Halo 3 Totally Dominates Records

Halo 3, in a total massacre of the entertainment industry, successfully sold enough units to bring in $300 million to Microsoft. Announced today by Microsoft, and touched on by big-wig Bill Gates, Halo has successully accomplished the biggest first week sales numbers in the entire entertainment industry. By that I mean that no movie, CD, or other videogame has ever generated as much money as Halo 3 did in its first week. To put this into perspective for you Spider Man 3, this summer's highest grossing movie, ended with $336.5 million in sales. The difference here is that Halo 3 sold just shy of that number in the first week. Also of note, according to Microsoft, more than 2.7 million gamers played Halo 3 over the internet in the first week.

Halo 3 Setting Benchmarks

There are two things of interest to note regarding the most highly anticipated first-person shooter of all time: Halo 3. The game was released to customers today (some last night), so many of your gaming friends that are into shooters may very well vanish off this good Earth for the next couple of weeks. The most important thing to bear in mind is that Microsoft announced yesterday the game had garnered an incredible 1.5 million pre-orders. To put that in perspective the brand new Super Mario Galaxy, the next game in the highest selling series of all time, has currently only sold 400,000 pre-orders. Granted that game isn't out for another 2 months (I doubt it will come close), that is quite an impressive feat for Halo 3.

The next thing to point out is the fact that last night at 3 a.m. there were over 1 million people playing the game online. Many stores opened at midnight last night to give their die-hard customers the game early. So that means Microsoft have already sold over a million copies of this game by 3 a.m. this morning. That is an amazing accomplishment for any game. I would imagine by the time you read this the other half million pre-orders will have been picked up and there will most likely be another 200 to 300 thousand being sold throughout retail outlets around the country.

Microsoft E3 Conference

Microsoft's E3 conference happened last night and there wasn't a ton that's worth mentioning today, live blog right here. There were a slew of Disney movies announced to release on the Xbox Live Marketplace, some new trailers for Resident Evil 5 and Halo 3, and a few gameplay snippets of Project Gotham Racing 4 and Assassin's Creed, but that's about it. Now don't get me wrong, there were some really sweet games shown and some great looking stuff to play later this year, but in regards to new announcements, there wasn't much.

Does an E3 conference need to have surprises to be interesting? Well no, as long as the rest of the presentation is good, but it does alert people to the news a little better. Let's say Microsoft announced an $80 price drop on all SKUs, rather than Viva Pinata: Party Animals, and you could imagine how much more interest there would be in the show.

If I were to rate the Microsoft Conference (which is what I'm doing right now) I would give it a 6/10. The game selection was just too darn good to give it any lower than that.

Halo 3 Beta Is Now Live

No pun intended here with this title (well, maybe there is), but the important thing is that the multiplayer beta for Halo 3 goes live today for anyone lucky enough to win the drawing, or anyone wealthy enough to buy Crackdown for the sole purpose of gaining access to the beta. Get your gaming in now, though, because the beta is limited to only a few weeks of use.



For those not able to try Halo 3 before it launches, you can rest assured knowing the game is now scheduled to launch earlier than initially thought. Microsoft announced today that the game will be available in stores on September 25.
(Souce: usatoday.com)
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