NEWS - Monday, November 21, 2005
Zero Hour Event Kicks Off At Site 9
The ultimate gamer party continues into the night with no sign of slowing down. Gamers are still crowding the hi-def game stations, carting around the beanbags they seem to have adopted as they move from game to game. There’s a Quake 4 tournament underway, Cliffy B demos Gears of War on the big screen, and the PMS Clan meets with J Allard. J tells the girls, “We wanted to do something for you guys in the gaming community—not for the industry. This wasn’t about return on investment or a spreadsheet. We wanted to throw a party for the community.” Earlier today, Zero Hour winners made a pilgrimage to Site 9, an airplane hangar in the Mojave Desert, from as near as the next town, and as far away as London and Australia, to attend the launch party Xbox threw for the gaming community. The masses began gathering at noon, and invitees talked games and the next generation console as they waited in the desert sun. As the sun set the temperature dropped and a chill wind swept across the desert, the sound of drums filled the pavilion outside the hangar. Nine Taiko drummers dressed in white pounded out a primal beat that informed the crowd know that the time had come; Zero Hour had arrived. The drummers crashed to a halt and the crowd roared, breaking into applause as Xbox Vice President J Allard and Peter Moore, Vice President of Marketing and Games, appeared on a scaffold to the left of the huge hangar doors. “I’m Peter Moore and as you all know, this is the infamous J Allard.” The man also known as HiroProtagonist of the 2300+ gamerscore said “Who here is ready for the Xbox 360?” The crowd cheered. “This is the culmination of three years of work by thousands of people,” Peter said. “Welcome to Xbox 360!” The hangar doors slowly parted, revealing a giant banner of the Xbox 360 console and a vast gamers' paradise within. The gamers streamed in, eager to get their hands on the Xbox 360. As we move closer to midnight November 22, when the Xbox 360 goes on sale all over North America, the biggest gamer party of all time keeps rocking into the night.Source: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/zerohour/default.htm