In its first 24 hours on store shelves, Microsoft's epic video game, Halo 3, earned a record-breaking $170 million in sales. Halo 3's sales broke records set not just by other video games but by theatrical releases like Spider-Man 3 and the novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Of course, the sales were no accident. Microsoft tied a huge marketing campaign to the game, and if the sales had come in less than $100 million, it would have been very tough for the company to swallow. Why is Halo 3 so important to Microsoft? That requires some explaining.
It started in November 2001, when Microsoft entered the crowded video game marketplace with its Xbox video game console. With stiff competition from Sony's (SNE ) Playstation 2 and Nintendo's Gamecube, Microsoft's Xbox was able to withstand the opposition thanks to a video game called Halo: Combat Evolved. Developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox, Halo: Combat Evolved was the story of a futuristic war between humans and a team of aliens called the Covenant that is determined to rid the galaxy of the human race.
With its intriguing story and amazing state-of-the-art graphics and game-play controls, Halo: Combat Evolved not only sold more than a million copies in its first six months, it also contributed to sales of a large percentage of Xbox consoles as nearly half of the consoles were packaged with the video game. In essence, the game became a sales driver for the Xbox consoles.
For the 2004 sequel, Halo 2, Bungie Studios upped the ante, adding more peripherals including online play through it's Xbox Live service, which cost $49.99 a year. Halo 2 sold 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours, earning as much as $125 million - including millions in sales of Xbox Live subscriptions.
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