Microsoft Successfully Excavates E.T. From Mexican Landfill

Legend has it that Atari's E.T. game was so terrible; the company had to literally burry all copies in a giant landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

E.T. for Atari 2600 has been labeled by some as the worst game in history. Atari produced millions of E.T. cartridges in 1983. Those cartridges were largely unsold or returned, leaving the company with no option but to bury them. The game's catastrophic failure is often cited as the main reason behind Atari's massive financial losses during 1983 and 1984. It was also a major contributor to the video game industry crash of 1983.

Atari denied burying the cartridges, leading a lot of people to believe that it was an urban myth. But then Fuel Entertainment and Microsoft purchased the excavation rights to the Alamogordo landfill and dug it publicly yesterday.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the excavation team found plenty of E.T. cartridges in relatively good condition. The team also exhumed cartridges of several other Atari 1980s' failed games.

More info about the dig and its findings is part of an upcoming documentary that will be released exclusively on Xbox One by the newly formed Xbox Entertainment Studios.