Xbox Entertainment Studios officially closes, still completes E.T. doc

We have two stories in one here. First off, Microsoft has officially shut down their foray into the entertainment industry under the Xbox name. The Xbox Entertainment Studios, which was announced earlier this year, had a goal of producing both scripted and unscripted programming for the various Microsoft platforms. There were a number of projects teased and even announced, but none made their way to the public before the doors of the studio were shuttered.

Even though the studio is no more, and further program development has stopped completely, one of their projects was completed and will be released in a few short weeks. Atari: Game Over will be released on November 20 exclusively on Xbox Live. The documentary took a close look at the fall of one of the gaming industry’s early giants, Atari, and their fall from grace. This is the same documentary that investigated and proved the existence of the long-rumored E.T. landfill in a New Mexico desert.

I am really looking forward to checking this out, mainly for the landfill portion of the documentary. The rumors of that documentary were something that has been debated for nearly as long as I have been gaming, so to finally see the saga come to an end is a bit of a milestone for me. I am also a bit saddened to see Xbox’s entertainment forays come to an end so quickly. Yes, it was a very risky business venture but ultimately it is where I think that the industry is headed and someone had to take the first steps, successful or not.