Having witnessed first hand the success of Sony's alternative advertising for the Playstation 2 console, Microsoft appears to be going down a similar route for its upcoming XBox 2. The mystery of ourcolony.net and the ant-invasion is slowly unraveling before our eyes and today's Microsoft/MTV joint announcement regarding the on air unveiling of the new console seems to have sealed MS involvement on the website.
The story begins during this year's GDC; while Microsoft's J. Allard was demonstrating the new XBox Live service, he chose to use his own gamer profile as an example and a picture of him came up on screen wearing a t-shirt featuring the ant logo which has now become an ourcolony.net trademark.
Microsoft's association with 4orty2wo Entertainment is another clue to ourcolony.net origins as the company, established by a couple of former MS employees, specializes in alternative ad campaigns. They are the people behind last year's Halo 2, ilovebees.com campaign which had fans racing from payphone to payphone trying to get early hints on the Halo 2 story.
This time the ourcolony.net website seems more like a competition setup rather than just a teaser ad campaign or the aptly named ARG (alternate reality game) as 4orty 2wo prefers to call it. The website is accessible only if you manage to figure out the password from the rather odd introductory message. For those of you still struggling with that password, one rather odd clue sent in by one of our readers, is that it is the first word of a feature on UK BBC Television which brought the theatre to the small screen and which later became the title of a song by The Cure. If you actually found that clue helpful then accessing ourcolony.net is not your only problem.
The administrators of the ourcolony.net website have spread fliers and stickers displaying the ant and the word 'Colony' all over the U.S.
The strongest link between Microsoft and the ourcolony effort is the countdown present on the website. Following the MTV/MS announcement about the first appearance of the new XBox on May 12th on the music channel, it became obvious that the countdown on the ourcolony website matches that time-frame. Elijah Wood and The Killers will host a half-hour global premiere for the new console, with a performance from The Killers, airing exclusively on MTV channels around the world May 12 and 13. The global broadcast will premiere Thursday, May 12, at 9:30 p.m. EDT in North America and on Friday, May 13 in other regions around the globe (local air times below). The premiere also promises in-game footage from next-generation games so the entire gaming community is getting excited about it.
MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed - Air Times
North America: Thursday, May 12, at 9:30 p.m. (21:30)
