There's no question that Halo 3 is going to be big. Several weeks ago, a rumor surfaced that GameStop had already collected an outlandish 4 million preorders for the game. Today, a quartet of Goldman-Sachs analysts released their own projections for the game's September 25 launch, with numbers nearly as gaudy.
While Halo 3 is releasing right at the end of Microsoft's first fiscal 2008 quarter (which runs from July through September), 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.
They also note that the $170 million figure could be low by as much as $50 million if they've lowballed the installed user base. Microsoft's tendency to put revenue from games on its books as soon as they're shipped out could also boost the revenue number, as could any change to the analysts' royalty model, which assumes Microsoft keeps 80 percent of the retail price on first-party games.
For comparison, Halo 2's November 2004 launch came in the middle of Microsoft's financial quarter, when the original Xbox installed user base was 19.9 million. Microsoft sold 7.5 million copies by the end of the quarter (38 percent of the user base), with 2.38 million sold on day one, according to the analysts.
Perhaps more significant than the sales figures that Goldman-Sachs expects Halo 3 to put up is the analysts' expectation that by the end of its first week of release, the game will have driven Microsoft's Xbox division to its first profitable quarter ever. Microsoft has been touting its fiscal 2008 as the turning point in the entertainment and devices division for some time, as Robbie Bach first made mention of the profitability goal in July of 2006.
I'm impressed by Microsoft's ability to accurately project the fiscal year when they would get into the black so far in advance. That suggests that their plan is "working" pretty well. Microsoft has a tenacity unlike any other company I've ever seen. They seldom enter a market without some way to establish a significant market share in it. Now that their gaming division is about to be profitable, look out.
halo 3 is going to ship on two disks, so it wont be short. And how is halo 2 a crappily made game? It could of used a bit more polish and a better ending, but it was one of the best games ive ever played. Im very confident halo 3 will be a killer app and actually live up to the hype. Personally i thought Metal Gear Solid 2 was horrible, but Metal Gear Solid 1 is classic as well as Metal Gear Solid 3. Same with the Devil May Cry 2, Zelda 2 or even Mario 2 sufered the same fate.
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reading that article though Lucent has a stronger case it was a similiar thing back in 03 which MS won..more than likely they'll settle out of court. For a huge sum of money and everyone is happy.
Anyways, this proves that the PS3 Has hope, as their Gaming Division as a whole only is suffering recently. If they make money on the PS3 within five years, they'll beat Microsoft's record for the XboX's existance. That's a wide berth. Anyways, we don't know if they'll make a profit in their division as of yet, because they just lost a lawsuit against Lucent for the MP3 technology I think that was also used in the 360, but I'm not sure http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070222-8910.html Also, They are being sued by Lucent and if they win, they'll likely put in injunction of the 360 that will halt the production of the 360, but that one is up in the air... http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125411-page,1/article.html?RSS=RSS Anyways, To be a Halo killer, you have to kill the hype. Halo is Hype. The first one was good and it stood out for several technical innovations and good, but copied as all get out characters and sci-fi themes. But Halo 2 did well despite being short, crappily made and left gamers hanging for the 3rd. Now with Halo 3 looming on the horizon, I can't help but to think that it's going to be a Hyped-up game that'll either be short if the graphics are as good as Gears, or Longer but with graphics far inferior to gears. Adding the Brute's improvements this late into the franchise can be pulled off if it is done well, but at this point anything's possible.
same here Volton_2004... the ps3 would be awesome if it had MORE GAMES that arent BOGUS n yea im thinkin bout buyin a Wii or a 360 becuz i jus dont hav the patience 2 wait for games that will actually CATCH my attention.... dont get me wrong i love sony with a passion...I hav a Sony computer desktop, a PSP, a Sony Walkman cell phone (w810i), a Sony Plasma screen, n more.. the list is ENDLESS.....i also hav a super Nintendo, gameboy, n a N64 that i play MarioParty3 with when im bored n a Xbox with Halo2 but thats not the point haha its that sony needs to keep the ps3 ALIVE with more GAMES not all the other bogus stuff that i can put on my WindowsXP running comp like the pictures, music, videos, n internet even if it makes the PS3 more useful... oh yea mah bad bak 2 the article! CONGRATS MICROSOFT!! i mean look at them havin a prediction that will most prob come true plus all the $$$ they r still makin off of Xbox Live n Windows Vista and the cash they made off of Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, NT, n MORE!! as a result we see games like Gears of War, Oblivion, Halo 1,2, n soon 3, n HalfLife 1 n 2....if Sony came up with games like that for the Ps3 im prob sure that the whole world will love the Ps3 n its GAMING abilities =]
I think it's utterly moronic to place gamer loyalty to a corporation..MS or Sony...what has either corporation personally done for you?? Hell at least Nintendo has attempted a customer loyalty program either way...I digress fanboyism is stupid..why would people complain about a game coming to a particular system?? I own both consoles and I enjoy the 360 more...exclusivity is going the way of the Dodo..and complaining about what system is better and hoping certain companies fail is just childish..I anticipate the arrival of Halo 3, and Devil May Cry 4.
Congratulations, Microsoft.
Wow, phaserde, you have some intelligent posts going on down there, in all of your babbling you didn't manage to say ONE thing that every other PS3 fanboy has said since the begining of the whole post-release console war. How ANYONE can claim the PS3 is superior over anything is beyond me. We have stepped into an age where gaming has taken on a whole new face...but that's just it...it's gaming at its core. And as far as I can tell, the PS3 is more of a personal computer than a gaming system right now. I bought a PS3 on launch day, I couldn't wait to get my hands on that sexy piece of equipment. I jammed in Resistance, beat it in 2 days...and now what? Now what do I do with it. I sit and I stare at it, wondering what I am going to do with this $600 brick collecting dust. I waited and waited for a game to come out to play...I didn't care about Blu-Rays. I already own a thousand DVD's, I'll be damned if I'm prepared to pay a $40 price tag a piece to replace those. Up to this point, there is STILL no games out that I have even been interested enough to buy...7 months later and still nothing. Ninja Gaiden Sigma should be great, even though I've played through it 5 times in Black...really hoping for something other than a remake with pretty graphics. The claims that PS3 is a better system because of it's speculated online community, "better" hardware, and 2-3 games worthy of spending $60 on just doesn't add up to me. I've been purchasing and playing games since the NES as a child and every system I have owned I have been happy with, they keep the essential "core" of gaming. As of right NOW, the PS3 has very little. I bought this to game, not to sit here wondering why I have to go out and buy a Blu-Ray to get any use out of it, THAT just doesn't seem like a fair purchase to me. I don't feel cheated or dumb for buying a 360 (which I bought after the PS3 because I got tired of waiting for ANYTHING good to come of it). I knew M$ was going to charge me for everything and I knew that I didn't have to buy any of it, but at the same time, I'm not paying for anything I'm not going to use (i.e.Blu-Ray). $50 a year for a XBL is a pretty fair purchase, especially with cross-platform play on the way. I will hold onto my PS3 in hopes that something will come of it...but for now it will sit in its box under my bed to keep the dust away. As for this article (because that is what should be discussed here in the first place). I'm glad to see that Halo's numbers are high. A lot of people have put their sweat and time into making this game (I think we, as consumers, forget this part) and it will more than likely be one of the top selling games this year next to GTA. That is what AAA titles do.
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meh.... i doubt if it sells that much, but it will sell alot.
honestly people knocked Warhawk and they had not even tried it. am telling once you try it, it will change your thinking sooner or later Warhawk is going to hit you
i dont like the playstation controllers for fps games, the the anlogue sticks are too close together for me, so warhawk isnt an option for me
and the halo 3 beta is crazy fun, the control is so tight. After playing for a few hours i couldnt even look at FEAR anymore...
nothing is a halo killer, nothing can be a halo killer, ppl are going to buy halo no matter how good some other game is
Phaserde, do you even know what you are talking about in that very long post that you posted earlier? You seem to have forgotten the idea of a good game. Everyone has their preferences and tastes.
if anyone want a Halo Killer then Warhawk is your game: http://kotaku.com/gaming/addiction/warhawk-down-263909.php the game was down and people were still loving it. i know am gone get thumbs down but someone got to shed the light
Ive played the beta and i really liked it. I thought it was allot of fun!! I hope the single player is just as good!!!!
"Phaserde You are refering from EA, you do relize everything they release is on every platform made by man. They would put there games in the PS1 if they thought it would make a profit.....If your EA refrance was true then why arent EA (some if not all) games exclusive to the PS3...think about it??" -Mohammed 888 Agreed mohammed888, but a lead console doesnt mean exclusive. For example Fight night round 3, PS3 version has 2 things xbox doesnt. 1. In the Ring mode (a really cool 1st person version) 2. In-game (actual) sports scores provided by ESPN. I even watched Dirk Novinski recieve NBA MVP from within Fight night. Espn also provides radio, news ticker, videos and such. THIS is what I mean by lead...it doesnt mean the game is exclusive to one console, but features and abilities may depending on consoles hardware. Does EA put the same graphics into Wii, games as our PS3/xbox Counterparts? No, because there are limitations to the wii, so they make do with what they can, and put the advance stuff on the advanced machine. And lastly they make games for all systems so their target audience is larger and thus sell more..kind of a stupid question dont you think? lol
Phaserde You are refering from EA, you do relize everything they release is on every platform made by man. They would put there games in the PS1 if they thought it would make a profit.....If your EA refrance was true then why arent EA (some if not all) games exclusive to the PS3...think about it??
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I don't care what yall think, you should get the ps3 or 360 based on what you are looking for. If you're looking for better games and to mess around with friends get a there are some fall backs though, if u got it on the release it might have broke down, so what get it fixed, if it breaks down more than once its probly ur fault. If you want to watch movies then get a ps3 or a dvd player.
Um I hate to uhh, fuel the fire so to speak, but these last few comments have kinda baffled me, A. How is Microsoft screwing us over again? If they have thier being really sneaky about it cuz I really havn't seen how, yeah they charge for Xboxlive, so what, last time I checked every company that has some online element always charges some amount of cash for maintiaing servers and such, even then it's only like 3 bucks a month, I could go out to any parking lot and look around for change and be able to aford the price, along with that I havn't any problems with my Xbox 6 in breaking down or playing DVD's, I highly doubt that anyone's can actually break 4 times without some type of abuse, yes leaving a game machine of an console type of power for a day or two straight will probably have some adverse affects on it and would not be the most logical. Also my friend has both a Xbox 360 and PS3 the day each came out, he hasn't touched his PS3 since he played some street racing game that game out like a year ago and hasn't touched it, he plays his Xbox 360 constantly b/c of the diffrent games he has fun playing AND the online expierence they each bring/ Halo 2, Lost Planet, Graw, Graw 2, some cool Safari game where you get to blow the absolute $@#^ out of little animals XD, and Rainbow Six, and Tony Hawk, ALL great games to play. Another thing to point out is that I'm pretty sure people didn't buy a PS3 to use it as a computer or movie player, yeah It has updatets and you can print picturees from it, but what about the actual thing it was meant for? Gaming. Last time I checked I used a computer for chatting, printing pictures, and such like that. O and who care's if youv'e been a member since youv'e owned a PS1, i'm sure many of the user's are the same and longer, doesn't mean anything about your knowledge or authority over gaming, along with that iv'e been visiting this site since I was 5. And finally the last thing I wanted to point out for laughs and giggles you lecture someone else for refering you to being a fan boy but you just did it to countless millionions who happen to have some buisness with microsoft.
Halo 3 will at the very least have an awesome multiplayer, the beta is already really fun. I havent seen much of the single player, but from what i have seen it also looks really good.
I'm just surprised Halo 3 is selling so well. I'm a PS3 owner this generation but was a Xbox owner last generation. I loved the original Halo but after Halo 2 I thought Halo 3 would have to try harder to sell. I've never been a businessman though. I just hope that they don't pull a Sonic on us.
i think he just likes to make us angry, but i do agree to a certain degree with buddy. Im sure i can easily mod a ps3 to make it do a bunch of neat things, most of which have nothing to do with Halo 3 or gaming in general, but they are neat.
Yo Phaserde..............chill man, like what are you trying to do, encourage people to not but a 360 or Halo3, dude they will still sell and why all the fanboyism like that, have you ever played a 360 game. My point is both the 360 and PS3 have their goods and bads... Chill dude its just gaming not somthing seruies.. I am gona get a 360 this summer but I am also going to get a PS3 too next year so chill man...................
you havent said anything of any significance, hdmi bla bla bla, blu-ray/ hd dvd bla bla bla, game systems are for games, xbox 360 has better games and provides more overall enjoyment.
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"On a side note: Stay tuned for my upcomming novel "Hotdork70minus1 turns out to be gay"...commin soon...," well i think that comment proves you're an idiot
I love reading these comments
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wow, waste of time!? I call waiting in the best buy customer service line, in back of a lady, who doesn't know how to press play on her cd player, only to realize THIS IS THE 4th TIME I HAD TO DO THIS BEACUSE MY 360 BROKE
by the way, ps3 home is the biggest waste of time i have ever seen.
I think the 360 has far more then Halo 3. Insanely great lineup coming this year and next. MY QUESTION TO THE PS3 FANBOYS WOULD BE .... If it's all about power and graphics then why is the WII kicking soo much a$$ ? BECAUSE OF GAMES FLAT OUT !! The Wiimote would be nothing with out good games that kept you interested. PS3 is failing because of games and their line up isn't even close to great this year.
thatz ridiculous
the 360 already has pretty good game sales compared to the original xbox, only splinter cell, fable, kotr, & project gotham sold more than a million outside of Halo on xbox 1. On 360, theres already gears of war, oblivion, Call of Duty 2, Madden 2007, dead rising, perfect dark zero, saints row, dead or alive 4, graw, & lost planet.
First of all phaserde, your novel long comments have nothing to do with this article it seems. Of all the fourty-two pages you wrote comparing the PS3 to the XBOX360 I don't even think I saw Halo 3 in there once. On top of that you're inappropriately bashing other members of a site you've joined to read about a system you don't even like. I personally don't care if you're into graphic design and like how things look, so do I, and sure the PS3 is a powerhouse, and you obviously know your **** I'm not even going to tell you what system I think is better, nor am I going to write a novel here. I'm just letting you know, that I just wasted my time reading about your fanboy capabilities.. Hell, i'm not even gunna come back here to see if you replied.. For being a Graphic Designer you sure do have a lot of time on your hands dude.
lol, of course im being sarcastic. Nobody is really buying into blu-ray or hd dvd. They remind me of dvd audio and that other forgotten audio format that nobody cared about. Have you even looked at the ps3 sales figures lately? Remember when the ps2 owned the xbox regardless of how much better the actual hardware of the xbox was?
you bein sarcastic kevy619?
wow, these ps3 lovers sure make alot of sense...
And while you xbox junkies got my rantin and raving, how do you feel about shelling out another 3rd or quarter of the systems price for HD-DVD.....aaand having to by an elite system if you want hdmi,ooor having to spend again, a 3rd or a quarter of the systems original price for a larger HDD. This system has nothing but the controllers that comes with it. Doesnt it make you mad to be screwed like this?? If you were to buy an xbox 360 and the HD-dvd "add-on" you'd be paying the same price if not more than the PS3. How does this make you feel? Taken advantage of and kinda dumb im sure, but its not your fault! Microsoft happened to be the one to stick it to you over and over..speaking of which, it sucks you have to pay to play online. Now dont hate me cause I speak the truth or hate on ps3 cuz it IS better. Im just tryna open your eyes. The majority of you are Microsoft haters but love Microsoft when it comes to their console right? I hate Microsofts consoles and alot of thier other stuff, but no better than to dismiss them cuz really they are the best with development stuff. It's just not apparent on the development of the xbox/360/elite. Did you know the HDMI on the new elite model is using the OLD HDMI 1.2??? Its like microsoft releasing a brand new computer and putting USB 1.2 on it.. Dissapointing. I want you all to know I did a HD comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 both using component cables (as the 360 doesnt have HDMI) on my large Toshiba LCD HDTV. The game was Fight Night 3. Now my buddy's xbox came with component/composite 2 in 1 cables. I dont know anyone else who got these cables with thier xbox but none the less they were from microsoft. Now iunno if it was these 2in1 cables, but the xbox version still looked almost EXACTLY as it did in 480i. No joking here. In all seriousness, there was virtually no difference going from 480i to 1080i. The ps3 on the other hand became INCREDIBLY sharp..and i mean unbelievable. I swear on my life when I say that the pics of games on this site dont look nearly as it does in HD and on a TV (dont forget these images, although they may not be resized, they may and most likely are compressed for the web). As i said, extremely discusted in the Xbox, even my buddy who owns the 360 (hes on his 2nd or 3rd cuz they keep overheating/breaking down) has decided to officially boycott his Xbox360 and he doesnt even have a ps3 yet. He hates it! I came across anonther dude who was on his FOURTH xbox 360 (mainly cuz is first ones broke down within store warrenty). No wonder Microsoft isnt making any money off this...They rushed the system and now look how many of them they have to replace cuz they over heat and yada yada yada. I know people's xbox's work fine in every other area but wont play dvd's even though it used to. Why Microsoft as a technological powerhouse could let all this technology specs and handware be grossly incompetent is beyond me. This is why I Love and Hate Microsoft. The release the best and worse of everything. Piece. Of. Crap if you ask me
hahah lhardwick692 i couldnt have said it better myself!! If you as a developer of a gaming system, are banking a single game to make you money when its been out for so long already, theres something seriously wrong. Thats the difference between you xboxer's and us ps3 men. Although Sony got off to a slow start, they are actually commin back at a rate xbox wont be able to escape. For instance, ps3 now has 1.6 million users online after what, 5 months. Since xbox's release over a year ago, they've only managed to get 6.x million users. Another example. PS3 releases updates frequently for the ps3 much like PC games get updates. The latest added scaling DVD's to 1080p, Media servers,Printer driver so you can print photos directly from ps3 and some other notables. The point is, Sony is constantly bettering their system, not just adding content to games and and releasing new more expensive ones to add features (see xbox elite) And lastly, you have to pay for xbox live..See i though microsofft was smart enough to do away with the paying service after the sucess and popularity of PS2's online service. But no, I have found that Microsoft is continually sticking it to thier loyal idiots.
you have to play Halo3 to know a game is bad. Players just need to play one or two and they will know the rest. In term of FPS, Fear is as good as it get when comes gameplay. The rest of FPS is just graphic competition. If you imagine two FPS games talking to each other, it will be like this -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am beautiful" FPS1 said -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "No, you are not. I have better graphic then you" FPS2 replay It sounds like two blondes
Indeed halo 3 for the 360 is going to hit the ball out the park!
170 million bucks within first week--thats alot--plus doesit mention that this one little game will bring the xbox360 into the black--meaning that it is still in the red--loosing money --funny how sony reveals how much money they lost in last few months because they were selling the ps3's at a loss-but now they are saying the 360 is still in the red-after being out over two years.at least the truth is finally out-- .. . .. they act like this is the key game going to pull the xbox360 out of the red and into the black-but they have other games coming out that will sale if they get them out--mass effect and too human --assassins creed and devil may cry 4(which i will get mine for ps3--thats my choice so dont whine---- .. .. .. all i am saying is halo 3 might be good---i wont get it--not into fps type games--ad they act like one copy will sale for each system--but get games out there for people that dont like fps games--
It's a beta for testing glitches and so on, not for graphics. You little suzi's and your graphics. The real game will look great and for your info, the beta looks really good and it's far more fun the halo 2 online ... thats what counts over all....fun factor. You will get your graphics that you are crying for in the final version.
How radical looking are you suppose to make a sequel look? Were you expecting faries, jetpacks, and Godzilla? It's the same look, same feel, and same weapons because it works. "If it isn't broke, then don't fix it." Long live Halo, and long live the Halo haters, because it is you who remind us how much we love our top rated and #1 selling video game.
There was never any doubt Halo 3 would be the 360's turning point. Any haters of Halo, have never played it...period. I mean actually played through the first two games' SP campaigns. The way the first game played was just as iconic as Half-Life (but the Halo universe is waayyyy better than any other FPS, including HL). The great MP is just an added bonus.
Derek and hot dork can both suck my D*CK. Sorry If im into Next gen consoles for graphics. Im a graphic artist..its what i do everyday so I like things to look good. Thats just me. However, for those who dont care about graphics, buy a damn Wii. Otherwise, dont come to my with your sh*t about it not being about graphics or else you wouldnt have bought your system in the 1st place! And for your info i DID play H1 and 2. I played the 1st one EVERY day in highschool with friends after school (4 player multi after SP was done). Then I played H2 in college when my roomate bought it the day it came out. We took turns goin through the SP and finally beat it. All i could say was "THATS it??? what a waste of my time lol" and he (being the one who paid for a 360 and H2) starting screamin an cursin before finally throwing the controller off the wall, turnin off the system without saving, sparking a smoke and then cursing about it some more. True story. Come on now, if you think the Halo storyline is good. Lets face it, you watch Jerry Springer and it shows. A story about the earth being invaded by space invaders??? oh real friggin original! So dont tell me what i have and havent played or know about alright?? I know this game, i know the 2 before it, I know the crap ass storyline throughout. It sucks. Multiplayer was mad fun for a while, but still got old fast. And that part about "if it aint broken, dont fix it" ya, that sounds like Microsoft alright. Now dont get me wrong, I have a Love-Hate relationship with MS like most PC users. They are amazing for some things, not so good at others. For a company with all the money in the world for R&D and technical development, they sure dropped the ball on system and they still havent made a profit! Now i could go on as to why Playstaion is in the same profit boat (includes everything xbox doesnt like Blu-ray, hdmi, larger hdd, bluetooth,etc) buuuuuuuut im sure i'll be called a playstation fanboy..So im gunna leave it at, ya, i like graphics (if you dont stick to nintendo) and ya, i love ps3, and ya i hate the halo franchise cuz its unoriginal, uninspired and no different from any other FPS