"What an opening for Halo 3!
After months of anticipation, the moment Halo fans were waiting for finally arrived at 12:01am, September 25th.
More than 10,000 stores across the United States, and many more around the world, opened their doors at midnight for a worldwide launch that by week’s end will span 37 countries. I spent launch night at the Best Buy near Microsoft’s Redmond campus with more than 800 eager fans, who were met by Bill Gates who checked out the first copies of Halo 3 personally.
But the real star of the night was Master Chief, and Halo 3. Beating all expectations, Halo 3 became the biggest launch in the history of entertainment in the US, grossing more than $170 million dollars on Day One alone. In a year filled with blockbuster sequels, Halo 3 still stood out, passing both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ($166 million) and Spiderman 3 ($151 million).
Moving forward, we are currently tracking to a stellar level of Week One sales in North America, Europe, Japan and many other countries in the world. By the end of the year, we estimate Halo 3 will push the combined revenue of the entire Halo franchise to eclipse one billion dollars."
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Don goes on to also mention the upcoming Mass Effect & Project Gotham Racing 4 as the next two Xbox 360 EXCLUSIVES that will become blockbuster titles for this Christmas season, joining the already stellar lineup of Halo 3, Bioshock, & Madden 08… and recall that Madden 08 has been hailed as being much, much better on the Xbox 360 than on PS3 because of it’s smooth 60fps frame rate.
Not to mention Xbox 360 family games like Viva Pinata Party Animals (what appears to be essentially our response to Mario Party), Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action, and the ever popular, Guitar Hero 3 & the upcoming Rock Band from Electronic Arts.
Rock on, Xbox 360. Rock on…
kurtsh
Kurt's Thoughts 