn't be surprised by dumping the games in a landfill if you 1. printed far too many 2. the game flop despite being based on one of the biggest movies of '82 3. being a game that didn't demand much technologically at the time and still blowing chunks.

The thing that keeps E.T alive is the whole lore behind not just dumping the game in landfill, but burying it as if no one would remember it. Think about it: it's the early 80s, news didn't travel as fast as it does now, reviewing and rating games was largely with trade newsletters and like two magazines. No one would've been sure what happened to the rest of copies and no one would care since they weren't selling in the first place and the game was bad.

It was so bad that it and Atari's port of Pac-Man were two of the games that caused Atari Shock (compounded with inflation at the time, too many wood grain consoles being out and about that were largely the same console, etc.) that torpedoed the game industry in North America the year after E.T was released. Then some fat plumber popped up in 1985, saved everything, led to Nintendo ruling the world for the decade afterwards, and slow, painful death of Atari as Sega beat it with its own shoe while fencing with Nintendo during the 90s.

...it really was a crazy chain of events. I hope the crash is covered in the documentary. It really should be it's own documentary even though several others have covered it already.

 

[diamondback8]

Source: Polygon

This actually sounds great and I'm excited to see such a well though out and gamer centric idea actually get picked up. I'm glad MSFT was smart enough to not make the original content idea cheesy and have only shows based in video game universes or shows about dumb, mountain dew drinking, skaters...you know because that's what they think we are. Anyways, what do you guys think? Sound off below!

Hahahaha. I was thinking that too: were they gonna be all video game-focused? I would really hate it if it was mostly about what you just said. But just seeing this: documentary about the Atari E.T. already shows they've got some nifty content planned. This one is going to be interesting.

You had me at Mountain Dew drinking XD

 

[spark_777]

Source: Polygon

This actually sounds great and I'm excited to see such a well though out and gamer centric idea actually get picked up. I'm glad MSFT was smart enough to not make the original content idea cheesy and have only shows based in video game universes or shows about dumb, mountain dew drinking, skaters...you know because that's what they think we are. Anyways, what do you guys think? Sound off below!

I think this will be magnificent programming. What a better way to show some original programming than showing a documentary about an important facet in the history of gaming right? It's definitely something to look forward to.