1 million Halo Wars waged

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Mar 19, 2009 11:12 am PT

Massive fan base for Microsoft's sci-fi franchise makes Ensemble Studios' 360-exclusive swan song go platinum in less than three weeks.

In less than three weeks, Halo Wars has gone platinum. This morning, Microsoft announced that the real-time strategy spin-off of its sci-fi shooter phenomenon had sold--not shipped--more than 1 million copies worldwide. Available in both regular and limited editions, the T-for-Teen game launched on February 26 in Asia, February 27 in Europe, and March 3 in North America.

The 118 Years' War

Halo Wars' success came in spite of a lukewarm reception from critics. Little wonder, then, that Microsoft was eager to play up its popularity with the masses, courtesy of a statistics site. To date, more than 2.6 million multiplayer matches have been played, totaling more than 118 years of game time. The software giant also announced that an average of 200,000 people play the game daily.

Today's announcement must be bittersweet for the former employees of Ensemble Studios. Halo Wars was the Microsoft-owned shop's final project, closing out a 14-year run that saw it launch the acclaimed Age of Empires RTS series and its fantastical sibling, Age of Mythology.

At the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Ensemble cofounder Bruce Shelley was honored during the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. During an earlier presentation, he reflected on his shop's rise and fall, the latter of which he attributed partly to overexpansion to work on several canceled projects. One of the stillborn games is rumored to have been a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the Halo Universe.

270 Comments

  • jknight5422

    Posted Mar 28, 2009 9:34 am PT

    Looks like the critics were wrong. The customers
    have spoken.

  • okassar

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 3:02 pm PT

    My brother just surprised me with this as a birthday gift earlier today,love it

  • bballabarry

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 5:50 pm PT

    lol are they seriously gonna tell us everytime any game of halo reaches a certain amount of matches played?

  • carp93

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 4:24 pm PT

    Wow Gamespot.... Critic score: 8.2
    User score: 8.0
    Gamespot score: 6.5

    Methinks you have your information wrong, because if you average those, Halo War's score is 7.6, which, by your own rating system, is good, not "lukewarm"...

  • Infinite_Access

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 3:16 pm PT

    Good Job Ensemble... sad to see you guys going.. made some of the best games.

  • funnysplay

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 1:58 pm PT

    -Lord arya1- Im a huge halo fan, have been since halo one first came out.
    And i didn't like halo wars much at all, got boring real fast.
    I enjoyed the cutsceens and story though.
    Still wish i could get my money back on it, however my bro helped me buy it and he insists we keep it. Halo wars is not for RTS fans and only average for halo fans, rent before you buy.

  • EE2lemmonhead

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 11:56 am PT

    why is this in the PC news...i dont want to hear about this garbage

  • LucASPrime

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 3:38 am PT

    If Halo Wars is such a success it means it will appear on PC as well to please millions of RTS fans still mourning after Ensemble Studios vanished?

  • lord_arya1

    Posted Mar 22, 2009 9:36 pm PT

    halo wars is amazing!!!
    gamespot doesnt get that it isnt meant for every RTS player.. its meant for halo fans to add to the halo story!!!
    to make understanding things easier!!!
    it is and always was a game meant for a specific target audience....

  • OhSnapitz

    Posted Mar 22, 2009 7:41 pm PT

    Critics score (59 reviews) = 8.2
    Gamespot Score = 6.5

    How exactly is that a "lukewarm" reception from critics..

  • slayersdeath200

    Posted Mar 22, 2009 2:52 pm PT

    I personally loved Halo wars it kept true to the story and it had good gameplay, i still prefer C&C but Halo wars is a top RTS and deserves better than a 6.5 shame on GameSpot

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 10:35 pm PT

    its and okay title but there just not enough meat here to serve it at dinner XD

  • SuperGogeta24

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 5:59 pm PT

    so i clicked this news link and expected to find the immaturity that i can see right now...
    halo wars is a great game for ensemble to have as their final creation, although it may not satisfy some tastes, it did mine.

  • THORINATOR

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 5:30 pm PT

    I'm well impressed with Halo wars, i know for a strategy game the build & command system has been watered down but it still provides an entertaining game that stays true to the Halo universe!

  • bojan_sokol

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 2:18 pm PT

    Imo this game is for RTS noobs, play on PC real chalenging RTS game

  • BladeTrinity114

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 1:07 pm PT

    StarlightHunter, your comment has just proven how pathetic you really are. Your tiny pathetic brain couldn't even process a meaningful comment other than showing your fanboy-ism. And as for Halo Wars, it has shamed such a great game, as I think that all that was in Microsoft's minds when making this game was cashing in on a project that they knew everyone would buy.

  • omegakie

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 12:44 pm PT

    Halo wars deserves this It's a brilliant game with lots of replay this and Gears of War 2 are my most played games at the moment.

  • StarlightHunter

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 12:23 pm PT

    yep but it proves that halo is popular. dont be jelious sony fanboys just becasue no one goes on about mgs4 or lamezone 2 and little big planet. lol @ little big planet.

  • modem22

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 11:48 am PT

    The only reason it sold so well was because it had HALO on its name nothing else matters. Its still and stripped-down console rts and there are 1000 better Rts games than this one.

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