Halo Sells 3 Million, Gets New Machinima

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.

Comments

a big deal?

[Blob Pet]

3 million?

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) and that Enter the Matrix has already sold 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?

[MBCook]

It's a BIG DEAL!

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. Plus let's not forget that SMB was BUNDLED with the NES/Famicon while Mario 64 and Halo didn't become bundles for until later, and even then you had a choice of non-bundled usually.

As for Enter the Matrix selling faster, that's true. But how good is each game? If you look at the list of reviews on GameFAQs, most are 9 or 10 our of 10. There are only 4 below 7 out of about 45. Enter the Matrix on the XBox is mostly 6s and 8s, with a 2. Not a single 10/10. That's not a fair comparison. A massivly promoted game that's not very good tied to a major movie vs a good game that's promoted but not nearly as heavily as the movie game. In the US, quality is no match for marketing tied to a big movie (unfortunatly).

Re:a big deal?

[Blob Pet]

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.

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.