Halo 3 Blows Up the Competition

Perfectly timed for the Digital Life conference in New York, Microsoft announced that Halo 3, its Xbox 360 war simulation, had obliterated all known records for single day video game sales.

The Redmond, Washington, software company said Halo 3, which features heavily armed—and armored—online players hunting and "killing" each other, had racked up $170 million in sales. In one day.

Yes, that's $170 million in sales, in one day. If Microsoft is right, that means that almost 3 million people purchased Halo 3 on or before Wednesday's debut.

It makes you wonder what Microsoft is putting in those energy drinks that it was hawking at the hyperactive midnight launch at Rockefeller Center on Monday night. It's the type of number you would expect from a high-grade Steven Spielberg blockbuster—over the course of a couple of weeks.

The jaw-dropping single-day figure is a welcome boon to Microsoft, whose Xbox 360 is locked in a pitched battle with Sony
's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.

"Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios.

by Sam Gustin