Xboxist

Halo 3 Xbox 360 Beta Hits 12 million hours gameplay

Bungie Studios and Microsoft have now concluded their multiplayer beta testing of Halo 3. The limited public beta testing was a phenomenal success with more than 12 million hours of online gameplay in its short test period. That's equivalent to more than 1,400 years of continuous play by one person. [via Game Info Wire]

"The participation in the ‘Halo 3’ beta was staggering,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Witnessing such a great reaction to a small portion of the game has been inspiring. It’s a testament to the fervor and anticipation that surrounds ‘Halo 3.’ We’re confident that on Sept. 25 Halo 3 will drive an unprecedented wave of new gamers to the Xbox 360 platform and Xbox LIVE."

Those new gamers were not just made of the hardcore or geek fraternity, as Microsoft added 820,000 unique Xbox 360 owners to the Halo 3 beta test, with an average of 14.6 hours of gameplay per gamer. In total the beta generated 350 terabytes worth of downloads from Microsoft's server. And particularly popular was the feature allowing players to record their games and send the footage to friends – 580,000 saved films were created by beta testers [via Tech Digest].