Special Edition Gears Of War 2 themed Zune on the way [Update]

You know, the world just can’t get enough dead bodies as shields. Microsoft knows this. To help satiate your dead bodies as shields desires, they’ve taken a bunch of 120 gig Zunes and done’m up with Gears of War 2 styling, not unlike the Halo 3 Zunes of yesteryear.

They’ve laser blasted the game’s iconic “Crimson Omen” into the back of each Zune, stuffed it full with 244 pieces of GOW2 media (the soundtrack, concept art, behind-the-scenes footage, and a bunch of other stuff that’ll hit BitTorrent about 18 seconds after these start shipping), and wrapped it up in surprisingly sightly box. Apparently Marcus Fenix deserves the whole face of the box to himself, while Cole Train gets shoved off to the side panel. Doesn’t Microsoft know that they can’t stop the Train?

Amazon.com and Walmart.com will begin taking pre-orders at 3 AM PT on 10/1, which is just about 4 hours from now. The actual Zunes will be on the delivery trucks come November 7th – the same day as the game’s release for $280.

Update: Press release after the jump.

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Corp. today
announced that Zune, the company’s end-to-end music and entertainment
service, will introduce the Zune “Gears of War(R) 2″ Special Edition 120GB
device with pre-orders going live today in the U.S. at Amazon.com and
Walmart.com. The special edition devices will also be available online at
Amazon.ca, BestBuy.ca, FutureShop.ca and TheSource.ca in Canada, for an
estimated retail price of $279.99(1) (U.S./CDN) and will begin shipping to
customers starting Nov. 7.

In celebration of the sequel to one of the best-selling Xbox franchises
of all time, Xbox and Epic Games Inc. have collaborated with Zune to create
this unique portable media player. The Zune “Gears of War 2″ Special
Edition is based on the new Zune 120GB device and features a laser-etched
Crimson Omen on the new gloss black enclosure, collectible “Gears of War”
packaging, and 244 pieces of “Gears of War” media including the original
game soundtrack, behind- the-scenes videos, game trailers and concept art
galleries.

“This special edition Zune is a great way for ‘Gears of War’ fans to
carry around all their music and videos while sharing their enthusiasm for
the game,” said Michael Capps, president of Epic Games.

“Gears of War 2″ is developed by Epic Games exclusively for the Xbox
360 video game and entertainment system, and will be available worldwide on
Nov. 7. “Gears of War 2″ is the highly anticipated sequel to one of the
most popular Xbox games in history, and is poised to be the biggest
entertainment phenomenon of the 2008 holiday season.

“Our history of creating special edition Zune devices for our customers
helps them stand out from the masses,” said Chris Stephenson, general
manager of Global Marketing for Zune at Microsoft. “With the huge success
of ‘Gears of War’ and the high anticipation for the sequel, the special
edition Zune is a must-have for fans of the game.”

More information on Zune and related images is available at
http://www.zune.net/press. The latest information about “Gears of War 2″
and its Nov. 7 launch is available at http://www.gearsofwar.com.

U.S. pre-orders can be placed at these Web sites:

* Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GNBJ2I
* Walmart, http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10660517

About Zune

Zune is Microsoft’s music and entertainment brand that provides an
integrated digital entertainment experience. The Zune platform includes a
line of portable digital media players, the Zune Marketplace online store,
and the Zune Social online music community, created to help people discover
music. Zune is part of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division and
supports the company’s software-based services vision to help drive
innovation in the digital entertainment space. More information can be
found online at http://www.zune.net/en-us/press.