Hex136

Microsoft has seriously waaay too much money to waste. They have started a new viral marketing campaign for the Xbox360. Starting from a few days ago, the symbol depicted on this site has started appearing in various places around USA, including a crop circle in Oklahoma (I shit you not), a sand circle on the beaches of San Francisco and on trucks all over the nation. MTV broadcasts are “interrupted” for this symbol, people are holding signboards on the streets of New York with this symbol and it is appearing in football matches. The tagline “The Beginning is Nigh” is also appearing on various signboards in cinemas, right under the “Now Playing” section.

So what does this mythical symbol mean? Well, first of all “138” is hex for “360”, which automatically makes the reference clear to any gamer worth his NaCL. The outer ring of the symbol also resembles the Ring of Light(tm) that is a core theme in the asthetic designs of the 360.

So, on to the website itself. There’s a countdown timer that is currently two days away from reaching zero. The phrase “HEX ALERT: E-SEER PREFERS YETIS!” can be seen. It turns out to be an anagram for “Free Prerelease Three-Sixty”. The newspaper depicted on the site is called “Lutz” and a hop to lutz.com produces the message “This is not the website you’re looking for. Move along.”

There’s also a blogspot account for hex136 with some mythical messages. It’s quite nonsensical, but the line “Circles, Circles. Penta, penta. The V rose to meet the I.” is a clear indiction that this is related to the symbol. (V+I = VI = six) The dates of both blog entries are “November 22”, which is the launch date of Xbox360.

So… what will it be?
Will this turn out to be as lame as OrigenXbox360.com, which after months of mysterious bunny and tree pictures turned out to be a stupid Xbox competition for Europe.
Or is Microsoft going to announce something groundbreaking in two days time?

Judging by “Free Prerelease Three-Sixty” and “reward them with a physical manifestation of the power of Hex 136”, I’m betting on a competiton that’s going to give out free Xbox360s before the official launch date.