Like many, I have been anxiously waiting the release of Electronic Arts Majestic. What I didnt realize is Microsoft had quietly released a similiar game, and the real kicker is it is Free! What, you didnt know about it either? Well, read on curious adventurer…. The Scoop: A team of 50 programmers from Microsoft got together with DreamWorks SKG for Steven Spielbergs new movie, A.I., and quietly started building a similiar game environment.


A few people noticed that certain letters on the A.I. movie posters were highlighted or marked. A quick rearranging of those words spelled out “Jeanine was the key” and “Evan Chan was murdered.” Using some pointed web browses, a few movie fans befan to unravel a web-based “game” that did everything Majestic plans to do, and for Free!

Now, thousands of web pages have been linked to this interactive A.I. mystery, code-named “The Beast”, and thousands of people are playing it. A group of players even formed Cloudmakers.org, an online club devoted to solving the mystery. Since they first started around March of this year, theyve solved almost all of the 68 puzzles theyve foundand have grown to 5,000 members.


This story is from the September 2001 Issue of PC Gamer.


Atomms Thoughts: ::Insert strange laugh from the kid on The Simpsons here:: HA HA!

I think this is a case of who do you hate more? Electronic Arts for all of the layoffs and projects they have pulled lately or Microsoft because of their ability to do just about anything they want. Personally, I am glad to see EA get screwed. I think it could not have happened to a more deserving company. I wonder how many people will be willing to pay for Majestic while they can play Microsofts game for free? Only time will tell…..