Xbox Live documentary digs up the story of Atari's E.T. flop

A new series will tell the story of Atari's reaction to the poor reception of the flop videogame E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

A new series will tell the story of Atari's reaction to the poor reception of the flop videogame E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. (GETTY IMAGES)

A documentary focusing on a game many consider to be the worst ever made is to debut on Microsoft's consoles in the new year.

A new series will tell the story of Atari's reaction to the poor reception of the flop videogame E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Charting the rise and fall of the company in its early days, it will be shown on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on behalf of Xbox Entertainment Studios, which has also commissioned a Halo TV series.

The E.T. game has become legendary, leading to another film production company in Canada to search for the millions of copies that were said to be buried in a landfill site in Alamorgordo, New Mexico in September 1983.

Of the five millions copies of the game made for the Atari 2600 console, only 1.5 million were sold as word spread about the poor gameplay.

The game lost Atari a fortune and it was blamed for playing a part in the 1982 videogame crash.

The new documentary series has been produced by Simon and Jonathan Chinn's Lightbox company and is directed by writer Zak Penn.

Nancy Tellem, president of Xbox Entertainment Studios, said: "Jonathan and Simon Chinn are the perfect team to spearhead this series for Xbox. They are consummate story tellers and they plan to match their creative sensibility with the best talent in the industry.

"These stories will expose how the digital revolution created a global democracy of information, entertainment and commerce, and how it impacts our lives every day.”