Halo 3 Is The Biggest Entertainment Launch Ever

Halo 3 is the biggest entertainment launch in history

Microsoft today announced that Halo 3 has become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $228 million (US$170 million) in sales in the US alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster movie releases such as Spider-Man 3 and novels such as Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.

Kiwi gamers have also demonstrated their love of the Halo franchise by purchasing the game in their thousands in what is believed to be the biggest launch in New Zealand gaming history.

More than 10,000 copies of Halo 3 (including some 8,200 pre-orders) were sold in New Zealand on the first day of release, equating to more than $1 million.

The Warehouse Limited reported Halo 3 to be the biggest gaming launch in its 25-year history. The Harvey Norman chain experienced record pre-sale results, and Dick Smith Electronics reported their pre-order sales were triple that of the game's phenomenally successful predecessor Halo 2.

Microsoft New Zealand Entertainment and Devices business director Frazer Scott says, "New Zealand was the first country in the world to receive Halo 3 when it was launched worldwide at 12.01am on Tuesday 25 September.

"Retailers across the country opened their doors at midnight to meet demand from fans - gamers were not going to risk missing out on Halo 3 and wanted to get their hands on it as soon as it hit the shelves."

Debby Stewart, buyer for Dick Smith Electronics, says, "We've never seen anything like it. Our day-one stocks were nearly completely sold out, and Halo 3 has broken DSE day-one launch records for any gaming title."

More Halo stats
One million gamers connected to the Xbox LIVE online gaming service in the first day, making it the most active day in Xbox LIVE history. Halo 2 logged 690,000 multiplayer games on day one - Halo 3 logged 2.4 million games on day one. There were 2.5 million campaign levels played around the world in the first 24 hours.

Halo 3 first set records in May this year, when gamers got a chance to experience an early beta version of the game online via Xbox LIVE. More than 820,000 unique participants racked up more than 12 million hours of online gameplay in its short test period - equivalent to more than 1,400 years of continuous play by one person.

The Halo 3 beta became the single most downloaded content on the service and surpassed the Halo 2 record of the highest total number of people playing concurrently on one title over Xbox LIVE. Throughout its 26-day test period, more than 350 terabytes of data was downloaded from Xbox LIVE, equivalent to more than 82 million digital music downloads from the Internet.*

Halo and Halo 2 have sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide (Xbox and PC versions). It's expected that by the end of the year fans will have spent more than $1.35 billion (US$1 billion) on the Halo franchise. The Halo 2 release on November 9, 2004, set entertainment history by generating $167 million (US$125 million) in US sales in its first 24 hours.

ENDS

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