Halo 3: Opening Day Could Top $300 Million

A video game about a rebel group of humans fighting back against alien invaders who have taken control of the Earth could this week become the biggest phenomenon in entertainment history. Microsoft is confident worldwide sales could top $300 million by the end of its release day on Tuesday. In 2004, Halo 2 racked up $125 million in North American sales within first 24 hours of its release.

[ktchong]

If Halo 2 took in $125 million in the first 24 hours in North America alone, worldwide sales of Halo 3 will possibly top $300 million.

[ISay]

halo 2 started 50 plus all special editions, and now 1.5 million pre orders and those pre orders are mostly legendary at 80 a pop i have no question it will do this

[FirstknighT]

Seriously, no other video game has ever brought the excitement like Halo 3. This is a great time for real gamers!

[jcgamer]

and in one day...

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Biggest entertainment release in history...

I'm part of it lol...

Somethin I'll tell my grandkids about. How can you say it isn't like the Star Wars of our gen?

<ed> Yea. Baker, that's kinda what I meant to say.

[WilliamRLBaker]

Is it as big as starwars? well not really its close though, Basically when it comes down to it, What starwars is to movie releases and such, Halo is to video games In terms of hype, popularity and sales.

<ed> Noobz I just wanted to clear it up some more, because alot of people we're gonna take that you we're saying its just like starwars, when it is all most like it but not just like it, Starwars single handedly has the biggest most rabid following of any movie there is, its set box office reccords 10 times over and over, so i just wanted to clear it up a lil that ur saying its just like it, but not the totally same thing.

[FordGTGuy]

copies of the $60 version in order to make $300,000,000.

Lets say that they make $200,000,000 on the $70 which they would have to sell 2,857,142 copies in order to make and $99,350,000 on the $60 version which is 1,655,833 copies and they sell all the legendaries(they made 5,000 I think) with a profit of $650,000 on them.

Thats 5,162,975 copies altogether with a profit of $300,000,000.

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Hmm on second thought I don't know if they could sell 5 mil copies on release day...

Maybe though...

We will see.

[BrotherSic]

whilst your numbers are correct, you are forgetting exchange rates around the world. In the UK they are making $80 - $90 on the standard, $90 - $100 on the limited and $140 on the legendary.

similar exchange rates as well for the EMU

[ISay]

what every one is forgeting is it goes on sale one day later in the uk

[Spartacus]

Not quite. If they sell 5,000,000 copies, they make $300,000,000 in REVENUE.

Revenue is the amount of money earned.
Profit is the amount of money earned after they deduct what they spent to make it

So, whatever they make on launch day, subtract what they spent on Halo 3 (y'know, marketing, prostitutes, and paying the Bungie employees) and the answer will be the profit

[Funky Town_TX]

I bet H3 out does PS3's fall line up. Anyone want in? Sony games don't buy games so this is possible.

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Thats an easy bet.

[Jinxstar]

...

[Jinxstar]

NVM someone already posted what I wanted to.

[FirstknighT]

What other video game has done what Halo 3 is doing??? Anybody???

[jcgamer]

LOL...you got a point there buddy...

[tatotiburon]

jajaj halo 3 alone will sell more than all the PS3 games put together including MGS4.

[gunnerforlife]

yeah i got 1 for u ff7 actually it did more than halo 3 will ever do.

EDIT:so ur telling me a game that brought about the end of a console couldent of surpassed 9.5 million sails then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

and u ur delusional halo 1 has so far sold over 5 million copies world wide

[WilliamRLBaker]

Really? last I checked FF7 didn't have 10,000 stores staying open past their closing time to sell it on launch, It didn't have 2 million preorders 2 months before release.

""As of September 2004, Final Fantasy VII has sold more than 9.5 million copies worldwide, earning it the position of the best-selling Final Fantasy title.""

""the game had sold 2.3 million copies in japan.
In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies, and had reached sales of 500,000 units in less than three weeks. Sony announced that the game had sold one million copies on the continent by early December.."""

Yeah halo 1 and 2 both beat those numbers easily...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[FirstknighT]

Trying to compare Final Fantasy SEVEN with Halo ONE in total sales is a pathetic attempt. Final Fantasy already had a huge rabid fanbase. But the fact is that Final Fantasy has never reached the mainstream like Halo has. Only gamers know about Final Fantasy, while Halo has done what very few has done before and that is reach the masses. Only other games that I can think of that have done that are Mario and Pacman.

[MetalNCarnet]

Bubbles for U!!!

[gunnerforlife]

dude i wasent compering sails he was and i proved him wrong and made him look like a mug.

[X_GAMER_X]

Not beign a fanboy But Halo is my favorit game ever.
And I have been playing games since 1986..
Not other game have made me so excited

[G_CodeMonkey]

but I can't wait for the midnight launch and get some story play and multiplayer in... I love my Gears and played the H3 beta (rented Crackdown, then bought it). I'm just interested to see how the Gears on-line will drop, as I still will want to play that occasionally too. gCM

[STICKzophrenic]

I'm in the same boat you are as far as never playing Halo 1 or 2. It isn't because I was a PS2 owner, but because I just skipped that generation completely.

Hopefully I'll get a copy at midnight and get some campaign time in. I'm really lookin' forward to co-op and multiplayer though, with all the people on my friends list.

This game should have a ton of replayability. I can't wait. :-)

[G_CodeMonkey]

Right back at you. We'll probably end up getting pwned in the same matches, as I did during the beta-- its a different style of gameplay than Gears, but I'm willing to put in the time. I can't wait. gCM

[JasonXE]

played the campaign then you can few the vids (below) here to catch up. Atm Im only interested in the storyline, thats about it. I hope Halo 3 gameplay can change my mind and have a blast playing. http://xboxevolved.e-mpire....

[Lex Luthor]

2 days left.
3 for UK :(

[rabidvibes]

any dl content should be free :)

[IQUITN4G]

Xbox numbers were much lower than PS2 and still it managed to sell a ridiculous ammount.Had Halo come to the much bigger PS2 audience, then it's numbers would dwarf any title out there.Halo3 looks set to be even bigger.

[K33GAN]

wouldn't surprise me

[PlayStation360]

There's only a hand full of games that has the potential to hit that mark. And I say Halo 3 is one of them. Would it make that much on opening day? Most likely not. But the possibility is definitely there.

[BLow]

This wouldn't be a surprise. Halo 2 made $125 million on it's first day of sales. Being that most of the hardcore Halo fans have a 360, it's going to make a lot more money. One of my friends is getting all 3 copies. And I can imagine a lot of people doing that. I'm not even going to talk about the Legendary edition. That version alone is like buying 2 regular copies. And I know a lot of the hardcore Halo fans are getting that copy. I'm getting 2 myself, and I don't know why. All I know is is that I'm going to be broke this holiday because I have the 360 and PS3. Great time to be a gamer. And next year is looking even better especially for PS3 finally. Hopefully there will be a summer drought as usual so I can beat all these games. It just would be nice if people wouldn't hate so much on either system because both are great....Why people want Sony to fail so bad is beyond me. I'm not saying they are perfect or they are the Gods of videogames but they have done a lot for the industry. But I guess it's hard to remain openminded when you hate something soooooooo much.......Oh well, I will be enjoying the best of both worlds.

[LoydX-mas]

If they have already presold 1 million = $60 million minimum

I can see at least 4 million(world wide) who didn't order early picking one up just due to the hype.

[JasonXE]

gamestop was taking people names for the reserve list. I think it was 4 months back... There was 8 pages of a list of 30-40 names per name spefically asking for halo 3. I was like wtf!!!! I wonder how big is that list now...

[JasonXE]

Halo wars is going to make. It looks fun as well.

[gtvpalm]

I am not worried about how many they will sell, but how much profit they will turn out in the end...
Halo 3 will be a record-breaking game and one of the 360's best titles, no doubt about that. But...

Take the sales figures, subtract the software development costs and the marketing costs (that includes all those beta parties, midnight launch parties and all the media coverage).
What, you thought that was for free?

Hope the gaming industry survives Halo 3.