A documentary that was commissioned by Microsoft"s Xbox Entertainment Studios a few months ago has now hit a bit of a snag, The film, which is supposed to center on digging up the place where millions of unsold "E.T." Atari 2600 game cartridges were buried, is now on hold thanks to issues with the site excavation plans.
The "E.T." game copies were buried in 1983 in a New Mexico location, after they sat on store shelves unsold. It remains one of the oddest footnotes in all of video game history. The Lightbox production company was supposed to start excavating the landfill and film it for the documentary, which would be shown exclusively on Microsoft"s Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles later this year.
However, the Alamogordo News reports that the production company"s plans to dig up the landfill didn"t get approved by the New Mexico Solid Waste and Ground Water Bureau. The agency said that the plan was "generic" and lacked specific site details. The article also says there are concerns that the site itself contains high levels of a number of unnamed chemicals and that the New Mexico Environment Department recommended back in 2004 that more investigation of the landfill was needed.
The production company has apparently filmed interviews for the "E.T." Atari documentary already but it remains to be seen if they will continue the project if they are unable to dig at the landfill.
Source: Alamogordo News | Image via Atari