Microsoft raises estimated first-day Halo 2 sales to $125 million-plus

Yesterday, Microsoft's corporate vice president of retail sales and marketing Peter Moore made one of the bigger boasts in game-industry history. "I'm calling a $100 million day on Halo [2] today," he said at Harris Nesbitt Playtime 2004 Investor Conference in New York City, according to Reuters.

Today, it seems that Moore actually lowballed Halo 2's opening-day sales. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that Microsoft now claims to have sold 2.38 million units of the game in the US and Canada. If confirmed, that would mean the company's one-day take would exceed $125 million--exceeding even the highest-grossing opening weekend for a holiday film.

However, Microsoft's claims may be hard to independently confirm. David Riley, senior manager of the NPD Group, which currently holds a monopoly on nationwide game-sales data, said "it's difficult for anyone in the industry to provide such data in a timely and accurate fashion."

However, reps for game retailer GameStop told the Post-Intelligencer that they sold over 500,000 of Halo 2 in its 1,726 American stores--a record for the company. If GameStop's main rival, EB Games, saw similar figures--not to mention other game-selling outlets like Best Buy--Microsoft's claims could be well within the realm of plausibility indeed.