E3: Halo 3 SKU announced

By Robert Purchese Published 11 July, 2007

Special console in September.

Microsoft announced a new Halo 3-themed console at its E3 conference earlier this morning.

The special edition unit will go on sale alongside the game this September.

Peter Moore delightedly unveiled the new SKU, which has an "authentic" Spartan green and gold finish and comes with matching wireless controller, 20GB hard drive, Headset, Play & Charge kit, and Halo 3 Gamer pictures and themes.

Microsoft also showed a short clip of a Halo project Neill Blomkamp (the abandoned film's director) was working on. However, it appeared to be little more than a fancy trailer surrounding the hugely popular series of games.

Halo 3 also featured as a key staple of Microsoft's promise of great games this Christmas, with an extended trailer of the game's single-player story closing the conference. It featured all the favourites: Cortana, Chief, Covenant, Warthogs, gigantic gun battles, etc. - as well as an enemy that filled the entire screen.

We'll have that up on Eurogamer TV as soon as we can get our hands on it.

To catch up with everything that happened as it happened, pop over to our Live Text coverage of the event.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ChocNut #1 5 years ago

    WhoooOooo...

    Oh man - NO one cared when he brought it out. You'd have thunk he was announcing a handheld the way he went on.

  • agparrot #2 5 years ago

    WhoooOooo...

    Oh man - NO one cared when he brought it out. You'd have thunk he was announcing a handheld the way he went on.

    That is what it looked like on the feed, alright... can EG confirm that the reaction was a subdued as it seemed, please?

  • Inquisitor #3 5 years ago

    Would you be excited?

    Come on, its a green 360, I don't know why anyone feels there should have been applause.

  • Scimarad #4 5 years ago

    I'm pretty sure they thought there would be applause...Anyway, Americans cheer at anything!

  • agparrot #5 5 years ago

    Peter Moore clearly thought there should be applause - it seemed as if he was close to berating the audience for not praising the SKU more. I got the feeling from the moment that he turned around to pick up the console, that he suddenly realised he was about to try and pimp a Green 360 as if it was being marketed to coincide with the second coming of Christ, and suddenly didn't want to do it.

  • agparrot #6 5 years ago

    @Scimarad
    I'm pretty sure they thought there would be applause...Anyway, Americans cheer at anything!

    lol.

    "GREEN 360, F*** YEAH!"
    Edited by agparrot at 11/07/07 @ 07:07

  • Inquisitor #7 5 years ago

    They fucked up this years presentation good an proper really, this green box was probably strung together at the last moment to generate a meagre bit of excitement, unfortunately for them all it generated was confused stares and an apathetic attitude.

  • agparrot #8 5 years ago

    ...now.... if it had actually been shaped like Master Chief.....

  • GiantHaystax #9 5 years ago

    Wow i'm off to trade in my premium now.......

  • Steroyd #10 5 years ago

    Wait it's green. lol

    Part of me wants to watch the conference now. :/

  • agparrot #11 5 years ago

    Wait it's green. lol

    Part of me wants to watch the conference now. :/

    You don't have to to see the console, it is here, but then you sort of miss the hilarity of the complete lack of response from the conference attendees.
    Edited by agparrot at 11/07/07 @ 07:26

  • captainrentboy #12 5 years ago

    Halo 3? Yes fooking please!
    A snot coloured 360 to play it on?....Ummm, naaaa.
    And those new Halo 3 shots on Bungie's site are fooking tasty, nice shrubbery :)

  • JediMasterMalik #13 5 years ago

    It's quite ludicrous that the game isn't even included, though I guess they wanted people to choose their own version.

  • Vandrius #14 5 years ago

    Roflmao.

    Worst thought out SKU ever.

    Well, maybe not worst (there are some bad ones), but its up there :-)

  • agparrot #15 5 years ago

    It's quite ludicrous that the game isn't even included, though I guess they wanted people to choose their own version.

    Their own version of the game? Surely you'd bundle the special edition in for anyone brave enough to go the whole hog and have a Celebrity Master Chief console?

    ;)

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #16 5 years ago

    God, that's ugly.

    What's with Microsoft's obsession with green? How many people's houses is that going to go with?

  • Carlo #17 5 years ago

    LOL.... I might get this...

    Hang on... the game's not included? WTF?

    /cancels order
    Edited by Carlo at 11/07/07 @ 08:54

  • penhalion #18 5 years ago

    The console looks absolute crap! Of more interest is the stealth reveal that all versions of the 360 will be getting HDMI. The halo box was in effect a premium system with HDMI on it.

  • agparrot #19 5 years ago

    More images of the greenbox 360:

    [link url=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1168/774616701_f944e5a60c_o.jpg
    ]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1168/7746...[/link]

    Good, eh?
    Edited by agparrot at 11/07/07 @ 09:16

  • spongebob #20 5 years ago

    I guess it was inevitable, but at the press conference the unveiling of the SKU was a major letdown.

  • Lutz #21 5 years ago

    To have HDMI but not the 120gb HDD sure is an odd move...

  • SomaticSense #22 5 years ago

    I know what an SKU is, but does it exactly stand for?

    Something Something Unit, right?

  • moggsy #23 5 years ago

    I quite like it. Should be cheaper than the Elite but it has HDMI which is nice...

  • alpha-0ne #24 5 years ago

    "They fucked up this years presentation good an proper really, this green box was probably strung together at the last moment to generate a meagre bit of excitement, unfortunately for them all it generated was confused stares and an apathetic attitude. "

    Did you actually see the detailed shots of it?

    Its actually pretty detailed with lots of decals etc looks sweet to me.. Not the kind of thing you can actually see properly at an event you are sitting 20m away from stage though

    "To have HDMI but not the 120gb HDD sure is an odd move... "

    Err why? they are not related at all... they are basically adding HDMI to the premium SKU
    Edited by alpha-0ne at 11/07/07 @ 12:49

  • aine #25 5 years ago

    I know what an SKU is, but does it exactly stand for?

    Something Something Unit, right?

    Stock Keeping Unit. Makes pretty much no sense to use it outside of a retail/distribution context, but that's the Americans for you, I suppose. I hope this article doesn't mark the beginning of its annoying overuse on European news sites as well.

  • YourMessageHere #26 5 years ago

    The detailing on the side is nice; is it embossed? Hell, it's much better than white. White electronics are ridiculous outside kitchens, they look like wipeclean baby toys. I remember the good old days, before the silver, white and pink fetishes, when electronics were black, a serious, sensible colour that goes with anything and suits everyone. Clearly the design goons at MS finally saw sense with the Elite.

  • Sorb #27 5 years ago

    "Microsoft also showed a short clip of a Halo project Neill Blomkamp (the abandoned film's director)..."

    It's not abandoned.

    [link url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464037
    ]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464037
    [/link]