What is Xbox Planning in New Zealand?

| | , ,

What We Know

On the 19th of October, the Xbox ANZ Twitter account posted a short video of water with a set of coordinates in the foreground. If you enter these coordinates into Google Maps, it will take you to Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand. More specifically, it takes you to the Main Town Pier in Queenstown.

This post was followed up with another short video posted to their Twitter account on the 21st of October. This one is clearly showing a view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding landscape, confirming that something is being planned there. The video also presents a date and time, “9th November 2020 11 PM NZDT”. So now we have a date for when this mystery will be revealed.

However, what’s most interesting is the inclusion of the “Power Your Dreams” phrase, which has been used as the tagline for the upcoming Xbox Series X/S, and the inclusion of the Series X/S logo. The 9th of November is also the day before the official launch of the Series X/S. But what does this all mean?

Is This the Launch Event for the Series X/S?

It seems like this is Microsoft’s way of announcing where the launch event of the Series X/S will take place. New Zealand is one of the few countries that has not been very affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic. This means that, unlike the US or Australia, New Zealand has very few cases and restrictions, and therefore it’s a lot safer to hold a public event with a large crowd.

But this seems too simple. Xbox seems to be goading people into guessing what they’ve got planned. The Xbox ANZ Twitter account has been responding to almost every comment on their tweets that have made a guess. And if they wanted to just hold a big event in New Zealand, they would have gone with a city that has a much larger population, like Wellington or Christchurch.

Time to Pull Out the Old Tinfoil Hat

But it’s time for some wild guesses and it seems like Lake Wakatipu is the key here.

The lake was featured as the backdrop for many scenes in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And it is well known that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was filmed in New Zealand because of its amazing landscape. Potentially, Xbox has something planned related to the new game Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which is set to come out in 2021.

But I have an even crazier theory. According to Wikipedia, Lake Wakatipu is known to experience periodic flooding. In fact, this caused $50 million in damages to the Queenstown CBD in 1995. So perhaps, Xbox is trying to clue us into another kind of flood that is coming. My crazy tinfoil hat theory is that Microsoft will be hosting an event for Halo Infinite. At this event, they will announce the official release date, and that the Flood will be returning.

Xbox-mystery-event-halo-infinite

Am I connecting elements that have no significance? Almost definitely. But, you can’t deny that it’s an exciting thought.

What do you guys think Microsoft has planned?

Check out more gaming news here

Dan Waterman

3 thoughts on “What is Xbox Planning in New Zealand?”

  1. Hmm here’s another stretch the location is quite a lovely sight especially from the air what if this is a teaser for an in game reveal in Microsoft flight simulator announcing it will be a launch day title ??

    Reply
    • That would make sense. Flight simulator would be the perfect game to really show off what their new consoles can do.
      And your theory isn’t quite as crazy as my Flood theory

      Reply
  2. I was watching Alanah Pearce’s video last night and she mentioned how the Xbox one launch in Sydney saw masterchief deliver the Xbox one to a pier at luna Park in the harbour on a speedboat ? So wonder if it will be something like that an Icon a5 water landing delivering an Xbox Series X ??? Hmmmm

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.