Halo 3 is the third and final rendition of Microsoft's popular first-person war game. Prior to its release on Sept. 25, the game was expected to garner more sales in 24 hours than the blockbuster movie Spider-Man 3, according to the Los Angeles Times.
On release day, Halo 3 flew off the shelves to amass a 24-hour total of $170 million. No other video game or movie has ever done so well. In comparison, Spider-Man 3, the highest-grossing film in box-office history, brought in only $59 million in its first day. The game also currently holds the record for the most pre-orders in video game history with 1.7 million copies sold prior to its official release date.
"[I bought it] the minute it came out," Daniel Ostrovsky '10 said.
Despite these staggering figures, Dartmouth students seem behind the curve. Many students seem to think that Halo 3 is as amazingly popular on campus as it is around the world. However, when you dig deeper, it is unclear whether a large number of people are playing or if a handful of dedicated gamers are skewing the general perception.
Adam Chmelynski '08, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, had the game in his hands the day it came out. When asked how often he played the game, he said, "Almost every day."
Ostrovsky said that he spends one hour every weekday and a bit more on weekends playing the game online.
On Sept. 25, over one million individual players logged into Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service to play Halo 3. Never before has Xbox Live seen this kind of usage at a time. Bungie, the developer of the game, keeps an ongoing record of the number of players and number of Halo 3 games in the past 24 hours. Yesterday both statistics were in the millions.
"I've never skipped class to play Halo, though I have refrained from going out," Andrew Leonhard '11 said.
Microsoft is leaning heavily on Halo 3 to be a system seller. The company's Xbox 360 video game console, the only system for which Halo 3 is offered, suffered a 60 percent decrease in unit sales this fourth quarter compared to the same time last year, according to InformationWeek.com.
For the last several years, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, which includes the Xbox division, has been operating without profit. Operating losses increased in 2006 to $388 million, up from $175 million in 2005, according to GameSpot.com.
Another important piece of the economics of Halo is that video games are significantly cheaper to create. As opposed to a major movie production, where actors and actresses can often require large compensation, Halo's characters and setting are all digital.
Spiderman 3, for example, is expected to return $628 million in pre-tax profit, 46 percent of revenue, according to the LA Times. Halo 3, on the other hand, could return a profit margin as high as 90 percent.
Whatever the eventual effects of Halo, direct revenue from game sales or indirect revenue from Xbox 360 sales, Microsoft can be sure they have a legitimate hit on their hands.
"Words can't describe why I like Halo 3," Leonhard said. "It's the most amazing game ever."
