Xboxist

The Halo 3 Round Up: Or how the world was won

Well what a smash the Halo 3 global launch has proved to be. With spectacular launch parties and plenty of red carpet treatment worldwide, Bill Gates or Master Chief, must be laughing right now. Rolling around, and counting those Benjamins.

London got the red carpet treatment too, with a number of B and a few A list celebs including a not too happy looking Pharrell Williams as the guest of honour at the London IMAX showcase. When asked if he was enjoying himself, Pharrell reportedly responded with a definite "No!" For a self-confessed gaming fanatic this seems surprising, but who knows, maybe Pharrell would have preferred the guitar licks of Guitar Hero III.

Image courtesy of CNET

There were several launch events around Europe, in Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan and Paris. They each had a celebrity of some description, including rapper/actor LL Cool J -- who Pharell enjoyed killing -- and model/actress/whatever Carmen Electra, who was last with a single kill (whatever happened to chivalry, boys?) [Source: Crave.CNET]

Image courtesy of Exposay

Meanwhile, in another galaxy not so far away. It seems Halo 3 fever hadn't reached our Japanese friends in much the same way as the rest of the world. In actual fact, despite much of the launch preparations made by some big retail outlets, the Halo fervour was definitely non-existent to say the least.

Image courtesy of Kotaku

Elsewhere though, Halo 3 was selling like, dare I say it, Crack on discs. Microsoft thus far have reported that the game took more than $170m (£84m) in sales in its first 24 hours. This makes Halo 3 the highest grossing entertainment product in its first day, even more than the movie Spiderman 3. This is just for the US alone, as European figures still need to be added to the growing sales figure.

More than 1.4 million people have gone online to play the title since its launch and more than four million online games of Halo 3 were logged in the last 24 hours. Source: [BBC]

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

Microsoft needs Halo 3 to boost sales of the Xbox 360; despite investing billions of dollars into the Xbox project it has yet to see any meaningful profitable return. It make a profit on its Xbox in this financial year. Source: [BBC]

"It's far too early to say what the financial return will be for our investment," Mr Kim told the BBC News website last month. "If we can't make a profit in the year Halo 3 comes out, then when will we?" said Mr Kim.

Whatever Microsoft's concerns, the launch appears to be a huge marketing success for them so far, with the first casulaty reports. of gamer's fatigue no doubt due to start coming in at the weekend. Source; [Washington Post via Digg]

On a less enthused note, some have argued that Halo 3 seems nothing more than Halo 2 with some pimped up graphics. Would love to hear your thoughts on this one. What's been your experience? Do you think it's good to keep some continuity or has Microsoft sold us short?

Worldwide thus far, Halo 3 has been released in 37 countries and 17 languages, although Microsoft has not revealed how the game is being received worldwide [via 1Up].

"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," said Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP Shane Kim.

Don't forget Joystiq are also doing their bit with a Halo 3 giveaway right now.

And finally, Aunty Beeb has been getting in on the act with their take on things [via Kotaku]. They feel it may not bring video games to a wider audience. We disagree. Although Halo 3 is as they rightly point out geared for the hardcore gamer market (hooray for us hardcore fans), something that creates this much buzz must pull in the curious to try something new. Expect Granny to be kicking your ass and the Covenant's some time soon.