Allard: Halo 2 will top one million pre-orders

"Halo 2 is going to tip our world upside down," declared Microsoft's XNA chief J Allard last week, as he boasted that the hugely anticipated Xbox-only sci-fi shooter "will be one of the biggest pre-orders in the history of mankind", and forecasted "a million pre-orders" for the Bungie title.

Talking to Eurogamer last week Allard also predicted retail mayhem and mass skive. "I think nobody will go to work on November 9th, I think there will be fights in stores over the last copies." But asked how many limited edition deluxe copies would be produced, he admitted it was "not decided"

"One of the things we're doing [at E3] is collecting retail orders now that they know the date, now that they've had hands on. E3 is a reconnaissance mission. I bet on a million pre-orders.

"We are going to promote this thing like a movie," Allard enthused. "This is going to be like Sony Pictures goes and promotes Spider-Man. We're thinking of this as a very very important entertainment property."

"I think [Halo 2] will drive awareness of Xbox. I think Xbox will become hot, even if I don't care about Halo because of the way we're promoting it. I think it will also drive people that have heard about Halo and now see this to drive them to buy the console. Maybe the biggest impact is going to be to drive people towards Live," he added.

To read or hear more of Allard's thoughts - on the proliferation of XNA, the handheld market, the console cycle and much more - you can read the full interview and download our exclusive video right here.