It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Xbox 360 Exclusive “Halo 3” Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History with $170 Million in Sales

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

“Halo 3” is the conclusion to the epic trilogy and picks up where “Halo 2” left off, answering questions around the fates of the beloved protagonist Master Chief and his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana as they struggle to save humankind from destruction at the hands of the alien coalition known as the Covenant. In addition to the rich storyline, “Halo 3” continues the franchise’s grand tradition of delivering innovative online multiplayer experiences via Xbox LIVE, the world’s largest social network on TV.

“Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “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.”

Retailers have also expressed their excitement about the launch of “Halo 3.”

Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for GameStop Corp commented that, “With consumer demand for Halo 3 and related products, we expect it to be the biggest video game title generator in GameStop's history."

“The initial demand we’ve seen for ‘Halo 3’ has been astounding, and the game is on track to become the number one gaming title of all time. ‘Halo 3’ is a genuine entertainment phenomenon and our customers have responded very enthusiastically to the release,” said Jill Hamburger, vice president of movies and games at Best Buy.

Developed by Bungie Studios, the “Halo” franchise is exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and optimized for the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network. The more than 7 million Xbox LIVE users will get a continually evolving gaming experience with “Halo 3.” Its online multiplayer and cooperative gameplay for Xbox LIVE Gold users, the much-talked-about Saved Films feature that enables players to capture and save their favorite moments on their hard drives, and Forge, an innovative map editor that enables infinite customization options are just some of the new features to experience.

More than 10,000 retailers hosted Midnight Madness events to celebrate the launch of this third installment in the billion-dollar franchise. In New York, Seattle, Miami and Los Angeles, Microsoft and retail partners hosted marquee launch events that featured contests and appearances by local celebrities and professional athletes who are fanatical about the “Halo” franchise, including Ludacris and Zac Efron and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

More than 1.7 million copies of “Halo 3” were preordered in the United States before a single store opened its doors at midnight, Sept. 25, making this the fasting pre-selling game in history, surpassing the previous record-setting pre-sales of “Halo 2.” Well beyond just a U.S. phenomenon, the launch of “Halo 3” was a worldwide celebration that released in 37 countries and available in 17 languages.'

Source: Microsoft Press Release

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

It's that good.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Pic or its fake.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

"So yeah, we're making Halo 4"

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Where were you Bond during this epic day?

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

I have a copy at home, but the wife is still in labor.

I should have a bundle of joy come the morning time; just in time to go along with the new house.

God these changes are screwing with my gamer lifestyle, or what little I have left of it.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Congrats, mate!

Have fun changing that bundle of joys bundle of shit.

I'll also wager my rum that you won't be sleeping for several months. :D

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Once more and I'm going to snap.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

*Rubs copy of Halo 3 around his chest*

Do you feel the burn?
Do you feel that rush?

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

I don't get the inside joke with Bond.

Did the Xbox fan somehow NOT get a copy of Halo?

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

No console at college. Or something like that.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Possibly the most overrated series ever.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Please explain.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Explain? Well, In my opinion, and ive played both 1 and 2 so I suppouse I cant comment on 3 but I doubt my opinion would change, the Halo games just arent very good. They arent innovative, the single player almost puts me to sleep, the story is terribly boring, and even the multiplayer isnt near as good as people say it is. I just honestly cant figure out why people love these games so much. It boggles my mind.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

I've played the game and I don't even own a 360.

And that folks is how you provoke someone while hiding behind the comfort that is a bulletproof vest.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Well thats not really an explanation. I'm not knocking you for not liking the game, I'm just looking for more than "It stinks" and breaking it down to "The story sticks, the single player stinks and the multiplayer stinks" isn't much better.

Thats always been my biggest complaint with Halo detractors. They tend to say how much it stinks, but they never really give reasons why it stinks besides the lack of innovation, which I don't think effects whether or not a game is good or bad in any way.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Ah, OK- then let the lulz commence!!

Packers FTW, BTW.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Minus all the cruel Halo jokes...

- Packers are looking amazing this year. Game last week against the Chargers was great. Should beat the Vikings this week as well.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

ok, played a bit of halo 3 online.

now from watching the videos, i think it must have a pretty good single player. i mean it looked like a lot of action and things going on. even if its not new or inovative that isnt required to make a game fun. so i'll just assume the single player is fun.


ok, but playing it online for a while at a friends the other night. and the online is just boring as hell... nothing happens, people run back and forth and shoot each other, i tried a a bunch of different settings to find one thats more action packed. and everything felt the same. i dont get it. is there some sort of option to have that is where all the real action is in?

i am dissapointed it (as i assume all console online games do) still uses the sync up style for online play.... where it has to find the players with the same settings and put them in a game together...
i hope soon they let people make servers on the pc to host and then setup actual server lists on console games like this, where you can see all the listed servers and join the one you want, which keeps the game going, instead of like this where i played for 10min, it said the game was over and then it has to search for more people to sync up again...

but, maybe those kinda settings will come in time.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Boring? Really? Did you ever get in a melee battle where you didn't know where the other guy was most of the time?

Other than that, you'll have to stick it out because the matchmaking still thinks you're a newb. I'm level 4 now and I've already played with some 8's that were fun to play with.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Does anyone else love Halo's matchmaking?

I do.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Weekend means you're playing it? Congrats. :)

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

i dont think i could ever not know where a guy was in a fps game if he was that close... its not hard to follow movement..

i dunno.. i just didnt see anything in the multiplayer that wasnt boring... in the videos for the single player i watched. there seemed like there was a lot of action all the time.

match making thing is another one that pisses me off... i know thats the 'in' thing for console online games... but i just dont get it... when i hop in with a brand new online game for PC, i hope to get into a server with some of the best, because how can you expect to get better unless you play with thoes that are better? i dunno. just kinda sucks that it wants to throw you into a game with people it thinks are the same level... thats no fun.

sure it should have the option there for people who like it.. but i dont really want it to be the only way..

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Nope. :(

Just basing off of Halo 2's matchmaking.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

So how will you prevent noob players in games with expert players? What you say is you want any noob to join elite games. They spoil the fun. I remember when I had to team with noobs in Warcraft 3, it wasn't fun. It can take a few wins to gain a level where you got into interesting games, but basically it's a pretty smart system. In my opinion, of course I don't know Halo's system.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

your absolutely right on WC3, and thats why it has a matchmaking service on it.


but you dont play many pc fps's do you? its a non issue. no one cares if a noob joins the server, its welcomed. they dont hurt the team in a fps. and the game is never ruined because one comes in. they learn faster, and often people will help em out.

but in pc ones... if that noob leaves another person can join up and start playing... when you sync everyone up. if a couple quit the game is ruined on its own.


but none of this is a knock against halo. thats how all console games work right now.

i just dont like that setup for FPS games. plus, if they made it so servers were hosted on PC's and consoles connected to em... they could put a lot more players in a server for console game.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Here's another headline for your biggest day in history:

Unacceptable: Bungie Confirms Halo 3 Doesn't Run Natively in HD

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

I've always found people's obsession with HD in today's current market to be a bit overblown. The VAST majority of televisions out there today are not HD, so why concentrate on having everything run natively in an HD format? Maybe in 5-10 years this would be a revelation, but certainly not now.

And as we can see, it certainly didn't affect sales or reviews of the game.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

But 'bad' graphics do affect MP3 reviews apparently? :(

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

What are you talking about? If you're referring to my Metroid complaints, none of them involved the graphical quality of the game. It was and is stunning. My compaints revolved around the level design and gameplay.

Re: It's official:"Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History
 

Nono, I wasn't talking about you. It just happens a lot that reviewers compare the Wii graphics to those of 360/PS3/PC and they don't rate it higher than a 7 or 8. Even though Halo 3 isn't graphically stunning, it still gets pretty high grades.

Or maybe that's just how I feel it works. =)