Halo 3 Does Well in Australia, No One Shocked

halo3box22.jpg
Not that we, or Microsoft, were expecting anything different, but MS has seen fit to yell it from the rooftops anyway. According to a press release from the software giant, Bungie’s FPS has sold over 50,000 units on its first day of sale in Oz, churning out a nice fat $6m for all involved.

I have yet to play my copy since receiving it yesterday, though I had a pretty thorough bash when MS invited the Oz games journalist community round to their HQ up in North Ryde for the review session.

I picked up a second controller yesterday, and I’m looking forward to blasting away in co-op mode very, very soon.

Full press release after the jump.

SYDNEY 28 September 2007 ” Microsoft today announced that the groundbreaking “Halo® 3″, available exclusively for the Xbox 360TM video game and entertainment system, has broken all existing entertainment launch records for first day sales in Australia.

In the lead-up to launch on 25 September, pre-orders for “Halo 3″ had soared, making it the fastest pre-selling game in history. By the close of the first day, more than 50,000 copies had been sold, as Australian consumers spent more than AU$6m in just 24 hours, making the “Halo 3″ debut the biggest first-day digital entertainment release ever in Australia.

Only hours later the incredible success was repeated overseas, with “Halo 3″ officially the biggest entertainment launch in US history, garnering an estimated $195 million (US$170 million) in sales in the US alone in the first 24 hours. It beat previous records set by blockbuster movie releases like Spider-Man 3 and novels such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

David McLean, Xbox Director, says, “We are thrilled with the success of “˜Halo 3′ in Australia, and with the fact that a quarter of all Xbox 360 owners rushed out to buy “˜Halo 3′ on day one. Along with the recent price drop, we hope the success of “˜Halo 3′ will consolidate the Xbox 360’s market leading position.”

Retailers have also expressed their excitement about the biggest gaming launch in history.

Tony Pagano, Commercial Director for GAME says, “The buzz in stores for “˜Halo 3′ has been phenomenal and we’re thrilled to be a part of the biggest entertainment release of the year.”

“Halo 3″ is the conclusion to the epic trilogy and picks up where “Halo 2″ left off, answering questions around the fates of the beloved protagonist Master Chief and his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana as they struggle to save humankind from destruction at the hands of the alien coalition known as the Covenant. In addition to the rich storyline, “Halo 3″ continues the franchise’s grand tradition of delivering innovative online multiplayer experiences via Xbox LIVE®.

More Halo 3 Stats
One million gamers connected to the Xbox LIVE online gaming service in the first day, making it the most active day in Xbox LIVE history. “Halo 2″ logged 690,000 multiplayer games on day one ” “Halo 3″ logged 2.4 million games on day one. There were 2.5 million campaign levels played around the world in the first 24 hours.

“Halo 3″ first set records in May this year, when gamers got a chance to experience an early beta version of the game online via the Xbox LIVE online gaming service. More than 820,000 unique participants racked up more than 12 million hours of online gameplay in its short test period – equivalent to more than 1,400 years of continuous play by one person.

The “Halo 3″ beta became the single most downloaded content on the service and surpassed the “Halo 2″ record of the highest total number of people playing concurrently on one title over Xbox LIVE. Throughout its 26-day test period, more than 350 terabytes of data was downloaded from Xbox LIVE, equivalent to more than 82 million digital music downloads from the Internet.*

“Halo” and “Halo 2″ have sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide (Xbox and PC versions). It’s expected that by the end of the year fans will have spent more than $1.35 billion (US$1 billion) on the Halo franchise. The “Halo 2″ release on November 9, 2004, set entertainment history by generating US$125 million in US sales in its first 24 hours.

Comments


5 responses to “Halo 3 Does Well in Australia, No One Shocked”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *