Halo 3 single opening day $170million *smashes* every US sales record

[hellokeith]

Wa$hington Post link

Microsoft "Halo 3" 1st-day sales hit $170 million

By Peter Henderson
Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 7:58 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) "Halo 3" video game set an opening-day U.S. sales record of $170 million, outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in "Halo 3" in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

"Halo 3" easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's "Halo 2," which racked up $125 million on the first day. The $60 game also beat the $59 million U.S. opening-day movie box office record, set by "Spider-Man 3."

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

Some key things to take away from this event:

1. Capitalism is bar-none the best economic system in history, and it is alive and well in America.
2. Microsoft & Bill Gates are American, we should be proud such a great company founded by a great visionary are based in the USA.
3. Gaming is overtaking traditional forms of entertainment such as tv & movies.. don't ever let some old person make fun of you or look down on you, at least your entertainment has some amount of interactivity.

All that said, I'm not a console fan myself. The Wintel PC is a much better platform. But I gotta give props to Master Chief for this one.

 

[ProfJohn]

At $60 a piece it took 2.8 million copies of Halo to reach $170 million.

At 9$ a piece it took 13.8 million people to get Spiderman 3 to $125 million.

Not really a good comparison.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Halo 3 is coming to the PC soon too. It'll get another boost there.

Games are the new movies. Instead of two hours (if you're lucky) of entertainment there are almost an unlimited number of hours for a good online game. 30 bucks for an HD film that has already been through the theater circuit or 50 bucks for a new game release?

I see this as a good thing. Some more heads will be turned. Money and production values will continue to grow. When Crysis comes out that will only serve to reinforce the message.

Now if someone could only figure out how to speed up the development process...

 

[Train]

<disclaimer>I'm not an MS hater</disclaimer>

It's too bad MS is eating a lot of costs regarding this game, as well as the Xbox itself. So many returns of the xbox, of which MS is repairing/replacing for free, and covering shipping both ways, plus the millions of disc's thier console has forced to be replaced, also free of charge. (FWIU, most problems stem from an HD-DVD drive made by LG) Usually when a company has such consistent problems with a product, they do a recall. But that would be a PR disaster for MS, so they silently eat costs day in and day out trying to replace all these defective boxes. If they can just clamp down repeated problems with thier hardware vendors and distributors, the 360 should be insanely profitable for them, instead of just breaking even.

But in the long run thier real victory is thier gain in market share, with which the current state of the console gaming industry, is really where the battle is. The first Xbox was in the red by a billion or two, but MS got thier foothold on the industry, and more importantly (thier real long term goal) a foothold on the entertainment centers of americas homes. The xbox can already assume the role of your DVD player, look for MS to take over your Tivo/DVR next.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: hellokeith
Wa$hington Post link

Microsoft "Halo 3" 1st-day sales hit $170 million

By Peter Henderson
Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 7:58 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) "Halo 3" video game set an opening-day U.S. sales record of $170 million, outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in "Halo 3" in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

"Halo 3" easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's "Halo 2," which racked up $125 million on the first day. The $60 game also beat the $59 million U.S. opening-day movie box office record, set by "Spider-Man 3."

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

Some key things to take away from this event:

1. Capitalism is bar-none the best economic system in history, and it is alive and well in America.
2. Microsoft & Bill Gates are American, we should be proud such a great company founded by a great visionary are based in the USA.
3. Gaming is overtaking traditional forms of entertainment such as tv & movies.. don't ever let some old person make fun of you or look down on you, at least your entertainment has some amount of interactivity.

All that said, I'm not a console fan myself. The Wintel PC is a much better platform. But I gotta give props to Master Chief for this one.

Not sure why you tout this as such a Capitalism victory.

Did you proclaim the same thing when Intel had the world by the balls before AMD was able to out muscle them with a better chip?

Intel realized their gaff and finally came out with a better chip but AMD showed what real Capitalism is all about.

Microsoft and Intel are just bullies on the block and they are very much against your sacred Capitalism.

Too bad you are brainwashed by the marketing and don't see it.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: hellokeith
Wa$hington Post link

Microsoft "Halo 3" 1st-day sales hit $170 million

By Peter Henderson
Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 7:58 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) "Halo 3" video game set an opening-day U.S. sales record of $170 million, outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company's money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft's Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in "Halo 3" in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

"Halo 3" easily surpassed its predecessor, 2004's "Halo 2," which racked up $125 million on the first day. The $60 game also beat the $59 million U.S. opening-day movie box office record, set by "Spider-Man 3."

"It's a good number," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones. "This certainly goes a long way toward bringing Microsoft's entertainment division toward that full-year profitability, which we think is important for investors," he added. Microsoft aims for a profit for the division in the current fiscal year.

Some key things to take away from this event:

1. Capitalism is bar-none the best economic system in history, and it is alive and well in America.
2. Microsoft & Bill Gates are American, we should be proud such a great company founded by a great visionary are based in the USA.
3. Gaming is overtaking traditional forms of entertainment such as tv & movies.. don't ever let some old person make fun of you or look down on you, at least your entertainment has some amount of interactivity.

All that said, I'm not a console fan myself. The Wintel PC is a much better platform. But I gotta give props to Master Chief for this one.

Not sure why you tout this as such a Capitalism victory.

Did you proclaim the same thing when Intel had the world by the balls before AMD was able to out muscle them with a better chip?

Intel realized their gaff and finally came out with a better chip but AMD showed what real Capitalism is all about.

Microsoft and Intel are just bullies on the block and they are very much against your sacred Capitalism.

Too bad you are brainwashed by the marketing and don't see it.

Seems that some people will be lighting votive candles beneath their Karl Marx pictures this evening because of this news.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
...
Not sure why you tout this as such a Capitalism victory.

Did you proclaim the same thing when Intel had the world by the balls before AMD was able to out muscle them with a better chip?

Intel realized their gaff and finally came out with a better chip but AMD showed what real Capitalism is all about.

Microsoft and Intel are just bullies on the block and they are very much against your sacred Capitalism.

Too bad you are brainwashed by the marketing and don't see it.

Heh, Dave unknowingly states why capitalism is such a great thing. Peppered of course with his own incoherent sense of reality, for a little flavor.

 

[UberNeuman]

hmmm.... the OP's post doesn't belong here, even with the "capitalism" tag branded onto it...

As for pure profit, the Xbox Division is a still a money loser after all these years - and the only console companies that keep turning a pure profit is Nintendo and Sony, which, the last time I checked were Japanese companies....

 

[Arkaign]

I love capitalism. But to say that Microsoft *wins* here in any way is a little silly. Xbox is a massive money pit for Microsoft if you check the financials. I think the only reason they pour billions down that drain is to position themselves defensively against potential competitors coming from the living room against their dominance in the OS business.

Also, being the most popular usually is no sign of quality. Halo 1 and 2 were a revelation to console gamers who'd never played a decent FPS before, but compared to the PC FPS they're horrible. Repetitive, bland graphics, shoddy controls, bleh. Oh well, hopefully they don't hire Uwe Boll to direct the Halo movie

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
I love capitalism. But to say that Microsoft *wins* here in any way is a little silly. Xbox is a massive money pit for Microsoft if you check the financials. I think the only reason they pour billions down that drain is to position themselves defensively against potential competitors coming from the living room against their dominance in the OS business.

Also, being the most popular usually is no sign of quality. Halo 1 and 2 were a revelation to console gamers who'd never played a decent FPS before, but compared to the PC FPS they're horrible. Repetitive, bland graphics, shoddy controls, bleh. Oh well, hopefully they don't hire Uwe Boll to direct the Halo movie

:thumbsup: