They rumor smash the whole scenario, from bullshit quotes from former execs to poor Swedish sources to theories that the site is the work of a prankster. There's not much in the way of hard evidence, but we genuinely hope that no one sinks their money into such a poorly considered venture.

Gizmondo Is Dead, Dead, Dead. DEAD and Not Coming Back [Gizmodo]

It's a sign! From the heavens! Or not. Not sure if this is a hoax, but a poster over at Something Awful claims that his window is warped in such a way that it produces the above symbol. Pretty amazing, huh? If this is true (and we hope it is), someone might want to reinforce that fence so it doesn't overheat and catch fire. Brian Ashcraft

Xbox Sign [Something Awful via Ozymandias]

Being the type of site never to rely on rumors for news, I made sure to refrain from posting about the alleged Gears of War downloadable content that was rumored to be coming out on 12/24. The rumors were started by what many believed to be an Epic Games sponsored viral marketing site, theabovedomain.com, which has now been removed.

As it turns out, mt reticence was rewarded with the news that it was all a big hoax. The deception was brought to light by none other than Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games with his comments on the official Gears of War forums.

Originally Posted by Mark Rein Folks,

This is a hoax.

We've already stated that we are working on releasing an update soon but we don't know the exact date of the release yet because it has not passed certification yet.

I wish the fan sites and online media would check with me first before they post stuff like this. Pretty much all of them have at least my email address (if not my phone number) and I check mail many, many times throughout the day.

Thankfully, we here at Kotaku didn't fall in to that terrible Re-Emergence Day hole. Flynn De Marco

Re-Emergence Day Hoax Revealed [Epic Games Forums]
[via: Evil Avatar]

Engadget reports that all traces of the Phantom Game Console have been erased from the Infinium Labs website, breaking the hearts of the two people who actually believed the thing was genuine hardware.

Oh, Phantom. How many hours of derisive giggling have you selflessly given us (hey check out my awesome split infinitive)? And now you're gone. Dead and gone forever, leaving us with a far less entertaining business model to lambast.

Recently renamed Phantom Entertainment (probably to shed the constant vaporware references that plagued its former moniker), the company is now focused on marketing its wireless gaming Lapboard and so-called Phantom Game Service, which is the "first end-to-end on-demand game service delivering games to your living room" (guess they never heard of GameTap) — that is, if you happen to have an XP-powered PC situated in that particular room.

See? Just not as hilarious. I weep for the good old days, when driving by a LAN party and shouting "PHANTOM" out the window would result in Red Bull-geysering hilarity. Thanks, Nathaniel. Eliza Gauger

more here [Engadget]

So what is it? In brief, Eon8 is a website. Eon8.com, .net, .org all show the same thing (or they would, if I could access them right now). It's spooky in that minimalist, countdown-to-doom sort of way, and in fact includes a timer counting down to...what? A Digg commentor said it was launching a new brand of gum, and he's probably right.

There's also a world map with menacing red dots thrown willy-nilly all over it, much like the delicate play of acne eruptions graces the aquiline face of Florian's Lesser Wife.

More hooplah and folderol after yon jump, knave. UPDATE also after jump!

Popular theories include: viral marketing meme for a video game or something related; flat-out hoax; scientologists (spawned by references to "auditing" and "Theta9"); nuclear strike; cyberterrorism; and the end of the world, respectively.

We find out what all this means in a few hours. Or maybe we get another counter, ilovebees-style.

Until then, I attempted to make contact with an AIM address that may or may not have anything to do with the website. When people are so accursedly bored that they will actually pretend to be Jhonen Vasquez on their GreatestJournal, I am quick to dismiss anyone claiming to be anyone with any affiliation. As far as I'm concerned, you could all be brains in buckets on Alpha Centauri.

The account is Eon8Countdown, and he answered every query with spy-movie villain fluffery such as "Everything will be ready in time." I went at him as a Kotakuite and his response was that he didn't like bloggers. But I imagine he would be evasive no matter who he was talking to. Give him a shot, the account is public as of posting. E-mail anything interesting to me, or the tips line.

As usual, the response to the site is far more entertaining than the site itself, or anything it could possibly be advertising. Thanks for the tip, Ryan! ELIZA GAUGER

UPDATE!!! Reader Nick just wrote in with a chatlog in which the AIM account finally gets fed up and admits to being a fake. When asked point-blank, for the second time, whether he was or was not associated with Eon8, AIm user Eon8Countdown bails: "Not. Made this yesterday when I was teh bored."

So there you have it. Teh boredom assaults us all. Still, this dude's schtick is a little better than pretending to be Jhonen Vasquez.

Eon8Countdown then IMed me seperately: "[..] thanks to your article (I imagine) a load more people IMed me." I told him I sent my flying monkeys to make him break under the strain. He replied, "I saw. I guess you can say it worked. When I was talking to you I was carefully regulating myself. Making sure I didn't do anything stupid, but meh, now, I was sorta off it. So, instead of screwing myself over on accident, I just IMed everyone with: [20:23] Eon8Countdown: Alright. Yawn. I'm not connected to Eon8. Faretheewell!"

End of update. One mystery solved, thanks to the Kotaku Constabulary and their faithful Scouts! You had a good run, Eon8Countdown.

Here's some nice gummy linkage:

Eon8.com (it's a little shaky right now due to Digg Effect)

YTMND post linking the game Uplink to the Eon8 thing

Collected Eon8 Stuff on Digg

Edge of Nowhere thread

Unfiction Thread (Unfiction is all about this sort of alternate-reality stuff)

PHASE 8 - The Waxing Quintile (Only link to something else called Eon8 that I could find.)