Microsoft is not for noobs?

Ok, so here's what we know about this new about the silly new viral campaign we found last week at notfornoobs.com: it appears to have something to do with gaming, it claims to be affiliated with Microsoft, yet also shows the logo for Razer (the peripheral manufacturer, not the phone), it has a countdown timer that doesn't actually count down, an anonymized DNS record, and perhaps most suspect of all, our peeps at Microsoft were a little baffled when we ran it past them. The Engadget guesstimate: maybe it's that Xbox 360 first person shooter controller we'd heard rumors about? Then again, maybe it's not, but of all these friggin' viral campaigns, we're heartily recommending you really don't get your panties in a twist over this one.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[justjoe @ Aug 21st 2006 9:00PM]

If you go to the site, and click he knob, a logo pop's up, and then goes away, looks like 3 green snakes. That is the "Boomslang" logo. They made/make mice, and it was used for first person shooters.. so, maybe this new controller has something to do with a mouse/optical input of some kind. ????

[Chris @ Aug 21st 2006 9:00PM]

Poor Microsoft, I can only imagine the converstations that will erupt on the armpits of the internet...

LIEK WTF? WH0 SP3LL5 IT "NOOB" NE WAY? ITS N00B, N00B!

[sama @ Aug 21st 2006 9:09PM]

It appears to be a Phishing scheme. They're harvesting email addys. I seriously doubt it's Microsoft.

[hoohoo @ Aug 21st 2006 9:18PM]

its a keyboard dock for zune.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2006/08/keyboard_zune.jpg

[James @ Aug 21st 2006 9:22PM]

We'll know everything tomorrow, Microsoft is like a 12 year old at christmas, it can't keep a secret.

[Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Aug 21st 2006 9:22PM]

That keyboard dock for Zune looks pretty awesome.

[Ferny @ Aug 21st 2006 9:24PM]

the Microsoft logo has been removed. it was on there when I first saw a link to this on betanews.com. the microsoft logo was on there.

[StewartBananas @ Aug 21st 2006 9:26PM]

@ #4 iTradeRox!

Uhh, then why does it show the triple snake symbol when you change the channels on the website like it does on the front of the Zune keyboard dock?

[hoohoo @ Aug 21st 2006 9:30PM]

razorguy from razor says:

We'd love to but those wonderful folks at Microsoft want to keep the
controller playing field level. That means no advanced technology
whereby one player might have an advantage over another. IMO they are
not considering the Xbox Live player who will soon be playing against PC
users who will dominate because they have a keyboard and mouse. The
controller offered today just can't complete.

If you are really interested in having advanced controller technology I
suggest you and some of your friends email the Xbox people. We have
controller technology today that would truly kick ass.

more info to come wednsday.

[Rick @ Aug 21st 2006 10:02PM]

Noobs, no. Boobs, yes.

Thanks you, I'll be here all night...

[Matt @ Aug 21st 2006 10:20PM]

http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/fullnotice.aspx
http://www.notfornoobs.com/privacy.htm

Some word-for-word similarities there, but some things appear to be different.

[Stu L Tissimus @ Aug 21st 2006 10:29PM]

Whois says it's registered to GoDaddy, while Origen360 and Microsoft.com are registered to register.com... so it's fake. Sorry.

[xfactor8 @ Aug 21st 2006 10:50PM]

Quick WHOIS lookup:
http://whois.domaintools.com/notfornoobs.com

Registered by GoDaddy.com

[carbinefreak @ Aug 21st 2006 11:08PM]

check this out... http://www.notfornoobs.com/launch/ its a hidden page ;)

[Don Wilson @ Aug 21st 2006 11:22PM]

http://www.notfornoobs.com/launch/invite.htm

[jdrom @ Aug 21st 2006 11:54PM]

Well I registered... Got an email confirming it. Only useful info was:

NotForNoobs.com | 15111 N. Hayden Rd. | Ste 160, PMB 353 | Scottsdale | Arizona 85260 | United States

[rdrkx80 @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:22AM]

odd, how the address is in arizona, yet in privacy policy, they use the european spelling of honor (honour).

[Thomas @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:09AM]

as of midnight central, says invite closed now.. when I first tried those pages, I think site was down..

Funny the Razer site is too..

Or just massive traffic..

[tuck @ Aug 22nd 2006 2:52AM]

The counter doesn't work...

[Ex @ Aug 22nd 2006 6:42AM]

Microsoft has a gaming mouse coming that is based on Razer technology, called Habu, it's a laser obviously, 2000dpi with on the fly sensitivity adjustment. It's available in Australia on the 16th November. This may be what the secret is??

[xfactor8 @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:38AM]

Whatever it is, 3 days when the counter goes down we'll know.

[Dan @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:11AM]

Now when I go to the site it launches me to http://www.notfornoobs.com/launch/invite.htm and then says Invitation has been closed. even though last night when I went there it didn't take me anywhere. If there was something to be invited to I am sad I didn't get invited.

[Marc @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:43AM]

On this link: http://notfornoobs.com/notfornoobs2.swf It shows the older Swf, with the microsfot logo still on it..

[mastershake @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:05PM]

I think someone is using an idea similar to what I came up with a while back. Put out a website like this, see what everybody posts about it, then take the most popular and wanted idea and then manufactuer a product like that. its like reverse vaporware.

[dummy @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:11PM]

If this one doesn't lead anywhere - I've found one that does! It starts at http://www.oculareffect.com and goes to the oculus at http://www.00112358.net (the fibonacci sequence) and then finally to this girl Faith who is in Australia and leaves videos on her weblog at http://www.faitharella.com - I've been playing for weeks now and it's finally getting good.

[Dan @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:41PM]

It is back! Just like last night with the timer, the 4 little dots are gone and it doesn't tell me the invitation is full anymore! WTF! Maybe another invitation period tonight?

[aide @ Aug 23rd 2006 8:31AM]

now when you turn the nob the snakes come up then it say
transmisson interupt and it goes to a thingie for a gaming mouse called habu. http://www.notfornoobs.com/Microsoft-Habu-Gaming-Mouse.htm

[umrain @ Oct 31st 2006 4:51PM]

I heard that what this is probably about is, in the new season of Lost they find an Xbox360 in another hatch.

Unfortunately for them it is only the Core System.