Microsoft today released word that the Halo 3 franchise has topped off $300 million in sales since launch. MS have dubbed it the “fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.” This is hard to argue with as the boys at Bungie and MS really marketed it well and made sure everyone got a taste of the hype train. Kudos boys.

There is one part of the press release I don’t agree with, where MS states “Xbox 360 has the greatest lineup in the history of video games and is the only console where consumers can play all the year’s biggest blockbusters.” I think this is far too over zealous to state, the lineup is looking good, but the best in history, wow that is a tough call.

There have been some great lineups in the days of the NES, Xbox, PS1 and 2, which paved the way for what we have today in video games. MS has definitely the bankroll to show for their current success, which is also attributed to the fact that video gaming in the years of old was more of a underground cult, where gamers were a minority. Today video games have become a huge industry and I doubt we will diminish in size as all those kids that played the old consoles are now grown up and spending their hard earned money on games. I think their best in “history” is a bit over the top and minimalizes what the other older consoles have done to get games to this point.

It is impressive that about one third of all Xbox 360 owners have gotten a copy of Halo 3, I actually figured this statistic to be higher and will probably reach a lot more people during the holidays.

From the press releasse:

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 4, 2007 — Interactive entertainment will never be the same, with the launch of one title that has changed the way the world thinks about video games. “Halo® 3” has captured the attention of consumers worldwide and has made history as one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time.
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Well everyone foretold of the coming of Halo 3 and we all saw the fierce campaigns and marketing strategies, looks like they paid off big. Halo 3 is now the big daddy of entertainment, kudos to MS and Bungie, they have de-throwned Spider Man and Harry Potter.

Halo 3 pulled in a record $170 million in 24 hours, now that is one impressive statistic and shows the reach that video games and gamers have now a days. Yesterday when I was on Halo3 there was an impressive 600,000 people playing at the same time and this does not count those people playing offline, just think that all those people made up only $36 million of that reported $170, so there are a lot of peripherals, consoles, controllers, etc. flying off the shelves.

From the press release:

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
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Microsoft slapped together a Halo fan’s wet dream. More Halo and Microsoft material than you can sink your teeth into. All of this is being bundled together as an auction for charity (Boys & Girls Clubs to be specific). Here’s what you can bid on:

• The ONLY Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 console that has been personally signed by Bill Gates.
• The ONLY Limited Edition Halo 3 Zune 30 GB media player personally signed by J Allard.
• The entire Halo Trilogy: Two copies of Halo 3 (Legendary Edition and Standard Edition), plus the Halo Triple Pack for Xbox® (Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack)
• Xbox 360 HD DVD player.
• Rare special aluminum storage case with over $400 worth of accessories (two Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controllers with an exclusive Todd McFarlane Collectable Figurine, Messenger Kit, HDMI AV cable, extra 120 GB hard drive, and a Halo 3 T-shirt).

At press time, the auction is going for $6,600. That’s a lot of cash to satisfy your Master Chief desires. It’s for a good cause, but damn. The auction ends October 4th, so if you have a hankering to get more Halo than you’ve ever had, get bidding.

I have been having some disc read errors on my new replacement 360 and I have examined the discs and they are perfectly fine, so I decided to give good old Xbox customer service a whirl. I call up and get the robotic voice called “Max” steers you through their crappy menus. The automated voice first tells you if you are calling about a refund request please hang up because they will send it when they get around to it and you don’t have to do anything. I try to navigate through the menus to get some technical help and instead get a list of things to look out for and one of the most frequent problems is 3 flashing red lights on your screen. I then get to another set of menus that states they are the top ten ways to troubleshoot your system, let me list a couple out for you to judge:

• Cycle the power on the console, turn it off, wait 30 seconds and then turn it back on (reboot)
• Make sure the system isn’t overheating, “let it breath”
• Check all cables are connected properly, unplug and re-plug connections
• Turn off console, remove accessories, plug in and re-connect system, re-start (reboot)

I like how the majority of the suggestions are just to restart your machine, it kind of sounds like windows troubleshooting, when in doubt reboot. I then spoke to a real person and they gave me more brilliant advice. She told me to clear the cache (didn’t tell me how), take off all the accessories and to create a new gamertag!? WTF does that have to do with a disc read error? She then proceeded to tell me that she couldn’t help me without the serial number of the unit and told me to go to www.xbox.com and look at the troubleshooting section there. All I can say is that the interaction with customer service hurt my brain and did not help in the least bit.

So, I also watched they keynote last night. Looking back on it now, I feel it was a huge waste of an hour or so. I was expecting microsoft to really bring out something interesting. Xbox 360 related or not, I was just hoping for something. I think the IPTV thing was the most interesting part of the keynote, but even thinking back on that, I don’t see how this will provide anything that you’d really want to see over watching cable or satellite as it is now. On top of it, I’m pretty sure that because it’s microsoft we’re talking about, none of the content is going to be free.

We saw no hdmi or hard drive announcements. The only halfway interesting thing game related was the cross platform gaming, with uno. Although at first, this was kinda a cool demo, after thinking about it, it’s not really that amazing. Microsoft is most likely going to try to force pc gamers to start paying for live, across as many games as possible. Uno and Halo2 are supposed to be the first cross live titles, but I heard that Halo2 is actually not going to be cross platform multiplayer, only cross platform in the sense you can message each other via the 360 or pc. This is kinda stupid, but the alternative would surely mean that console users would be slaughtered.

It’s not all doom and gloom for microsoft, but Sony even announced higher sales during their launch than Microsoft had during theirs a year ago. Personally, I think this is mainly because of people buying the systems only to resell them, but it’s definately something that needs to perk microsofts ears up.

It made me think of a funny way to look at what Microsoft says about the number of consoles shipped. With the constant back and forth motion of refurbs being sent in and then arriving doa to users nationwide (possibly worldwide) it makes me wonder how many consoles are actually out there.

The only other part of the keynote I felt was worth commenting on was the whole “house of the future” crap. Bill Gates demoed a kitchen where rfid works in tandem with a projection or otehr type display to show you recipes and other stuff thats kitchen related. We saw this all a few years ago, and why it’s in the keynote I have no idea. Then we saw this bedroom with lcd panels on the wall showing weird random pictures and a webcam view in a picture frame. I just can’t shake the feeling that MS really has nothing new or interesting to show this CES, it’s kinda like they are unprepared or something.

I hope the next few days show us something better here.

So Bill Gates keynote just ended at CES. All I can say is… what a fucking waste of time. No announcement of HDMI enabled 360 or larger hard drive. They announced more about Live Anywhere, which we all already knew about. They just said UNO and Halo 2 will be playable as cross platform. Cool and all, but where’s the good shit? No fucking where. That’s where it is.

With the recent news from Sony today that they’ve sold 1 million PS3 units (Xbox 360 sold 600k in that same time frame), Microsoft better capitalize NOW on whatever they can, meaning HDMI and a larger hard drive. The longer they wait, the more they’re going to piss off their user base.

Just to remind anyone interested that Bill Gates’ CES Keynote Address is tonight at 6:30PM PST. It’s being streamed live here.

Expect announcements of the IPTV service, larger hard drive, and HDMI version of the Xbox 360. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bill talks about Halo 3 either (yeah, I went out on a limb on that one).