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Halo 3 does USD 170 million sales in 24 hours News
Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell
Microsoft has declared that Halo 3 enjoyed the "largest entertainment launch in history", doing USD 170 million in sales in USA alone in its first 24 hours.
According to figures Microsoft put in its press release that we're too bored to actually research, that would put it ahead of cinematic releases like the execrable Spider-Man 3 and novels like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And the Meg White sex tape.
"Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane 'Soundbite' Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios.
"Not only is Halo 3 setting sales records, it's also redefining entertainment," he added, worryingly. (An emergency meeting of the Eurogamer Word Council declared that until the definition of entertainment was sorted out again we would draft a suitable replacement in all future instances where it might be used.)
"Within the first 20 hours alone," Soundbite continued, "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."
"Halo 3 is a genuine badger phenomenon and our customers have responded very enthusiastically to the release," Jim Hamburger of US retailer Best Buy gushed in support.
So, where were you on the most active and badgering Xbox Live gaming day in history? We were playing Ridge Racer 6 because we're so counter-cultural.
But back to Halo. By doing USD 170 million in sales, Halo 3 puts Halo 2's USD 125 million in 24 hours back in November 2004 to shame. What's more, only 1.5 million pre-ordered Halo 2, but 1.7 million got in there pre-release for the third game.
Presumably it will be quite successful then. Microsoft has previously said that Halo 2 sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide (and you can bet it's sold a few more since June 2006 when that info first popped up). How many will Halo 3 sell?
And, more importantly, will it be able to hold off the challenge of multiplatform extravaganza Ratatouille in next Monday's UK badger sales charts? Try and get out of bed again one day to find out.
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@aldo14
wrong @charroux wrong ......................... Also it's totally fair to compare, people have spent more money on halo than harry potter. Great. And charroux, ask random members of the public to name a American Idol / X Factor / Big Brother contest, they most likely can't, so using Masterchief is wrong. I'd reckon most people know Halo is a game, although I would say Mario and Sonic are both far more pop culture than Halo is. |
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GitSomE UK
27/09/07 @ 07:52
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Halo 3 is a genuine badger phenomenon
WTF does this mean? This idiot had the bullshit generator turned to maximum. Does he mean black and white creature that's a menace to farmers or the bossy, buxom failed Apprentice contestant from last year? Idiots! |
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Also it's totally fair to compare, people have spent more money on halo than harry potter. Great.
Fair how? It's apples versus oranges; a rought hand-wavy calculation at (a generous methinks) $50 each gives 3.4m, which if it were movies (at $5 a ticket) would be something like $17m. For a comparison, the record US opening (weekend, so I guess divvy by about 2?) gross for a movie was SpiderMan 2 at $150m or so (30m tickets-ish?). And that's not even considering that the potential sales of Halo 3 - or any game - are limited by the install base of the platform (which itself is determined by the games available), whereas movie tickets - or books, or even DVDs and CDs - are more ubiquitously available. And then you have to add in the fact that some things aren't available continuously (again, movies - as they only show at set times) opposed to constantly in-the-shops (especially with midnight openings for launch days) or pre-ordered (i.e. possibly like having several days or weeks shopping crammed into the pre-order period)....and then ignoring the other revenue streams of course, which are vastly multifarious (merchandising, movies - for books, books - for movies, DVDs - where the real movie money is nowadays methinks) and generally better developed for non games media... There's so many different factors that to take gross sales (not profit per se) as being larger for a more expensive (yet also limited in how many can feasibly be sold - what if there were 20m 360s instead of 10-12m?) product on a single day as a serious indicator of a change in entertainment is daft. Useful marketing hyperbole, yeah, but as actually showing some sort of seismic change in mass-media? EDIT; and you're not the misfiring former Rangers-now-Valenciennes striker Sebo, are you? :o!
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most recently on 27/09/07 @ 09:00
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:05
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was purchased by 11 million people in its first day on release, which is almost double what Halo 2 sold in its first year. Halo 3 is a great game, but this sort of statistical badgering does the games industry no favours.
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@charroux
Think your lack of knowledge of those shows makes it less valid to refer to them as being pop culture. Oasis were pop culture, but your average joe couldn't have named the entire band. Halo is pop culture, whether people know master chief or not. @aldo14 You can use that reasoning all you like to convince yourself, but at the end of the day it looks like Halo made more money than Harry Potter or the big movies. I could argue that if Halo cost the same as a movie it would have made even more because more people would have been able to afford it, and I could argue that if Harry Potter or your average movie cost £40 then they wouldn't sell anywhere near as many. But what the focus is on is how much money the product made on it's opening day, and Halo looks to have won that. It's a totally fair comparison. And I'm not misfiring, I scored against Chelsea. |
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@aldo_14
To put it into some perspective. There are some 100 million PS2 out there. By your reconning that makes it on a par with DVD availability. Now nothing on that console has ever launched to a 170 million dollar first day. Not even any of the final fantasy games. So for Halo to do it with an installed base of just 12 million. I think it's safe to say that the tide is turned well and truly in favour of games over films. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:20
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Money makes the world go round. Nobody is talking sales. They are talking money.
No, they're talking about Halo as "pop culture phenomena". Halo made a lot of money in one day, but it also costs a lot more money to purchase than a movie ticket, DVD or book. Therefore comparing Halo to Harry Potter or Spider-Man in these terms is lunacy. The only way to gauge the popularity of a property is by how many it sells, not how much they sell for, and by that yardstick Halo is nowhere close to Harry Potter. Eleven million people bought the latest Harry Potter book in 24 hours. That's a phenomenon. Halo 2 sold half that in one year, which makes it a gaming phenomenon but also illustrates how far outside the mainstream gaming really is. At least in terms of franchise awareness. Halo is a hugely successful gaming franchise, but it's still very much restricted to people who play games. Everyone knows who Harry Potter and Spider-Man are, regardless of whether they actually read the books or watch the movies. Kids. Old people. Parents. Lara Croft, Mario and Sonic are all closer to being mainstream gaming icons than Master Chief. Halo made more money it seems. Why, as a gamer, do you feel the need to muddy that? Why, as a gamer, do you feel the need to bolster dubious number-crunching to validate your hobby? This sort of half-baked comparison doesn't validate gaming as the new king of all media, it just makes gaming look like the desperate half-cousin to other forms of entertainment. I'm not "muddying" anything - Halo 3 is a fine game, and we should all be happy with that. I'm just pointing out that while these figures make for a nifty press release, they mean bugger all in the wider entertainment industry where they have entire departments of accountants who know what the figures really mean. |
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@Sebo
Halo is barely pop culture (a few news items do not pop culture make), and is certainly not a "pop culture phenomenon", as stated in the article. Asking the hypothetical person in the street what Halo 3 is, you'll get maybe 90% haven't a clue, 8% "it's a computer game" (most of them will probably say it's on PlayStation ;), and maybe 2% will have more detailed knowledge. Ask if they've heard about Pop Idol or Harry Potter. Most people will know more than "it's a TV show", or 'he's a character in a book/film". Seriously, there's no comparison. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:30
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@penhalion
I think it's safe to say that the tide is turned well and truly in favour of games over films. Absolute nonsense. The Spider-Man movies have grossed more than any game series ever made. And that's just in their theatrical run. Then there's DVD sales. And all those spin-offs. Toys. Costumes. Lunchboxes. T-shirts. The only people dressing up as Master Chief are cosplayers. You can buy Spidey outfits in Woolworths. And that's not to mention the cultural penetration that movies have. Games don't have a Brad Pitt, or even a Jessica Alba. The idea that one weekend of beefy sales for one game suddenly makes videogames more successful and important than an artform that has dominated entertainment and culture for almost 100 years is frankly embarassing. Play the games. Enjoy the games. Just don't try and turn them into something they're not. |
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@ Charroux - Depends on whether you are refering to Master Chief or Halo. I think if you spoke to a lot of people about Halo then they would have a good idea of what it is. Hell my mum even phoned me yesterday to ask if I had seen it on the news. Ask her who Master Chief is agreed she probably wouldnt know.
However my other half watched the whole of the last series of X factor last year with me in the room (headphones on and only watching the dumb arses that think their good) now I could tell you what x factor is but I havent got a clue who won it. |
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how is it a phenomenon when 50% of 360 owners bought it for this game?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario... that game sold 18 mil copies. and if we count bundled games you know how many people bought nes and game boy for super mario bros and tetris? those were pop culture phenomenons. not halo. halo is like half life. a great game that every gamer knows. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:35
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It's also worth pointing out that, for all the hoo-hah surrounding its record breaking launch, Halo 2 wasn't even the best-selling game of 2004.
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CannonAnBall
27/09/07 @ 08:36
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I don't know why people can't just look at the fuckin sales figures and just say well done for once. The sales figures are impressive. I just don't know why some people have to cry about this type of article everytime one appears.
A marketing department or whoever will always bull something up even more so if it does really well as is the case with Halo 3. Tell me a company who wouldn't. 'American Idol / X Factor / Big Brother are pop culture phenomenons.' - all sh*te as well!! |
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@danwhitehead
"Halo made a lot of money in one day, but it also costs a lot more money to purchase than a movie ticket, DVD or book. Therefore comparing Halo to Harry Potter or Spider-Man in these terms is lunacy." It really isn't. People spent more money on Halo in one day than Harry Potter or Spiderman. I've already said I think Mario and Sonic are more recognisable to your average joe. So yes, phenomonon, is stretching it. But I also think its very fair to say that most people know what Halo is. They may not know a lot about it, just like you know sod all about x factor, but they know Halo 3 is a game, that makes it pop culture. Gaming is pop culture. And there will come a time when gaming is more profitable than movies and music. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:39
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I don't know why people can't just look at the fuckin sales figures and just say well done for once. The sales figures are impressive. I just don't know why some people have to cry about this type of article everytime one appears.
Because I honestly think this sort of talk reflects badly on the games industry. |
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Guys this is not pop culture at all, it's just all the 360 owners grasping at the hype. I also want a 360 and will similarly grasp at the hype at get Halo 3 when I get one :) - but let's not confuse all the 360 owners buying the same game with "the tide turning", that's just ridiculous.
And as for "redefining entertainment" - that's the last thing Halo has ever done. It's always followed the Microsoft product pattern*: look at something good, and make their own slightly polished version. It's good fun, I loved the first 2 Halos on legendary co-op, but it's the Quakes and Half-Lifes that did the defining. Halos always just copied and simplified. * anyone who points out that it wasn't originally a Microsoft-funded game is clearly missing the point; I said it follows that pattern. Now continue reading, and think harder in future. |
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CannonAnBall
27/09/07 @ 08:46
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Reflects badly on the games industry?
Who outside the games industry gives a shit? Only nerds actually give a shit. I looked at the article and thought, 'wow, thats a job well done then'. Came to look at the comments and people are upset. Why the fuck be upset by what some market dept. or company exec. has to say?? Halo 3 has clearly upset some people. Thats very clear! |
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"Eleven million people bought the latest Harry Potter book in 24 hours. That's a phenomenon. Halo 2 sold half that in one year, which makes it a gaming phenomenon but also illustrates how far outside the mainstream gaming really is. At least in terms of franchise awareness. "
I think you're missing a rather obvious point here. I HIGHLY doubt they would have bought the latest Harry Potter had it cost 45 quid. You can't buy games for the price of a book - everyone knows that and its almost certainly a barrier to gaming being more mainstream. But still the bottom line is people spent that money, I don't really care if Halo is a pop culture phenomenon or not but I don't see why the comparison is not valid. Whether it is: Large number of people X small amount of money Small number of people X large amount of money It still equals the same bottom line - a shit load of money and that's all big corps really care about. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:51
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@Sebo
It really isn't. People spent more money on Halo in one day than Harry Potter or Spiderman. But Halo 3 costs many times more than a book or movie ticket, therefore that figure is not a true representation of the property's popularity. Once again: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was purchased by twice as many people in one day than bought Halo 2 in a year. That puts it in perspective. They did the same thing with Halo 2, and it was embarassing then. And, as I said, Halo 2 wasn't even the biggest game of 2004 so lets not get carried away with what the first day sales of a massively hyped product to a captive audience mean about the future of entertainment. But I also think its very fair to say that most people know what Halo is. They may not know a lot about it, just like you know sod all about x factor, but they know Halo 3 is a game, that makes it pop culture. Gaming is pop culture. I'm not saying games aren't pop culture, just that announcements like this only serve to prove that Halo is very successful within its own little ghetto of entertainment. Anecdotal assumptions about what "most people" know are meaningless. There's a world of difference between people having a vague awareness of something called Halo being on the news, and that its some sort of computer game, and the sort of immense cultural saturation that something like Harry Potter generates. One robust weekend of sales does not put Halo in a position to compete with a behemoth like that. And there will come a time when gaming is more profitable than movies and music. Based on what? More profitable? Microsoft aren't talking profit, they're talking gross sales. Huge difference. Or more popular? And by what yardstick? Games are becoming more accepted, and that's simply because we now have generations of parents and even grandparents who have grown up in the videogame era. Games are familiar, they're not a novelty anymore, and that's good. Games are accepted as part of the entertainment mix. Let's be happy with that and see what happens next. |
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nickthegun
27/09/07 @ 08:54
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Mr.Fahrenheit
27-Sep-07 09:18:01 Meg White sex tape? Bears repeating: Meg White sex tape? |
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@danwhitehead
"But Halo 3 costs many times more than a book or movie ticket, therefore that figure is not a true representation of the property's popularity. Once again: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was purchased by twice as many people in one day than bought Halo 2 in a year. That puts it in perspective." But Harry Potter books cost many times less than a game, therefore that figure is not true representation of the property's popularity. Once again: the harry potter game was purchased by infinitely less people than Halo 3 in a year. That puts it in perspective.
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most recently on 27/09/07 @ 09:55
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Halo 3 has become a "pop-culture phenomenon". Just because other pop-culture phenomenons exist such as Big Brother, Harry Potter and Star Wars it doesn't mean Halo can't be.
@Dan Whitehead The only people dressing up as Master Chief are cosplayers As opposed to the millions of people who dress like Frodo Baggins on the way to work? The Spider-Man movies have grossed more than any game series ever made... [lots of examples of Spidey spin offs] This argument has one major flaw. Spider-Man is first and foremost a comic (sorry, graphic novel) not a movie. Games don't have a Brad Pitt, or even a Jessica Alba. Niether do novels. The idea that one weekend of beefy sales for one game suddenly makes videogames more successful and important than an artform that has dominated entertainment and culture for almost 100 years is frankly embarassing. We live in a society which rates money over anything else. The fact is money-wise the games industry is already bigger than the film industry which in turn is much bigger than the litrature industry. As artforms all are equally valid and are just as likely to influence each other. |
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DanWhitehead
27/09/07 @ 08:56
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Who outside the games industry gives a shit?
Only nerds actually give a shit. Blinkered thinking. Microsoft didn't make this announcement for nerds. They made it for the business world. And while the amount of money made is impressive, the business world isn't going to be fooled by talk that $170m in sales of one $50 product warrants comparison to major intellectual properties with global reach, enormous fanbases and billions in auxiliary products. So to clarify: I don't have a problem with Microsoft blowing their horn about how much money Halo 3 has made. I do, however, find it embarrassing that they keep trying to cram Halo into the same bracket as Harry Potter and Spider-Man. Halo 3 is a hugely successful videogame. But that's all it is. Calling it a pop culture phenomenon, or that this one weekend of sales means that the movie industry is now secondary to games, is the worst kind of hyperbole. |
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You can use that reasoning all you like to convince yourself, but at the end of the day it looks like Halo made more money than Harry Potter or the big movies. I could argue that if Halo cost the same as a movie it would have made even more because more people would have been able to afford it, and I could argue that if Harry Potter or your average movie cost £40 then they wouldn't sell anywhere near as many. But what the focus is on is how much money the product made on it's opening day, and Halo looks to have won that. It's a totally fair comparison. It made more release day gross (not profit, albeit), but is that any sort of indicator that it's redifing mass entertainment? Certainly not the mass part in pure numerical terms; perhaps it's an indicator that more people are playing games than before (perhaps), or perhaps merely an indicator that a lot of people bought a 360 for Halo 3. But I can't see how the amount of money took in on day one indicates anything other than relative popularity against like-for-like, i.e. other games, and even then other games (in fact, probably any other games in history) haven't had the incredible level of hype and marketing heft Halo 3 has enjoyed in the US. Plus, as a comparison, Spiderman 2 had a total box office of $783m; equivalent to something like 120-150m tickets (very hand wavy) methinks, or 19.75m games. The highest selling game of the last gen was, I think, GTA San Andreas at 15m (which is more money but less people - also, note that AFAIK the Spiderman 2 amount doesn't include stuff like DVD rental and sale or merchandising, which is surely far more than GTA or any game can currently manage). In any case, methinks if Halo 3 was redifining entertainment, someone at the BBC would have realised they were showing Killzone in yesterdays news story.... And I'm not misfiring, I scored against Chelsea. Yeah, with a deflected goal. tut-tut. Boyd is far better. To put it into some perspective. There are some 100 million PS2 out there. By your reconning that makes it on a par with DVD availability. Now nothing on that console has ever launched to a 170 million dollar first day. Not even any of the final fantasy games. So for Halo to do it with an installed base of just 12 million. I think it's safe to say that the tide is turned well and truly in favour of games over films. Well, it's a nitpick but AFAIK there are 100m PS2s sold - I'm not sure how many still work and are used, although I'd expect it's a large percentage. But I'm not sure how this shows any turning of the tide beyond a bit of a widening of the market for games (not enough, I'd wager, to actually go close to movies), as Halo 2 sold a similar amount ($125m, but bearing in mind IIRC it didn't have any $130 legendary edition) on a similar sized userbase - and I think it's generally regarded that a lot of 360 owners bought the console for said game, so you'd expect a hefty percentage to own it. Phew, my fingers are tired. |
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@danwhitehead
"So to clarify: I don't have a problem with Microsoft blowing their horn about how much money Halo 3 has made. I do, however, find it embarrassing that they keep trying to cram Halo into the same bracket as Harry Potter and Spider-Man. Halo 3 is a hugely successful videogame. But that's all it is. Calling it a pop culture phenomenon, or that this one weekend of sales means that the movie industry is now secondary to games, is the worst kind of hyperbole." Agreed with your first line of that post, that it was made for the business world, not nerds, but then you lost it. So you'd rather Microsoft talked down games and said, "yeah, we are gamers, we know our place, these were great sales, more than Harry Potter and Spiderman did in a day, but you know what, we are no where near as big as they are. Moviez rulz" Get real. Microsoft are more than right to bask in their success and put a good spin on it. It does do the industry good. People flock to things that are seen as being successful. |
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