Dive Brief:

• Environmental regulators in New Mexico are preventing two entertainment companies from excavating a video game at a landfill in Alamogordo.
• The landfill is rumored to have buried, somewhere within its layers of trash, what some in the gaming world consider a treasure: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" game cartridges. Game maker Atari reportedly discarded the cartridges at the site in the 1980s when the game proved a financial loss.
• Commissioners in the town approved the search in June, but state environmental officials had the final say of the waste excavation plan, which was rejected on February 27. New Mexico Environment Department spokesman Jim Winchester said an approved waste excavation plan, or WEP, is needed before excavation can resume. 

Dive Insight:

The two companies, Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive, were planning on shooting and releasing a documentary featuring the search for the game at the landfill, which has been closed since the 1980s.