Halo 3 Expected to Make $200 Million in 24 Hours |
How much money is Microsoft expecting to make from “Halo 3“? The highly anticipated final chapter in the best-selling “Halo” gaming franchise arrives on game shelves a week from today and everyone knows that it’s going to be a sellout, but really, how much is it going to earn for the big M?
According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian “Halo 3″ could stand to make for its owners $200 million dollars alone on launch day and establish a new record for the best-selling video game ever. The current champion is Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” expansion pack “The Burning Crusade” which came out early this year. In its first 24 hours in release 2.4 million copies of “Burning Crusade” were sold to players inhabiting Azeroth. There are no records as to how many bags of Cheetos or cans of Mountain Dew were consumed on that day but we’re guessing that share holders of those two companies were as pleased as their Microsoft counterparts.
The world of real-time strategy took a big leap forward 12 years ago when the first “Command & Conquer” game came out for PCs. Developed by Westwood Studios (who were later bought out by Electronic Arts), “C&C” dazzled gamers with its emphasis on strategy and blowing the hell out of the other guy before he did it to you. Set a couple of decades in the future after a mysterious crystalline substance called Tiberium has begun to grow on Earth, you can play as either GDI (the good guys) or the Brotherhood of Nod (the bad guys). Each faction harvests the Tiberium as a resource, then constructs buildings, vehicles and weapons. The game has both single-player campaigns for GDI and Nod as well as supports multiplayer. 
For gamers who have been waiting for the third and final chapter in Bungie Studios’ immensely popular FPS “Halo” series for the Xbox you can start counting the days left until it’s in your hands. Microsoft reports that “Halo 3″ has gone gold and the master copy is off to the manufacturing plant to be turned and burned into millions of Xbox 360 game discs. The release date for “Halo 3″ is slated for Tuesday September 25. Barring an act of God there is nothing that will stop Microsoft from reaching that release date and making tens of millions from game sales on launch day.
LTB Audio Systems, a designer of audio headphones, recently announced two new headphones which are designed with PC gamers in mind. The wireless Q-Bass and wired Magnum 5.1 should be available now.
The eyes of the gaming world were focused on Seoul, South Korea this past Saturday to see what the creators of “World of Warcraft” were about to unveil. At the Olympic Gymnastic Stadium fans and press alike watched the spectacular light show showcasing the accomplishments of Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of the world’s most popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game as well as the “Diablo” and “Starcraft” franchises. To say that “Starcraft” is a popular game for Koreans is an understatement; this is a nation where concerts are held featuring Korean pop stars singing tunes inspired by the 8-year-old real-time strategy (RTS) game. There’s even a league of professional “Starcraft” gamers who make hundreds of thousands of dollars battling each other in televised tournaments.
So when Blizzard dimmed the lights and rolled the animated video showing the world …
How many E3s have come and gone and gamers were still left wondering whether “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl” would ever see the light of day? European game designer GSC Game World has been promising a timely release for their first-person shooter for five years and release dates have slipped by. We were beginning to think that “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” was vaporware like “Duke Nukem Forever” but low and behold, THQ has announced that “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” has finally gone gold and will be shipping to retail stores around March 20.
In a recent interview with IGN, Eric Ellis, the Multiplayer Team Leader of Insomniac, announced that the most popular game on the PS3, 
THQ has confirmed that there is a Conan game in the works. This game will be released for both the 360 and the PS3 and is being developed by the same guys who brought Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects to the PS2 – Nihilistic Software. 
I never had the patience to really appreciate Myst. I remember playing the 
Is selling a 100,000 copies of an expansion pack every hour good? We think so. Its especially good for the bottom line of Blizzard Entertainment. The 
SlipperyBrick is a huge fan of the Fallout franchise. In fact, I would rank the Fallout series as my all time favorite right behind Planescape: Torment. I loved the Fallout humor. The music ,the fifties cartoon-ish illustrations and the ability to put a shiny metal ball through the eyes of a mutant at 50 yards with my Red Ryder BB gun. 
On January 18th, Bethesda announced another expansion to their incredible game, Oblivion. Oblivion is of course known for its machine busting graphics and open-ended game play. 
Electronic Arts, publisher of The Sims franchise, is developing a new line of Sim games titled The Sims Stores, that are aimed at the laptop toting, MySpace generation. 
The long awaited World of Warcraft expansion “The Burning Crusade” hits store shelves today. What can fans expect? Two more races, a new profession, a new continent, new mounts and a load of other stuff. Not to mention the fact that a player can now achieve level 70. 
Relic, the company that produced the Warhammer 40,000 games has done it again. We have long been fans of the Warhammer games (actually one of us spent Thanksgiving day playing through the Dawn of War games again) and we’ve been anticipating Company of Heroes. We are glad to say that it does not disappoint.
