Even with 1.5 million copies sold, the sales figures came nowhere near Atari's expectations, as it had ordered production of five million copies, with many of the sold games being returned to Atari for refunds by dissatisfied consumers. It had become an urban legend that Atari had buried the unsold cartridges of "E.T." and other games in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, which was confirmed in 2014 when the site was allowed to be excavated, with former Atari personnel affirming they had dumped about 800,000 cartridges, including "E.T." and other poorly-selling (and best-selling) games. The financial figures and business tactics surrounding this product are emblematic of the video game crash of 1983 and contributed to Atari's bankruptcy. Atari paid $25 million for the license to produce the game, which further contributed to a debt of $536 million (equivalent to $ billion today). The company was divided and sold in 1984.