Microsoft Can Commence Rolling Around In Money for Halo 3
- Scribbled on May 24th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
- Filed in Industry News, Microsoft Xbox 360, Shooter
Contrary to what many gamers (fanboys) might think (or force themselves to believe), Halo 3 is the game. Period. Right now, there’s no other game with the potential to outsell Bungie’s epic conclusion to their trilogy.
So much so, that industry analysts Goldman-Sachs are estimating that with this epic conclusion will come epic sales — grossing well near $170 million in the first available quarter.
Gamespot reports that EB Games/Gamestop are already sitting on top of 4 million pre-orders that need to be fulfilled on Septermber 25, and the anaylyst’s results reveal that even more units will be sold:
Goldman-Sach’s industry watchers are expecting the game to contribute about $170 million in revenue for the quarter, with more than 4.2 million copies shipped into the retail channel. That’s nearly one copy for every three Xbox 360s in the world, going by the analysts’ projections of an installed user base of 13.2 million by September.
Crazy. At this point Halo 3 is an unstoppable train barreling towards huge profits for Microsoft.





May 24th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
How are they going to fulfill 4-million units in 1 day? I don’t see that happening.
I was gonna argue, Assassins’ Creed is a good competitor… but that might be because I don’t care for Halo. But I cannot WAIT for Assassins’ Creed.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
All your base are belong to *us* now.
(By the way, 33% is one heck of an attach rate.)
May 25th, 2007 at 9:39 am
[...] [Via GameStooge] [...]
May 25th, 2007 at 9:49 am
[...] [Via GameStooge] [...]
May 25th, 2007 at 10:26 am
[...] [Via GameStooge] [...]
May 25th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Pokemon doesn’t count because it’ll win already?
May 25th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I honestly do believe that these estimates are crazy, 1 copy for every 3 X360s? We will shall see wot happens, we shall see…
May 25th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Xbox = Profit?
LMFAO!!!!!
Not in a million years.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
DGrimes, you say that “Halo 3 is an unstoppable train barreling towards huge profits for Microsoft”.
Profits? From the company that has lost like $400 million from their games department in one year, despite the success of Halo 2 and Xbox Live?
There’s a big difference between PROFITS and REVENUE. They definately will make some revenue from Halo 3, but they seem to find ways to spend money like there is no tomorrow. Even with the extremely generous numbers projected by those guys, profit is a long ways away.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:02 am
viceburg : I heard Microsoft’s games department will finally turn over a profit early next year? Can’t remember where I read it sorry and if it’s true or not. Anyone else got any info?
ps. I’m going to have to preorder halo 3 so I can at least get it in the first week of its release ^^
May 26th, 2007 at 1:12 am
“Contrary to what many gamers (fanboys) might think (or force themselves to believe), Halo 3 is the game. Period. Right now, there’s no other game with the potential to outsell Bungie’s epic conclusion to their trilogy.”
Wow. You know your “article” is bad when you start off insulting others only to make a horrible mistake all in your first paragraph:
StarCraft II
Pokemon
May 26th, 2007 at 4:26 am
[...] say Halo 3 will bring in $170M in the first quarter alone.read more | digg story Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
May 26th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I hope they do make profit. Gaming is just the beginning of interactive entertainment. Who better to lead the charge than Bill Gates? Can’t wait for Halo3 then Halo Wars and all the other great games coming to xbox360. It’s a great time to be a gamer! P.S. I’m routing for PS3, too. Maybe in 2 years? In the meantime the PS3 is a great Blu-ray player.
May 26th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I guess it should read, there is no other game *in america* that will rival the sales of Halo 3.
Starcraft II is good, Pokemon for whatever reason sells great as a franchise, but dollar for dollar?
Halo 3 has the potential to sell a $399.99 console along with a $59.99 (oh wait, $129.99 collectors edition). Since Microsoft is publishing the game and manufacturing the console its a double whammy.
I don’t know how many gamers will buy a new PC to play Starcraft 2 but even for those that do… no one person can claim benefit from the PC purchase (maybe and nvidia for the most costly parts).
However, in Korea the situation will be reversed. Starcraft 2 will sell more than Halo 3 in my opinion.
In the end, we have no release date for Starcraft 2 thus it’s not a rival until we know when it comes out.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:16 am
The funny thing is, Halo 3 is reportedly not all that much better than Halo 2. Its graphics aren’t great for a next-gen system, and its play mechanics haven’t changed one bit since Halo 2’s release. Even though you can get a similar play experience from the previous entry in the series, everyone will still buy this game because of the amazing amount of hype and marketing this game has received.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:54 am
The differences between Halo 3 and Halo 2 aren’t that different? Sure, that’s debatable, but do they need to be all that different?
Just from playing the Beta, I know the game will deliver exactly what fans of the series want: enhanced graphics, and more of the same. If you weren’t a fan of the originals, it’s not going to change your mind.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
look gordon it doesn’t have photo-realistic graphics and it never was supposed to and the gameplay is still by far the best of any game out there period i’ve played a lot of the beta and i can promise you that it will beat the expectations by a long ways probably sell 10 million the first weekend worldwide easily
May 26th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Halo isnt just hype, people dont play a game for 2 years on hype!? I must be a great game for people to play something soo long.
May 26th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Halo isnt hype, people dont play a game for 3 years on hype.
May 27th, 2007 at 10:37 am
“look gordon it doesn’t have photo-realistic graphics ”
Don’t know much about graphics and programming, huh?
1. Gears of War is slow, and has tiny levels. That allows for the increased graphics.
2. Halo 3 has far more detailed textures. Maybe if you actually looked closely. Plus, the water effects are better than something like Gears of War.
3. Multiplayer versions ALWAYS, repeat, ALWAYS turn down the graphics. Single player versions always look far better. Why? Because they don’t have to account for 15 other players.
Please, think before you speak. Or at least grasp some basic PC knowledge.
Oh, and saying Halo 3 isn’t too much different than Halo 2? Starcraft and Pokemon: Diamond/Pearl are miles different than their predecessors? (laughing)
June 19th, 2007 at 8:32 am
[...] words, Halo is one huge cash-cow of a franchise and Fox doesn’t want to miss out, especially when conservative estimates of the Halo 3 launch are at $172M on the first day. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
June 25th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I’ve been playing Halo2 since its launch and it still keeps my adrenaline pumping, “cause of Hype?” I doubt it, I played the Beta and it rulz, there’s so much more you can do and if you go to the Bungie.net site oftenly, you can read that they have A LOT MORE to offer when the game ships out than what the Beta had. Some people judge unfairly the game because… “it sucks”, but reality is that 99% of people who judge it’s cause THEY SUCK PLAYING IT, period.
June 25th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
What amazes me is all the people that sit here and flame Halo. Its like when I started working were I am now. All the PS and pc fans I work with talked all this trash about it! After digging in I found out none of them had actually played the game, or even heard about the story line. Now they are all die hard fans of the game. For all you that say there is no improvment in the graphics your blind. Buy an HDtv and actually play the game before you comment on it. The beta was amazing. The graphics even rival Gears of War. The only diffence is the atmosphere, people are saying gears looks better but halo just doesnt take place in such a destroyed atmosphere, but garentee bungie put all the same efforts into every detail of the game and you can see it when you look close every single object is textured not just colored and shaded blades of grass and the most realistic water effects to date in any game!!!! Halo 2 shattered entertainment records at launch look at the facts it outsold even the bigest blockbuster movie. Halo 3 will shatter world sales proving that bungie will hit their goal for world domination and like this guy stated anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. Cry all you want blog about how it bad it looks and look like an idiot when it launches and turns your favorite ps or pc title to dust! For those talking about its 400 million dollar loss its called an investment and in order to expand a business you have to make an investmet. With famous games like Halo 3 and Fable 2 and Halo wars in development without selling a major title of like cost and time with payroll of hundreds of talented people of coarse its loosing money becuase they are still paying to make the blockbusters that are not yet on store shelves!
August 9th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
[...] on May 24th, we told you how Microsoft was printing its own money with Halo 3, about how industry analysts Goldman-Sachs were conservatively estimating that would gross well [...]
September 14th, 2007 at 11:13 am
[...] when we told you back in May analysts conservatively predicted $172M bonanza for Halo 3 in the first fiscal quarter? In August, GameStop alone had 1 million preorders? Well, according to [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
[...] seen the potential of what the beast that is Halo 3 could have done for Microsoft’s Xbox business, [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 11:22 am
First quarter?
FIRST DAY.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:28 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
March 10th, 2010 at 6:08 am
Damn, that’s crazy…