Halo 3 goes down in US entertainment history
You can almost hear champagne corks popping at Microsoft and Bungie’s offices, as not only has Halo 3 well surpassed the estimated $155 million in US first day sales, but has also beat the blockbuster movie hit Spider-man 3 and the best-selling novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Exceeding Microsoft’s expectations, the concluding chapter to the Halo trilogy has raked in a whopping $170 million in day one sales in the US alone which makes Halo 3 “the biggest entertainment launch in history”. When you take into account that the game is available in 3 different SKUs, starting at $59.99, and its record-setting 1.7 million pre-orders in the US only, it’s anything but surprising to see Halo 3 outperform the previous record holders. However, as Microsoft’s marketing director Chris Di Cesare once said, “it’s big business any way you cut it”.
Shane Kim, corporate VP of Microsoft, responded to the great success:
Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon. Not only is Halo 3 setting sales records, it’s also redefining entertainment.
Within the first 20 hours alone, we’ve seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play Halo 3 – that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history.
With the original Halo having sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and Halo 2 more than 6.5 millions units, do you think Halo 3 has what it takes to reach the 10 million mark?
Yeehaw!
Halo 3 “the biggest entertainment launch in history”. Awesome
Oli x
It’s Hallows, Deathly Hallows…
And well done Halo 3, got a 10 in Edge too. Really well deserved. Brillaint game.
lol thanks for spotting it! It’s funny how I wrote “Hollows” instead of “Hallows” despite being a big Harry Potter fan
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Edge gave it a 10? I am shocked!! Their reviews are usually garbage and well below the metacritic average for most titles.
way to go bungie you rip a$$ as for ms u sux fuckers couldnt give me my box back 4 Halo3 launch you guy are so cruel very cruel
Halo 3 is amazing. I love it.
This does not surprise me one bit.
I live in a rather small city of about 125K pop. When the new Harry Potter when on sale, only one store had a midnight opening and only served about 5 waiting fans. In contrast, there where 6 stores open for the Halo 3 launch and the EBGames where I was had about 75-100 fans gathered for the launch and another 50 or so across the street at a competing store. This situation was mirrored in several parts of the city.
What was interesting was that most of these fans where new to the series. Only a hand full of us played the first two titles of the series.
Whats that in £££POUNDS££££
Yes i know its a lot
At the current exchange rate, 1 GBP is pretty much 2 USD, so double that :).
*Cough.*
Divide it in half.
well done. you have got to keep in mind though that a game sells for £50 while a cinema ticket costs £5 and a book £10
Yes but you must remember that you do not need any special equipment to watch a movie or read a book, so your potential client base is much much higher.
Its fu*k in ment all
Doesn’t surprise me either. The game had a red-carpet launch for God’s sake.
I wonder what kind of NET sales figures this will translate into?
where the hell is sony’s big bad titles in this catagory? O yeah, they have none.
Oh hush, they got….
Hrm
Not surprising at all
Damn thats not a bad days work. Halo 3 is awesome!
Halo 3 is amazing
Weakest Point - Graphics
Stongest Point - Gameplay/Multiplayer
3 hours til I start playing!