Halo Sells 3 Million, Gets New Machinima 47
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Xbox.com press release announcing "that Halo: Combat Evolved has sold more than three million copies worldwide" , by far the largest-selling software title on Microsoft's console. The press release also plugs the forthcoming PC version of Halo, which, according to Avault, will have a $30,000 team tournament devoted to it at the CPL's Winter 2003 Tournament in Dallas this December. Finally, Bungie.org has news of a great-looking new Halo trick video, called 'Winning Isn't Everything' - thanks to GameTab for providing a BitTorrent mirror for this super-skilful, stunt and exploit-filled romp.
a big deal? (Score:5, Interesting)
Halo is arguably X-Box' flagship title. If you consider that Super Mario Bros. has sold over 40 million copies and Super Mario 64 has sold over 11 million copies (see here [216.239.53.104]) and that Enter the Matrix has already sold [pcgameworld.com] 1 million copies in the brief time it's been released, this isn't that big a deal. Posted by an anonymous coward? More like posted by a desperate XBox sales force.
Re:a big deal? (Score:2, Interesting)
Super Mario Brothers has been out for nearly 20 years, Mario 64 has been out for 7, and Enter the Matrix was based on a MASSIVE movie license and had tons of promotion. Halo has only been out for 2 years. Let's do some math, shall we?
SMB: 40/18 = 2.22 million copies per year.
Mario64: 11/7 = 1.56 million copies per year.
Halo: 3/2 = 1.5 million per year.
That puts Halo right up there with Mario 64 and not TOO far from SMB if you take into account the MASSIVE amount of time it's been out. P
Re:a big deal? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:a big deal? (Score:5, Interesting)
Your numbers suggest that sales of all 3 games are at a constant rate. Significant sales of SMB hasn't occured in a decade and Mario 64 probably hasn't sold more than a few in the past 3 or 4 years.
Halo didn't become bundles for until later, and even then you had a choice of non-bundled usually.
Before the bundling took place, remember that there weren't that many XBox games. What was the one game an Xbox purchaser was likely to buy even if it wasn't going to bundled? Halo
In the US, quality is no match for marketing tied to a big movie (unfortunatly).
Don't tell me Microsoft didn't spend millions upon millions on Halo marketing.
Re:a big deal? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:a big deal? (Score:1)
Re:a big deal? (Score:2, Insightful)
from your Super Mario 64 link: "However, because these games were bundled with console hardware, their sales may not be fairly compared to other games"
The Matrix Reloaded was sold for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and the PC simultaneous as the movie came out in the theater. With all the platforms, marketing and the Matrix brand attached, it is no wonder that it sold 1 million in a brief time. I doubt that with all the reviews about the rushed buggy release, this game
Re:a big deal? (Score:1)
Re:a big deal? (Score:2, Informative)
Bundling halo or other games were vendor specific and promotional.
I believe that you couldn't get a NES or SNES system without a bundled game back then.
Re:a big deal? (Score:1)
I believe that you couldn't get a NES or SNES system without a bundled game back then.
Utter rubbish. The NES only got bundled with Mario and Duck Hunt years after release. Mario Allstars ended up being available as a bundle with SNES, but Allstars wasn't anywhere near a launch title.
Re:a big deal? (Score:1)
In the US, I have never seen an XBox bundled with Halo unless I ordered it online (and it costs roughly the same as buying an XBox and buying Halo seperately). My XBox came with Sega GT 2002 and Jet Grind, which is a pretty standard bundle.
Utter rubbish. The NES only got bundled with Mario and Duck Hunt years after release.
3 years after release (when the NES hit $100), SMB was bundled (at that price point). SMB/Duck Hun
Not a surprise (Score:2, Informative)
- The story is engaging.
- The graphics are superb.
- The gameplay is almost flawless.
- The physics engine is great, as proven by all the trick videos like the "warthog jump" video.
- Cooperative play option not seen in many other fps.
- System-Link play makes it easy to set up xbox lan parties. 2 tv's + 2 xbox + 8 controllers + 7 friends = 4v4 Fun
It is not a surprise that Halo has passed the 3 million mark. Most retailers still sell it for $50 even though it was a xbox launch g
Re:Not a surprise (Score:2)
It's sad to see such a good game languish on x-box (Score:3, Funny)
It really makes be wonder how big Halo could have been if Microsoft had released it for PC/Mac/etc.., as Bungie planned before they got bought, instead of using it to prop up thier doomed console venture.
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:5, Insightful)
Why has it failed? Because it's still in the market place? Because it's outselling the GC (IIRC)? It's got some great games (Halo, JSRF, Oddworld: Munch's Odessy, Mech Assault, etc) and has some great things going for it too (only console with a hard drive in every unit, XBox Live). The system is also the most powerful of the big 3 out there, which means that it can keep having great looking and running games for years. The fact is, the X-Box is a fantastic console, and I'm VERY happy I own one. I know it's fun to bash MS for all they do, but they really did their homework when they decided to enter the video game market (unlike many other consoles (indream, phantom, that terrible thing that was integrated into DVD players.. the Nuon). Let's not forget that the X-Box is the ONLY console that could get a port of Doom 3 without a massive graphics rewrite (due to the graphics abilities).
You want a failed console? There are plenty. NeoGeo, Virtual Boy (which had fantastic games, system was just named wrong), TurboGraphics 16, Jaguar, Jaguar CD, Sega CD, Saturn, 32X, Lynx, 3DO, Nuon, indreama, GP32, and more (these are in the US, I know some of these succeded over seas).
Repeat after me: the X-Box HASN'T FAILED and it WON'T.
Time to just face up to the fact that MS hasn't fallen on their face like many people wanted them to.
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:3, Insightful)
It's only outselling GC in some countries and the GC has also been called a failure.
That's the real reason for your cheerleading; it's called denial.
Fixed the link for you.... (Score:2, Insightful)
I wrote it, so it's nice to see people reading it. And you let me see a spelling mistake I hadn't noticed before, which is now fixed.
However, you're a bit off on the layoff situation. The Xbox division only had 200 employees, and only a little over 30 of them got laid off.
But the Xbox is a complete failure in Japan, with only 385k sold in over a year on the market. And Peter Moore's thoughts on helping the Xbox in Japan [gamesarefun.com] certainly isn't going to help it much there (anoth
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:2)
I'm not in denial. I thought the X-Box was junk for months. I didn't buy one untill I had some spare cash about a year ago (that's about a year after launch) and decided that I wanted to try Halo and I wanted to play JSRF (because the origional was so great). I haven't regretted that purchase to this day. It was worth it. I've played many great games. And even if I had doubted the purchase later, a new reason came along: X-Box live. There is
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:3, Funny)
Even worse, you're born again.
You sound exactly like the Sega Saturn owners did only a decade ago. It's sad and funny at the same time.
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey! The Saturn is alive and well, I'll have you know! Radiant Silvergun still sells for $150 on Ebay. :)
Ironically, "born again" is not an inappropriate description for the life that old consoles gain after they go out of production. For the Saturn, it took the form of Americans discovering the vast library of Japanese titles that were never ported. For the Dreamcast,
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
However, there seem to be some factual problems with your story. Microsoft spent several tens of millions of dollars advertising the XBox based on Halo alone. The *PlayStation* was a surprise breakaway hit; it was only expected to do numbers roughly equivalent to the current XBox/GameCube numbers. Instead, it dramatic
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
So why should Nintendo be the ones mentioning they expect to lose money on the Xbox? Microsoft puts that out.
Nintendo is profiting from sales of the GameCube, its games, and the GameBoy Advance and its games.
Microsoft is
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
I'll grant that these numbers are highly suspicious, especially since the people who *do* have the data *do not* want most people to have it. That sa
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
I meant as a whole on their video game endeavors.
Nintendo's SEC filing for their end of fiscal year back in March showed them with over US $500 mil
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:3, Insightful)
The X-box, may avoid utter failure only because MS is willing to sacrifice lots of money and potential profits to insure they can get a stranglehold on an industry later.
So, your arguments to defend the x-box are as follows
"Because it's still in the market place"
Still on the market, and still loosing mo
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:2)
Re:It's sad to see such a good game languish on x- (Score:1)
Halo was originally announced for the Mac. MWSF 1998. You could even pre-order Halo for the Mac here [cdmag.com]
Halo is for all intents and purposes, Marathon IV [/dons flame retardant jump suit].
The original Marathon series is available via the Marathon Aleph One project here [bungie.org]
Finally, there's Marathon Resurrection [bungie.org], a Marathon Unreal Tournament mod.
Bungie's abandoning their promise to release Halo on the Mac first and then selling out to Microsoft is one of the few valid reasons for fan
Machinima? hardly (Score:1)
Dream on until Halo 2 comes out (Score:1)
But, it's the only title MS can be pretty much assured their making money on right now. And with the Xbox Division losing $190 million in calendar Q1 2003 alone [gamesarefun.com], well, you can expect Halo to stay full price until Halo 2 comes out.
Thursdæ
Re:Dream on until Halo 2 comes out (Score:1)
Microsoft promised sharholders a loss of only $900 million over the entire 5 year lifespan of the Xbox. Without counting losses from April 1 to now, the Xbox was sitting at at least $490 million lost at just a year and 4 months. Over half-way to the $900 million in well under half of the 5 year promise to shareholders.
If calendar Q2 losses were as large as calendar Q1 losses (quite possible, especially wi
Just out of curiosity (Score:2)