Father O'Neill's ducks go quack quack quack
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Microsoft discovers a new cash cow with Halo: Reach
SCLEROTIC SOFTWARE VENDOR Microsoft has finally managed to release a product that has been racking up truly impressive sales figures, with Halo: Reach taking in over $200 million within 24 hours of launch.
Arguably the most anticipated game of this year, Halo: Reach managed to become the highest grossing game Microsoft has ever released. While that might not sound all that impressive, given Microsoft's pedigree in gaming titles, when compared to other forms of entertainment it's easy to see that, amazingly, the Vole really is onto a winner.
The Vole confirmed that the $200 million mark took just 24 hours and easily eclipsed that of the most successful opening weekends of blockbuster movies. In fact Microsoft managed to get one over on Steve Jobs, in a manner of speaking.
The Apple cult leader owned a significant chunk of the animation outfit Pixar and now owns a big piece of Disney, having sold out to the Mickey Mouse firm. Even with Jobs promoting Toy Story 3 when he announced the Iphone OS 4, the cartoon managed to pull in only $109 million during its three-day opening weekend. Pfft, Noble Six won't even get out of bed for that.
Bungie's own statistics show well over 200,000 gamers online, playing over 8.5 million games in the past 24 hours alone. It is quite possible that Halo: Reach sales might in the coming months eclipse the $1 billion mark.
What these figures do go to show is that if content producers put out decent quality products, people will pay for them. The latest instalment in the Halo franchise garnered universal praise and it is likely that through significant public beta testing and marketing, Microsoft has, for once, been able to develop a winner and rake in the cash. µ
Tags: Microsoft
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I had just purchased the kids a copy of 'Just Cause 2' for the PS3 , and then - not even three days later - my kid finds 'Halo Reach' at a local big box store for a very low price. So we buy that too. $100+ worth of games in less than a week. Geesh...
What about windows XP, not to mention Windows 7. I suppose since their not games they don't count? I find it hard to believe that such a successful company could have got it wrong for so long? Maybe thats why we really hate Microsoft? Envy?
Halo is an excellent franchise and the game are fun. Now if they'd release them for windows.... you know, their other product....
I would have bought 2 copies, instead I have none :-)
The author obviously doesn't watch Dragon's den or own a business. Takings is vanity, profit is sanity. It's all about the difference between how much you spend and how much you make.
Besides, loving money will get you in trouble.
Apple fanbois touchy or what?
maybe they're smarting at the bad press of late that's given the game away that apple are just another money grubbing control freaking company. just like m'soft in fact.
I would say it's fair to compare a movie to a videogame development wise. They both *can* have a significant budget and can take years to produce.
As far as comparing the costs? Price per hour of entertainment still goes to the videogame if you include Multiplayer. Even without that, the campaign alone sets them up to being farily close in price. Halo reach is about 6-8 hours long (depending on the difficulty level and how often you die)
6-8 hours at 60$? Puts it around 10$ per hour. Actually less. For campaign alone if you want to make this somewhat fair.
It's a huge cashcow and there is no way hollywood's pathetic movies can really keep up with this kind of interactive storytelling and entertainment.
I bet they will make quite a bit off halo reach especially when the map packs finally come out.
What about the anticipation for Diablo III or Dukenukem? _
If counting the online gamers is equal to how many people paid for the game...
Then they are not counting the people who downloaded the pirated version of the game.
my two cents...
I'd consider Starcraft II a far more anticipated game than Halo: Reach.
dan goodie, what about the duration of the entertainment? Compared to the endless hours this game brings, 2 hours of the TS3 movie are gone in a blink. Interaction (control), much more music, multiplayer, greater storyline...
For 5 times more money you get hundreds of times more value...
@Dan Goode 17 = how many people do you think have access to movie theaters v/s how many have an Xbox? Fair? Its a stupid comment because $59 game v/s $11 movie ticket is quite fair - again because movies have a LOT more prospective customers!
savvy?
Hmm, let me see. What's the cost of a movie ticket compared to the cost of a game? If you compare the amount of people that bought the game to the amount of people that went to the movies at the same price as the games, then Toy Story 3 would've made billions of dollars. As of the end of August...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67Q5W820100827
And it hasn't even gone to DVD!!
Halo isn't exactly my thing but I got to say that all Halo games excel in technical and artistic quality, and the high sales figures aren't just about massive advertisement.
These games are pretty good, provided you can see yourself as a colorful astronaut shooting endless colorful aliens with colorful weapons inside colorful environments. Strangely a lot of people like the idea.
@Imkai - Cas its all Entertainment Industry. A lot of games are made into movies and vice versa.
Why compare a game with a movie ?