Atari: Game Over Premieres November 20th, Exclusively on Xbox

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to be present as a group of gaming fans, media, and one really big excavator gathered in the New Mexico desert to uncover videogame history. You may have seen that yes, ET was buried in an Alamogordo landfill. But the real story story is how thousands of Atari artifacts (or more!) ended up there in the first place.

On Thursday, November 20th, Xbox and Lightbox will present “Atari: Game Over” exclusively on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and xboxvideo.com. The documentary is free on all of these platforms, for both Gold and Silver Xbox Live members.

“Atari: Game Over” will utilize a number of interactive features on the Xbox platform, including the ability to leave comments on the film that stay on the film’s timeline so your friends can see what you said at the same point in the film. The film’s director, Zak Penn, will also leave comments. There are also numerous outtakes and behind-the-scenes clips that are accessible for viewers.

I had a chance to see an early cut of “Atari: Game Over” during this summer’s San Diego Comic-con, and I think gamers of all kinds will enjoy seeing the Golden Age of videogames from the inside, even if they weren’t alive at the time.

Here’s the official description for “Atari: Game Over” – I’ll send out a tweet when it’s available to watch later this month:

Xbox is proud to present a new documentary film “Atari: Game Over” with two-time Academy Award winning producer Simon Chinn (“Searching for Sugar Man” and “Man on Wire”) and Emmy winning producer Jonathan Chinn (FX’s “30 Days” and PBS’s “American High”), through their multi-platform media company, Lightbox. The film explores the fabled Atari mystery, dubbed “The Great Video Game Burial of 1983.” As the legend goes, the Atari Corporation, faced with overwhelmingly negative response to the E.T. video game, disposed of millions of unsold game cartridges by burying them in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico. “Atari: Game Over” is directed by writer/director Zak Penn (“X-Men 2,” “Avengers,” and “Incident at Loch Ness”). It will air exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on November 20, 2014.