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Watch the Atari: Game Over documentary for free on Xbox
Yes, there are a lot of big new games out this week, but if you need a break from the rush you don't have to move from your Xbox. Instead, you can dig into the past by watching Xbox Live's Atari: Game Over documentary for free. The hour-long feature explores the video game crash of 1983, a seismic event that resulted in reports of Atari dumping thousands of unsold copies of the E.T. video game, infamously regarded by many to be the absolute worst ever, to grace our screens. An excavation team headed out to New Mexico to unearth the truth about the reports, and sure enough they dug up shrink-wrapped copies of the game along with other Atari bits and bobs. And now all that garbage is starting to make crazy money on eBay. Weird world, huh? [Image: Microsoft]
Excavated E.T. Atari carts fetch more than $1,500 at auction
One man's trash is another man's pricey, crushed game cartridge. Last week's eBay auctions for Atari cartridges unearthed during the production of the Atari: Game Over documentary have concluded, with the top-grossing auction pulling in $1,537 for a mangled, sort-of boxed copy of ET for the Atari 2600. A total of nine ET cartridges sold for more than $1,000 apiece, with copies of Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command and others pulling in hundreds of dollars each in additional auctions. Each game will ship with a certificate of authenticity, an I.D. tag from the City of Alamogordo, and a photo-supplemented narrative detailing the lot's history. Regardless of whether you bought a momento, you can learn more about the context surrounding the excavation when Atari: Game Over premieres on November 20 on Xbox Live. [Image: Atari]
Xbox's Atari, E.T. documentary phones home on November 20
Atari: Game Over, the documentary following an excavation for Atari cartridges once rumored to be buried in a landfill decades ago, will premiere November 20 on Xbox Live, director Zak Penn has announced. Game Over was part of a six-film series called Signal to Noise, a collaboration between the now-defunct Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment, a multi-platform media company founded by Academy Award-winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man, Man on Wire) and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (30 Days, American High). We got our first peak at the documentary in July, when a teaser trailer gave us the too long; didn't read on how E.T. 2600 damaged Atari's rockstar status in the gaming industry. As for the unearthed cartridges themselves, they've been split between auctions, museums and the City of Alamogordo. [Image: Xbox]
Xbox Entertainment Studios now officially closed
Following earlier reports heralding the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, Microsoft made things official on Wednesday by dismissing those few employees remaining at the company's former film division. The good news is that the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios signals an end to the mounting layoffs that have haunted Microsoft since Satya Nadella was promoted to CEO following the departure of Steve Ballmer. The bad news is that the abrupt closure has likely killed any projects that were still in the works at Xbox Entertainment Studios. Variety reports that studio head Nancy Tellem initially expected to have more time to "sort through the thicket of rights issues involved in relocating the scripted and nonscripted projects" prior to the studio being shuttered. Despite the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, Microsoft remains committed to the live-action Halo: Nightfall digital series. Barring catastrophe, the Ridley Scott-produced adaptation will debut in early November.
Halo: is it the TV you're looking for?
The custodians of Halo have considered "what it means to move television forward," says executive producer Kiki Wolfkill. It's an unusual line coming from 343 Industries, maker of Halo 4, but it shows a more practical streak than Microsoft's own (and now defunct) Xbox Entertainment Studios. 343's Halo Channel is an Xbox One and Windows 8.1 app that works like a giant web for the Halo franchise, ensnaring original TV programming, games, news, Twitch streams, social activity, franchise fiction and, by the looks of it, any Halo fan who uses it. Tapping into your Xbox profile, it'll recognize you and suggest content based on what you've played, watched and read before. "We will always curate a stream," Wolfkill says.
Microsoft looking to sell defunct Xbox Entertainment Studios
Following last month's closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, parent company Microsoft is seeking a buyer for its erstwhile video production division, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Though a full list of interested parties has not been revealed, the Hollywood Reporter claims that Microsoft has had "preliminary talks" with Warner Bros. regarding a potential sale. If that sale were to go through, the Hollywood Reporter believes Warner Bros. would merge Xbox Entertainment Studios with YouTube gaming hub Machinima. A Warner Bros. representative, however, cautions that negotiations between the media group and Microsoft are still in the very early stages and no sort of deal has been reached between the two corporations. In the meantime, Microsoft remains committed to select Xbox Entertainment Studios projects, such as the Halo: Nightfall television series and Quantum Break.
Trailer for Xbox's Atari E.T. documentary phones home
Remember when a bunch of people hung out in a landfill for a weekend and it didn't end in total disappointment? In April, the devoted among us choked on dust in Alamogordo, New Mexico while Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment dug for an answer to the E.T. Atari cartridge legend. The rest of us slackers didn't get to witness the pivotal moment of the lot's unearthing, so we'll just have to find a way to live with Atari: Game Over, the incoming documentary you can preview with the above trailer. Game Over is part of the Signal to Noise documentary series, one of the few projects to survive Xbox Entertainment Studios' recent closure, joined by the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall. Xbox Entertainment Studios was announced to the public in 2013 and focused on creating television programming, which could have included shows related to the Gears of War or Fable series. Its closure was announced just over a week ago beside 18,000 layoffs, which involved Xbox's European division as well as Microsoft's Nokia Devices and Services division. [Image: Xbox]
Quantum Break not impacted by Xbox Entertainment Studios closure
Microsoft's impending closure of its Xbox Entertainment Studios won't affect Quantum Break's live-action TV show, and both the game and show "remain on track" according to the company. The news follows Microsoft saying it "remains committed" to Halo: Nightfall and the Halo TV series despite yesterday's announcements. A Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon, "The news of Xbox Entertainment Studios has not impacted our progress and we're excited to share more details of Quantum Break at Gamescom in August."
Engadget Daily: Microsoft layoffs, Tesla sales and more!
Microsoft announced the largest layoffs in company history, Tesla can't sell cars in most of the United States, Xbox Entertainment Studios is set to close and HTC has an executive exodus problem. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Microsoft to shutter Xbox Entertainment Studios [update]
Following the 18,000 layoffs Microsoft announced this morning, the tech giant has also confirmed reports that it will be closing its Xbox Entertainment Studios division within the next few months. Though the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios will drastically reduce Microsoft's plans for original Xbox programming, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer claims that a few key projects will live on. "Xbox will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like 'NFL on Xbox,' and we will continue to enhance our entertainment offering on console by innovating the TV experience through the monthly console updates," Spencer wrote in a statement to Recode. According to Variety, it also appears likely that the Ridley Scott-produced Halo prequel Halo: Nightfall will survive the death of Xbox Entertainment Studios, both because it's quite a ways into development already and because Microsoft is currently in negotiations with Showtime to broadcast the series on premium cable alongside its Xbox debut. Update: Microsoft has contacted us to confirm that Halo: Nightfall will continue production. You'll find the official statement below.
Gears of War, Fable and Forza fair game for TV shows
Having announced its first lineup of Xbox Originals, a brand of exclusive television shows made for Xbox platforms, Microsoft is highlighting Gears of War, Fable and Forza Motorsport as potential sources slash victims of adaptation in the future. Speaking to press in San Francisco last week, Vice President of Xbox Entertainment Studios Jordan Levin named a few games that "most immediately come to mind" for a stint in television. Unlike the popular Halo series of first-person shooters, which is already confirmed for a television show and an upcoming feature, these projects are at a stage of "exploratory conversation" and may ultimately go nowhere. Games being explored so far include historical strategy game Age of Empires, zombie survival sim State of Decay, Forza Motorsport, the vibrant Fable series and bulky-men-vs-monsters shooter, Gears of War. If those exploratory conversations last long enough, there's a chance someone will see the potential in combining these intellectual properties into a filmed super-property. Who wouldn't watch a show about zombies overrunning the stone age, or a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta covered in chainsaws and driven by a man in a chicken suit? [Image: Microsoft]
Xbox Originals TV to fill the gaps between game launches
Xbox has a place for original television, wedged somewhere between major game releases. Of course, we can't get away with just calling it television - Xbox Entertainment Studios is making "premium television experiences," said president Nancy Tellem, who joined Microsoft in 2012 after heading up CBS. It's the kind of "network that probably none of you watch," she told a group of journalists in San Francisco earlier this month. We must have had the scent of cable cutting about us. We also heard from Jordan Levin, the studio vice president and former CEO of WB Network, where he shepherded shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Gilmore Girls." Levin sounded cautious about the first-year slate of Xbox Originals, which will bring a considered mix of original documentaries, reality shows and episodic fiction to Xbox 360 and Xbox One starting in 2014. "We're both not delusional about how tough it's going to be, and how long it's going to take," he said, framing Xbox Originals within the domain of premium cable. "We aspire not to talk down to this audience." Both are certainly sold on the numbers available to them through Xbox: 85 million consoles, 48 million Xbox Live subscribers, hours and hours and hours of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video consumed, and "all the assets of Microsoft at out disposal," Tellem said. These numbers and the "gamer" audience tied to them are the most concrete directive I could discern from this early Xbox Originals showcase. The consumer-facing end of it – the cost, the quality, the distribution – is in progress or just plain wishy-washy. And what's a "premium television experience" anyway?
Microsoft digs up E.T. carcass-- er, cartridge at landfill
Xbox Entertainment Studios and Lightbox Entertainment's documentary on the excavation of a New Mexico landfill where supposedly thousands of copies of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 won't be completed for some time yet, but if you want to know how the search went, well, the above image should tell you all you need to know. Yup, they found E.T. - or at least one copy of the game. Xbox spokesperson Larry Hryb, AKA Major Nelson, tweeted pictures showing the cartridge, as well as other Atari 2600 games still in shrink wrap, from the landfill. Dude. Spoiler warning next time! [Image: Larry Hryb]
Microsoft partners with UK studio to produce sci-fi drama 'Humans'
Microsoft is pushing forward on its original television programming initiative by partnering with UK broadcaster Channel 4 and production company Kudos to create a drama series called Humans. The sci-fi drama is an English-language adaptation of Sveriges Television and Matador Film's series Real Humans, and depicts a modern family that lives with a highly-developed robotic servant known as a "Synth." The show will air on the Xbox platform in North America and Channel 4 in the UK in 2015. What's more, Bloomberg recently interviewed Microsoft's President of Entertainment and Digital Media Nancy Tellem about the company's media ambitions on Xbox Live. Tellem said Microsoft's approach to television, which spans multiple genres like sports, animation and feature-length projects, will be "under the banner of Xbox Originals." Tellem also touched on the properties that Microsoft owns, such as Fable, Age of Empires, Gears of War and Forza, noting that "these are the things that frankly if we weren't attached to Microsoft everyone would yearn to have." Tellem is the head of Xbox Entertainment Studios, which set its sights on "interactive TV" in February 2013. One of the company's projects is a live-action show based on the Halo series that has ties to Steven Spielberg, which Tellem assured is still in development. As far as the expansion of the Halo brand is concerned, while no movie based on the property is in sight, a "digital feature" for Halo is expected to launch this year. Additionally, former AMC programming director Ari Mark joined Xbox Entertainment in January to create unscripted video content. [Image: Xbox Entertainment Studios]
No Halo movie in sight, but a 'digital feature' is coming this year
Microsoft's monolithic Halo franchise has yet to make it to movie theaters, but that hasn't stopped protagonist Master Chief from stomping onto other, shorter pieces of film. Microsoft and 343 Industries have vaguely announced a new Halo "digital feature project" to be released in 2014, and for all we know it could be a web-series, extravagant commercial, music video or a P90X video designed to wreak havoc on cybernetic glutes. It doesn't sound like a movie, however, and it will likely to be available online. Dropping Ridley Scott's name certainly helps: Scott, last seen in cinemas with The Councelor and Prometheus and wait-don't-go Blade Runner, is the executive producer on this project, while Sergio Mimica-Gezzan directs. Mimica-Gezzan directed some episodes of Battlestar Galactica, not including (phew) "Scar" or "Black Market," as well as Heroes and Under the Hood. Microsoft isn't confirming any more details regarding this Halo endeavor, but stresses that it won't hassle the "premium" Halo show underway at Xbox Entertainment Studios. The television series based on Halo is attached to Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg. The most recent bits of live-action Halo came in the form of "Scanned," a David Fincher-produced short promoting Halo 4 (seen above), and that game's preceding web-series, Forward Unto Dawn. [Image: Microsoft Game Studios]
Xbox Entertainment hires AMC veteran to develop unscripted video content
Former AMC programming director Ari Mark has joined up with Xbox Entertainment Studios in Santa Monica, where he will oversee the creation of unscripted video content for Microsoft. Previously, Mark worked with AMC in developing the network-original reality television shows The Pitch and Small Town Security. Mark also assisted in the creation of AMC's The Walking Dead-focused talk show Talking Dead, along with Comic Book Men, a reality show set in director Kevin Smith's comic shop in New Jersey. Xbox Entertainment Studios announced that it will launch an Xbox-exclusive documentary series this year through its multiplatform media company Lightbox. The first film in the series will document a planned excavation of a New Mexico landfill thought to contain unsold Atari cartridges and hardware buried in the aftermath of the video game industry crash of 1983.
Microsoft 'expanding' sports broadcasts on Xbox One
Microsoft is hoping to offer more sports programming on Xbox One. Speaking to Bloomberg, Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, said Microsoft believes "sports is a very interesting category globally" and that the company will be "expanding what we do in sports to bring more international sports into the mix." In May, Microsoft announced a new partnership with the NFL that would see live broadcasts on Xbox One. Earlier this month, ESPN announced it too would present live content on Xbox One. This is all part of an overall more concentrated effort to present more programming on Xbox One beyond the console's ability to be a TV middle man. In addition to its agreement with the NFL, Microsoft has also created a specific Entertainment division that is currently working on the Halo TV show. Former CBS executive Nancy Tellem is heading up Entertainment and original programming on Xbox One.
ESPN coming to Xbox One, NFL.com fantasy football on Xbox 360 now
ESPN on Xbox Live was Microsoft's first network partner on the Xbox 360 back in 2010 and the network has signed a new deal to stream content on the Xbox One. ESPN.com clips, ESPN 3 live content and everything streamed through WatchESPN, which requires a cable-authenticated package, are all presented in the app. "Sports fans know what they like. We're just trying to give them better ways to access that content in a more quickly and more user-friendly format," David Jurenka, Director of Sports at Xbox Entertainment Studios, says. Within the app, users can create a specific channel for their favorite team, and the app will even pull in their personalized data from ESPN's ScoreCenter app. In addition to ESPN, Microsoft's new partnership with the NFL has spurned development of an NFL app for Xbox One – with NFL Network content, including Thursday Night Football and NFL Red Zone – and a fantasy football app for Xbox 360. The latter app, which allows players to log into their NFL.com fantasy teams and do just about everything they could on a computer or smartphone, should be available today. Users can adjust their lineups and watch NFL.com highlights through their Xbox 360 console. The NFL app is also coming to Xbox One in November.
Rumor: Microsoft wants to resurrect 'Heroes' as original Xbox show
Microsoft is in talks to bring Heroes back, possibly as part of its original Xbox programming lineup, TVLine reports. The new series would involve new heroes and stories, with cameos from past stars, though talks are still in preliminary stages, the site says.In 2012, Microsoft formed Xbox Entertainment Studios in Los Angeles with the goal of producing exclusive series for Xbox and "interactive" programming, all overseen by former CBS Entertainment President Nancy Tellem.
Xbox Entertainment Studios working on original 'interactive' TV
Microsoft's new "Xbox Entertainment Studios" in Los Angeles is making a variety of "entertainment" different from what you might expect Microsoft to produce for Xbox: television programming. "Interactive" TV, but TV nonetheless.The studio is spearheaded by president of entertainment and digital media Nancy Tellem, who also oversees live events on Xbox – like the Elections 2012 hub and similar "interactive" presentations for the Grammys and the (upcoming) Oscars. XES will work to create original interactive content for Xbox (and other devices).While the new studio creates programming, Microsoft also plans to add more channels of other companies' programming, to the tune of 40 new TV and entertainment apps this year.
