Year Zero (game)
Year Zero is an alternate reality game (ARG) by American studio 42 Entertainment based on the Nine Inch Nails concept album of the same name.[1] Although the album was released on April 16, 2007, in Europe, and the following day worldwide,[2] the game had been underway since roughly February 12, 2007, and was expected to continue for approximately eighteen months.[3]
Year Zero
The game was created by 42 Entertainment, the same group responsible for the Halo 2 promotional alternative reality game I Love Bees.[4][5] Frontman Trent Reznor called the game "a new entertainment form".[4] In response to criticism[6] regarding the promotion of the album, Reznor stated:
Media attention[edit]
The concept behind the Year Zero alternate reality game, as well as avid fan participation in the game, has caught the attention of the media numerous times; USA Today and Rolling Stone have cited fan site The NIN Hotline, forum Echoing the Sound, fan club The Spiral, and NinWiki as sources for new discoveries.[10][11]
Unrealized television project[edit]
In March 2007 Kerrang! Radio reported that Reznor was "in talks" for a potential film adaptation of the concept album.[1] He had earlier noted Year Zero as "part of a bigger picture of a number of things I'm working on. Essentially, I wrote the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist."[8] Reznor has commented that he is currently more interested in a television project than a film project. He has stated that he has a producer and has met with writers.[12] On August 10, 2007, Reznor announced that they would soon be taking the concept to television networks in an attempt to secure a deal. "We're about to pitch it to the network, so we're a couple of weeks away from meeting all of the main people, and we'll see what happens."[13]
Progress stalled, reportedly because of the 2007–2008 Writer's Guild strike, though Reznor said the project was "still churning along" as of April 2008.[14] He clarified in November 2012 that the project was "currently in a holding state" as he and Rob Sheridan had been unable to "find the right match with a writer".[15] In 2017, during an interview promoting new Nine Inch Nails EP Add Violence, Reznor said that he had put together a "world bible" to assist with a potential adaptation by HBO and BBC America, but said: "They got so far as hiring a writer for it, but then it fell to shit because we never had the right writer. I should have just done it [myself]."[16]
Critical reception[edit]
Many reviewers of the Year Zero album also commented on the accompanying game. Ann Powers of The Los Angeles Times praised the album and game concept as "a total marriage of the pop and gamer aesthetics that unlocks the rusty cages of the music industry and solves some key problems facing rock music as its cultural dominance dissolves into dust."[17]
In 2008, 42 Entertainment won two Webby Awards for their work on the Year Zero game, under the categories of "Integrated Campaigns" and "Other Advertising: Branded Content".[18][19] 42 Entertainment was also awarded three medals in The One Show's entertainment award ceremony, including a gold medal in the "online gaming" category, a silver in the "music" category, and a merit award in the "online branded entertainment" category.[20]