Halo 3 first day sales: $194 million

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Good. freakin. lord. I know there's many Halo threads, but that amount of money deserves its own thread. It was officially the biggest entertainment launch ever.

MICROSOFT Corp's Halo 3 video game set an opening-day US sales record of $194 million, outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in Halo 3 in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said yesterday.

Halo 3 easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's Halo 2, which racked up $142 million on the first day. The $68 game also beat the $67 million US opening-day movie box office record, set by Spider-Man 3.

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

The game is also key to Microsoft's quest to widen its lead over rival Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance of the current generation of game machines.

The game, in which players try to save humanity from an army of aliens, had drawn wide praise from reviewers for its lush settings, cinematic story and breadth of features.

The first two Halo games have sold a combined 15 million copies and cemented Microsoft as a serious player in a video game industry that was dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2.

Sony's follow-up PlayStation 3 is more expensive than the Xbox 360 and so far lacks any "system-seller" games like Halo 3.

However, Halo 3 is targeted firmly at the Xbox's core male audience, for whom realistic combat games are a staple. It does little to widen the machine's appeal to a more casual audience that is being courted with tremendous success by Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) Wii console.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is offering to replace damaged discs of Halo 3 amid reports that special limited-edition packaging is scratching them.

On its Xbox website, Microsoft says the disc replacement program covers the Halo 3 limited edition game disc and essentials disc at no charge through the end of the year.

The Associated Press said that blogs were brimming with reports that special limited-edition packaging is scratching the videogame discs.
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Just look at the people playing the game right now. It just came out 2 days ago and there's like 500,000 people playing at any given time. The game is huge.
 
[quote name='daschrier']Comparing it to the movie industry is a poor comparison, as the game costs 6-7x more than a movie ticket does.[/QUOTE]

Obviously you've never been to the movie theater concession stand with my wife and daughter.
 
If you look at the numbers, Halo 3 sold just as much as Halo 2 did, so Meh. Just because it costs more makes it seem like it dwarfed Halo2, oh well...

halo 2's $142 mil divided by $50 price tag = 2.84 mil copies
halo 3's $194 mil divided by $68 price tag = 2.85 mil copies
 
there is no comparison for the two launches....

microsoft definitely has a bigger presence this time around...

sales will continue
 
I don't think it's fair to get sales numbers just yet, given the variety (and range!) of prices for Halo 3. We don't know the ratio of regular:CE:LE. It's likely well over 2 million, though.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I don't think it's fair to get sales numbers just yet, given the variety (and range!) of prices for Halo 3. We don't know the ratio of regular:CE:LE. It's likely well over 2 million, though.[/quote]

Exactly. There are 3 versions of Halo 3, all at higher price points than their counterparts of Halo 2. Actual units sold is a more accurate gauge than dollars.

Plus this comparison to box office revenue is pointless since there is such a huge price diference between a copy of a game and a movie ticket. Now if there was a comparison between budgets to gross sales that would be more telling.
 
Dark Zeros post hits the nail on the head. Its being fluffed up right now by MS, and for good reason. In the end its not as big as people are making it out to be right now.
 
Even if you take dark zero's numbers, it still is a huge fucking launch. Regardless of the price break down, it still pulled in a shit load of money for msft.
 
The launch was huge for MS and the sales numbers show that. I just wanted to show a different view on it. It's a great launch for MS in the end anyway.
 
If the Wii sold 1,000,000 systems on launch and the PS3 sold 900,000, you're saying you would be more impressed by the Wii's numbers even though it costs $250 and a PS3 costs $600?

It's impressive that people are willing to spend that kind of money on something they want.
 
[quote name='zewone']If the Wii sold 1,000,000 systems on launch and the PS3 sold 900,000, you're saying you would be more impressed by the Wii's numbers even though it costs $250 and a PS3 costs $600?

It's impressive that people are willing to spend that kind of money on something they want.[/quote]

You should have reversed the comparison, as in the PS3 selling more then Wii. (since halo 3 costs more then halo 2) It's still an amazing amount of sales. It's just the way they compared it to halo 2, saying it surpassed it. Obviously costing more and selling the same amount of units and then some it'll surpass its previous title any day. It's great for MS, hope they ride this one well.

I'm curious of the breakdown of Legendary Editions sold and regulars etc.
 
[quote name='Dark Zero']If you look at the numbers, Halo 3 sold just as much as Halo 2 did, so Meh. Just because it costs more makes it seem like it dwarfed Halo2, oh well...

halo 2's $142 mil divided by $50 price tag = 2.84 mil copies
halo 3's $194 mil divided by $68 price tag = 2.85 mil copies[/quote]Where did you come up with this $68 price for Halo 3?
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Where did you come up with this $68 price for Halo 3?[/quote]

Just used the information in the article for reference. No quite sure where they got $68 either (Maybe its an average with all the editions?). It's in the 3rd paragraph.
 
What I think is funny, is that everyone here is trying to work it out based on how much it costs, and how many they sold and if they're succesful based on it.

Cost to the consumer, is not important. Cost of what you put into a product, and percentage of return is.

People are acting like you cant compare it to the movie industry because a ticket is $10 bucks. Movie studios dont give a shit if you spent $2 dollars on that ticket.... as long as the return is a percentage over the investment.

I seriously doubt Halo 3 cost as much as Superman Returns or Transformers cost to make (Approx $225-250 Mil) - but if this keeps up, just a bit, and the buyer market decreases after $350 Mil, then they probably made a $250 Mil return on their investment after marketing and development.

That my friend, is GOOD for the industry.
 
Only in Halo would you see this kind of response... No complaints about the fucked up discs. Lame... :roll:

Anyway, that's fine and dandy they made $194 mil in the first day but they also set a record for fucked up discs in the first day too.
 
[quote name='daschrier']Comparing it to the movie industry is a poor comparison, as the game costs 6-7x more than a movie ticket does.[/quote]

What you said just makes the fact that Halo sold more even more astonishing that people are willing to drop over $400 (halo plus 360) for one piece of media. Pretty crazy!
 
[quote name='help1']What you said just makes the fact that Halo sold more even more astonishing that people are willing to drop over $400 (halo plus 360) for one piece of media. Pretty crazy![/QUOTE]



has there been any data on the sales increase of the consoles, I figure it will be up, but i dunno how huge the console sales will be. So hold on to your "pretty crazy"
 
[quote name='VipFREAK']Only in Halo would you see this kind of response... No complaints about the fucked up discs. Lame... :roll:

Anyway, that's fine and dandy they made $194 mil in the first day but they also set a record for fucked up discs in the first day too.[/quote]

If Microsoft didn't say they would replace the discs, it would have been a big deal. But since they are fixing their mistake, who cares?:roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:
 
[quote name='VipFREAK']Only in Halo would you see this kind of response... No complaints about the fucked up discs. Lame... :roll:

Anyway, that's fine and dandy they made $194 mil in the first day but they also set a record for fucked up discs in the first day too.[/QUOTE]

wahmbulance.jpg
 
[quote name='VipFREAK']Only in Halo would you see this kind of response... No complaints about the fucked up discs. Lame... :roll:

Anyway, that's fine and dandy they made $194 mil in the first day but they also set a record for fucked up discs in the first day too.[/QUOTE]

So, do you ever get sick of repeating the same thing over and over again?

We get it. You don't like Halo, Microsoft, or the hype surrounding the game.

You are so awesome and original. I mean, there's totally no one in the world that hates stuff that is popular because it is popular.

A huge high five is in order.
 
well, it's more of a compliment to halo that it's so big now that it can bring out the anti-popular crowd in such huge numbers to whine about it even though they have no interest.
 
People can not like Halo, but it takes a special kind of hate to go in to threads about something you're not interested in just to bash it.
 
[quote name='terribledeli']So, do you ever get sick of repeating the same thing over and over again?

We get it. You don't like Halo, Microsoft, or the hype surrounding the game.

You are so awesome and original. I mean, there's totally no one in the world that hates stuff that is popular because it is popular.

A huge high five is in order.[/quote]

Completely off topic but there is a sports talk radio guy here in St. Louis (Kevin Slaten 590 The Fan) who basically is famous in St. Louis for just ripping on everything. Tony Larussa he hates him. Albert Pujols? Doesn't like the way he plays.

Basically if the person is popular or succesful, this guy hates it.
 
[quote name='terribledeli']So, do you ever get sick of repeating the same thing over and over again?

We get it. You don't like Halo, Microsoft, or the hype surrounding the game.

You are so awesome and original. I mean, there's totally no one in the world that hates stuff that is popular because it is popular.

A huge high five is in order.[/quote]

Completely off topic but there is a sports talk radio guy here in St. Louis (Kevin Slaten 590 The Fan) who basically is famous in St. Louis for just ripping on everything. Tony Larussa? He hates him. Albert Pujols? Doesn't like the way he plays though he is a guaranteed 30 hr 100 rbi guy.

Basically if the person is popular or succesful, this guy hates it.

I will say though, it is entertaining and today he went on a rant about LaRussa that was definitely worth the 10 minutes of my life.

Anyways, back on to topic.
 
Sounds to be a little inflated, maybe it includes all those dumb overpriced Halo 3 controllers, consoles and headsets? Also it's probably showing it sold at the MSRP of $59.99, $69.99 and $129.99 for the 3 different, although they do say the $68 game (huh? average price?). Anyway, this will just make me wait long to get the game and probably get it for cheap from someone who is done with it.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']so how long til this game hits PH? 6 months, 1 year? 2 years? NEVER?[/quote]The original Halo took a long time to just drop to $30, let alone the drop to $20 with a PH rerelease; Halo 2 never (hasn't yet) became one. I wouldn't hold my breath for an MSRP drop for a long while.

Store sales / deals, yeah. But nothing across the board.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']so how long til this game hits PH? 6 months, 1 year? 2 years? NEVER?[/QUOTE]

probably 2-3 years, if Halo 4 comes out or something else replaces it.
 
It's a nice bit of number fluffing by turning it into a dollar amout to make it seem like it did better than Halo 2 and Spider-Man 3. It's not too far off from what Sony was doing to make their sales numbers seem better than Nintendo or Microsoft's sales numbers by converting it to the dollars spent. I'd rather see how many units sold of Halo 2 and 3 for a better comparison.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']next question... how long til we see a halo trilogy pack?

you know this is gonna happen.[/quote]

2-3 years, minimum.
 
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