Xbox Origen Disappointingly Revealed

The big secret that everyone's been curious about, the Xbox Origen puzzle, has been revealed. From the article: "The Origen Xbox 360 site has counted down, and it appears to be promoting a contest for European gamers to win a trip to an Xbox 360 launch party in the U.S. As for the updated site, it went live at approximately 7:00 AM ET. The tree is now covered with flags from all over Europe instead of fruit, as well as a link to xbox360.com in the lower left-hand corner. A Harry Potter movie-soundtrack-like toy piano is also playing a loop of a short musical progression in the background. Rolling over clickable objects on the tree produces a disappearing fairy-dust-like effect which follows the cursor."

Comments

Same old rule, new twist...

[HaloZero]

Crap in, crap out.

The real question is whether or not this is a refelection on the 360 itself. There's got to be something they're cutting corners on to get it out the door a full year before the PS3; hopefully, it's some mundane feature that won't make it to retail, as opposed to rock-solid functionality.

We shall wait and see.

Did anyone honestly expect different?

[Pluvius]

MS already blew its meta-game wad on Halo 2.

Rob

Re:Did anyone honestly expect different?

[Pluvius]

BTW, it's pretty amusing that the countdown to the contest was on the front page, but the contest itself isn't. Good old Slashdot.

Rob

Re:Did anyone honestly expect different?

[63N1U5]

Even the ilovebees ARG was a little disappointing to some, as it did provide some entertainment value in its story, but in the end, gave little or no information that pertained directly to the game (Halo 2) itself.

Xbox Origen was successful (for Microsoft) due to the sheer amount of publicity it garnered. Even if it did turn out to be lame.

Re:Did anyone honestly expect different?

[RoadDoggFL]

Even the ilovebees ARG

Heh, thought you got mad halfway through your sentence.

The best thing since?

[steveo777]

If you navigate around enough, as I did this morning, you'll find part of the competition is naming what the XBox 360 is only slightly less great than. You are asked three questions about the system.

Get them right and you get to submit your answer to "The X-Box 360 the best thing since..."

Utter rubbish, it even encourages you to get 9 buddies to do it too. I opted to say that is was the best thing since my friend broke his foot. Wonder if I'll win...

Re:The best thing since?

[KDR_11k]

Should've said "Linux".

Re:The best thing since?

[andy4322]

gmail.

Re:The best thing since?

[Anonymous Coward]

Prison Rape.

Re:The best thing since?

[MyDixieWrecked]

I put....

The X-Box 360 the best thing since...

The phalic demon in my pants. Although it has yet to prove itself. the xbox360, not my phalice.

Re:The best thing since?

[harryk]

I entered ...

best thing since...

Asia Carrera personally autographed my copy of her first anal scene, A is for Asia porno!

wonder if I'll win...

Big talking rabbits?

[Simarilius]

So am I the only one that got big talking rabbits that eat the fruit off the tree and get wierd visions? fricken wierd site.

Re:Big talking rabbits?

[Phisbut]

Ok... now I am disturbed...

Who the fuck...

[Anonymous Coward]

...gives a flying fuck?! Jeeze.

Microsoft in "crap stupid gimmick" shocker.

Amazing!

[Yeechang Lee]

A Microsoft offering proves to be a disappointing "toy" made up of "fairy dust."

I'd never have seen it coming!!!1!!1!ELEVEN!!!

Why?

[Seumas]

Being released early or first doesn't mean a thing. Being Microsoft means two things: First, that you could create, design and release a new fully featured and functional product in a few weeks if you really truly put the force of your entire company behind it and second that whether they spent five years or fifty developing it, it would still be microsoft quality - and standard microsoft experience. Take that how you like.

Whatever we like to think of microsoft, they have the resources (funding, connections, employees, engineering) to do just about whatever they want whenever they want. And so far, it's still the best choice for people who like to play games online.

As for people thinking the origen site might be launching a new bit of news about the Halo 3 release... um... no.... why would they?! The Halo 3 release is going to happen in 2006/2007 - whatever week the PS3 comes out.

Re:Why?

[Jerf]

you could create, design and release a new fully featured and functional product in a few weeks if you really truly put the force of your entire company behind it

Suggested reading.

Re:Why?

[Seumas]

The point is, do you think Microsoft just started throwing resources at this project in the last year? Or since the xbox had been out awhile? Or since the Xbox was released? Of course not. They had a complete team working on the 360 since before the original xbox was released.

Two or more generations of a product are often developed simultaneously. The idea that 'oh my god, they are releasing almost a year before Sony - so it must be missing something!" is just silly. That's the same kind of logic behind "we should call it Slackware 9.0 so it can compete with Red Hat's versioning system!"

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever we like to think of microsoft, they have the resources (funding, connections, employees, engineering) to do just about whatever they want whenever they want.

So are you saying they don't want to create solid dependable products?

Um

[JavaRob]

The big secret that everyone's been curious about, the Xbox Origen puzzle...

Everyone - 1?
I wasn't curious.

Sorry, that kind of lead-in always bugs me. The rest of "everyone", you may now return to your disappointed curiosity. And I'll go back to my non-xbox-enriched life.

Re:Um

[vertinox]

To grasp reality without going insane, humans must anthropomorphize concepts that do not exist into imaginary living breathing thinking sentient beings. For example, if someone were to say "Microsoft wants to kill Google with the XBox360 search features!", we would be fine reading that as a headline. However there is no such thing as Microsoft or Google as sentient beings or even a collective. Microsoft could not want to kill as much as Google could not physically be killed like a regular human. There maybe people at Microsoft that want to kill Google employees or want to see the end of Google, but like I said unless they build a 90 foot tall robot called "Microsoft" bent on destroying the all competitors then its just anthropomorphization of concepts. However in order to relate to the majority of readers, headlines will often include concepts that cover you weather you are included or not such as "Everyone loves to hate Microsoft." and "Everyone loves google." and "Americans like to watch reality TV". "Everyone" is actually an anthropomorphized version of the aforementioned concepts and may or may not include the reader. The problem lies mostly in when the reader is included in something they see as not true. Therefore it tends to be for "preaching to the choir" scenarios in which the author assumes that the majority of the readers would agree with the statement and sometimes this implies to the reader that they should agree with majority or otherwise they will not be included with the "Everyone" and somehow consider themselves and outcast. I'm not sure if any of what I said made sense, but if you take a look at how humans use language to make sense of reality then it makes you feel rather awkward and more confused than you started out.

Re:Um

[JavaRob]

To grasp reality without going insane, humans must anthropomorphize concepts that do not exist into...

That's not anthropomorphism, actually -- it's just gross overgeneralization. In the case of the "Google/Microsoft wants this", etc. I think that's metonomy, but again not anthropomorphism. Google is made up of human beings.

But whatever it's called (and if it's even worth talking about), I don't even think it would have been accurate to say "most people". I suspect that even saying "most slashdotters" would also be inaccurate. Maybe "most xbox fans", but I'm not sure....

Remember, this isn't the LAUNCH of the new console. It's a website update that Microsoft has been hyping. If you check the previous story, the submitter wrote that "Something big is about to happen" because there was latin text hidden in the image on the teaser website. Huh. What, did GOD insert that latin text into the advertisement? Or... was it Microsoft's marketing dept, and is this just another ad? This is still very much in the realm of manufacturered hype. Real buzz is what happens when a product is actually released in some way and real people get to try it out -- it doesn't come from marketing companies. Excitement? I don't get it.

I have a feeling that even most xbox fans don't get it either, if they're paying attention at all.

Wow, now I've wasted way too much time talking about this, huh?

I like it!

[Otter]

It seems like a nicely designed, fun little site to me, and a decent contest. I'm hardly crushingly disappointed, but then I don't get what you dweebs expected they were going to offer -- Gabrielle Union was going to come to your parents' basement and play Halo with you?

Geez, if Google was going to have a game development contest, with a $10k prize and all entries becoming their property, we'd be hearing how it's the greatestest thing EVAR!

Re:I like it!

[Saige]

Microsoft didn't make a big deal out of it - the media did, especially Xbox-oriented gaming sites. They hyped it all up, so if it's a disappointment, blame the ones that did the hype.

I giggled.

[Anonymous Coward]

Something big is about to happen, huh?

*swat*

Bad dog! No dramatic climax for you!

NOT a toy piano

[Gulthek]

A celeste or celesta (used in the HP theme) is most certainly not a "toy piano." Listen to the "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" by Tchaikovsky.

I found the easter egg!

[porcupine8]

If you triple-click on the left rabbit hole, a paper clip comes up and asks, "It looks like you want to watch an idiotic Flash commercial. Would you like me to help you with that?"

Thanks SlashFilter!

[mrsbrisby]

This is a welcome change: being given a description of what I might find at the target site so I don't actually have to look at it myself.

Load of fuss about nothing...

[Magnakai]

Quite honestly - it's a site dedicated to the XBox 360. What did you think was going to happen?

Re:Load of fuss about nothing...

[TheGuano]

You thought that a Microsoft XBox site would have Eurotrees, multi-lingual rabbits, and hallucinogenic fruit? Man, and I thought the GTA debate was the big thing in consoles.

Re:Load of fuss about nothing...

[Magnakai]

I'm just waiting for the Google Maps hack.

WTF?

[telstar]

I couldn't get past the drop-down where it asked what country I was from and it didn't list the USA. WTF?

Re:WTF?

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"The Origen Xbox 360 site has counted down, and it appears to be promoting a contest for European gamers to win a trip to an Xbox 360 launch party"

Are you a European gamer??

Directly from the summary, THE SUMMARY!!!

Darwin, where are you?

Re:WTF?

[telstar]

Actually, yes ... yes, I am.

Re:WTF?

[TheGuano]

It seems like the site is bugging out. The links within the flash animation are intermittently broken for me too. It's hard to tell if the site is just slashdotted or what, since it does transfer in spurts of 200-300KB/s.

Re:WTF?

[The Evil Couch]

they probably have a limit on the number of simultaneous connections, and it's been exceeded. they thought far enough ahead to be sure that each connection has enough bandwidth to do its work, but there aren't enough connections to go around, so everyone waits their turn to get their burst of traffic. kind of like token rings. blargh.

in short, yeah, it sounds like they're slashdotted.

Re:WTF?

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

Then why are you looking for USA in the list of countries?

Re:WTF?

[Jarlsberg]

Wow, that's elitist. Not everything centers around the US, you know. ;)

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he's a Euro gamer that lives in the states.

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it does. Just rotate the globe so you are looking right down on Nebraska.

Look at us we're so special.

[kinglink]

YAWN! just like that other game where you had to guess passwords and stuff, it's another promotional bullshit site.

And let's dick over all American fans even though the site is a .com we'll make sure it's Europe only...

Seriously screw the Xbox 360 if this is they type of crap they do. They are trying to get a global audience, good, but it feels like America is about to get shafted by americans (as if Microsoft hasn't shafted Americans before?)

Anyone else getting sick of these promotions that the Xbox team has put together to tease and just annoy us just so everyone will talk about the xbox 360? Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[thebdj]

Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.

Then the PS2 must really suck because honestly I would get tired of seeing those commercials for it back in the day. And do not call PS3 a good system until you see it. It is nearly 6 mo. to a year (if not more) from launch, so of course they aren't ad pumping it yet. XBox 360 is suppose to be out for holiday '05 so they want to make sure every little get convinces their stupid parents to buy them one.

The other systems you listed are a bit old to compare to the modern systems. You see back then gaming was still considered a 'niche' market. It wasn't until PSX, and more so PS2 and Xbox, came along that gaming started turning "mainstream." Even some people in the know on the gaming world will probably tell you that Nintendo could quite possibly be the only one shooting for the niche anymore. God I am starting to sound like one of those people who complain about the state of the gaming world...

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, yeah. I was pissed that the site doesn't revolve around me and my life, too. I mean, everyone knows that America is the center of the universe. I am so going to get my shotgun and then I'll walk over to that Europe place and blast 'em good.

Goodness gracious, get (a) some perspective and (b) therapy for your well-developed narcissim

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Example: Nintendo Revolution. Yes, the advertise and show-off, as an company would, but they don't bombard us with a rediculous campaign filled with teasers and viral marketing, etc. They just advertise aspects of the product as details are released, and leave it at that. Those aspects either speak for themselves or they don't.

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[HarvardAce]

Yes, the advertise and show-off, as an company would, but they don't bombard us with a rediculous campaign filled with teasers and viral marketing, etc. They just advertise aspects of the product as details are released, and leave it at that. Those aspects either speak for themselves or they don't.

And Nintendo's market share keeps declining. Whether the two are related is open to debate, but you can't argue with the success that the ilovebees marketing campaign had. As long as these types of marketing are working, they're going to stick with it. Advertisers/marketers are always quick to jump on a new idea, but they're even quicker to discard one that doesn't work.

The fact that you don't like this kind of marketing (I'm not a huge fan either) is understandable, but in the end it's all dollars and cents. For every person who decides not to buy an XBox 360 because of this campaign, there are probably many more who will.

Also, with over 8.6 billion (yes billion) dollars spent on marketing and sales in the 2005 fiscal year alone, you can bet that Microsoft has at least one XBox 360 ad campaign that you will like.

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[kinglink]

Here's a hint. You don't release a site and have all the americans buzzing about it and then have it all be a EU based site. We know the EU and JPN are the target markets for Xbox 360, they don't need to really sell it here.

It's not Ecocentric, it's the fact that why not make it a global contest or a EU and USA contest, rather then just EU? I mean they basically say "We'll fly a European to America for the launch event". Last I checked the Internet was a global enviroment, not a EU only based one or a USA based one. If you want to make something exclusive meantion it somewhere before you have viewers fill out 3 forms giving info (in this case e-mail)

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[kinglink]

Actually with the 5 billion they spent on the Xbox last 4 years of which they made a net profit off of just the system and games(not counting the marketing if I remember right) of ... oh wait it was a net loss. (Actually look at the numbers, it was)

I don't see a market campaign I liked from most companies, give us a commerical we can kick back and watch it that's a different situation, show a game and what not that's a consumable. Last I checked when I watched football, the commercials during the football game are quite entertaining.

What I wouldn't like is hearing about the commerical about how amazing it is and wonderful and how it will be out in 10 hours, then learning it's out, then looking at it, and finding out it's in Japanese and tells the story of the Peach boy (Momotaro?) Granted I would enjoy it but most people would be like "what the fuck"... (Granted this is in english but NOT for americans so why are we hearing about it?)

The latter is what Microsoft is hoping for. and that type of Marketing (which Microsoft does backflips for) never will appeal to me, I don't remember many Xbox game's adds that really interested me, though the Ps2 games have made me look up from what ever I'm doing.

Want to make me happy and buy your games? take that 5 Billion (8.4 for Xbox 360), cut the price of the system to 100 bucks or give me the system, guess what in that case I would be buying 3-5 games a year. Rather than leaving me free to ridicule the ads that you are paying the billions for. (no I don't think they would do it but it would help them sell more if they infused their system's budget with that money rather than trying to make us pay money for their system with the expensive ads)

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[Jarlsberg]

And let's dick over all American fans even though the site is a .com we'll make sure it's Europe only...

FYI, .com does not equal US, and furthermore, there is no .eu domain (yet).

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it does.

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[nytmare]

Atari 2600 was most certainly mainstream and there have been mainstream consoles ever since.

Re:Look at us we're so special.

[HarvardAce]

rather than trying to make us pay money for their system with the expensive ads

Except that the ads such as this one and the ilovebees campaign cost next to nothing -- there are no costly TV spots to purchase, no banners to buy on Slashdot -- all they have to pay for is the team that designed the website, the domain name, and then the bandwidth costs. Word of mouth is one of the best marketing strategies, and it is VERY cost effective! They even got a free front-page post on Slashdot to spread the word.

Only those that don't think before they speak

[marcus]

Or in this case write.

There are two extremes, absolutes if you will, "everyone" and "no one". Very, very rarely does either apply in reality. Only by repeated application of hyperbole does this kind of expression come to be tolerated when it is almost always simply not true.

With very little effort a wide range of other possibilities come to mind. Try "many", "some", "most", "a majority of". All of these not only relieve a few of us from "preaching" but are actually closer to the facts of the situation. There is simply no reason to choose the wrong and in this case simply inflammatory words unless you are flamebaiting/trolling.

Re:Only those that don't think before they speak

[Delphiki]

There is also no reason to correct something which is universally understood to be incorrect, and for which the correct meaning is universally understood, unless you're a symantics nazi. Since being a symantics nazi adds absolutely nothing to the conversation, and in most cases, this one included, does not educate any person, in any way, about any topic, and draws only negative responses, it is no better than flamebaiting/trolling.

No, just no.

[Carbon Copied]

A gimmicky site with aload of self-appreciating bullshit (XBOX 360 and wildest gaming dreams are mentioned in the same breathe) won't stop the 360 from being shite. What we can look foward to in the XBOX 360: Better Graphics. Halo 3*. A shit load of derivitive clones/sequels. * = Halo 3 is only something to look foward to if you are a douche. This can be said for all consoles but microsoft have shown even less drive to take risks than Sony and Nintendo. I own 9 XBOX games, only one of them is not available on other consoles. That 1 is Halo, which i did manage to complete in the vain hope that i would come across something new or interesting, and that somehow the cripplingly bad selection of weapons and combat dynamic would improve later on. 360 isnt going to be that bad compared to past consoles, but its the WE'RE GOING TO CHANGE THE VERY FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME! shit i have a problem with.

Re:No, just no.

[Nairb Savage]

Wow, aren't you Mr. Positive? I guess I'm a douche.

Bunnies!!! Alcohol!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone loves bunnies and alcohol (fermented fruit)! Now we can forgive all that mean stuff Microsoft has done in the past.

halo2 comp but where is halo3 ?

[rednuhter]

note: I posted this ont he original article but it got posted against some random post not root.
  try
https://www.origenxbox360.com/Halo2/default.aspx?c ountry=en-gb
but I am not going to submit anything.
you on the other hand ...