Halo series generates $3bn
The much anticipated Halo 4 will launch next week on November 6.
Microsoft revealed that the popular first person shooter franchise (which had brief foray into real-time-strategy) has resulted in 5 billion hours of gameplay on Xbox Live.
The fastest earner was 2010s Halo: Reach which made $200m on launch day in the US and Europe. The was followed by Halo 3 which earned $170m on day one in the US alone and Halo 2 which generated $125m in its first 24 hours.
Upcoming Halo 4 is the most costly title in the series to date and Microsoft hopes that it can continue the series money-making trend. It has been developed by 343 Industries which has taken over from Bungie and is aiming for a November 6 release.
An iOS promotional title for Halo 4 sponsored by Mountain Dew was released earlier this week. It's full improbable title is Halo 4: King of the Hill Fuled by Mountain Dew, iffy spelling and all.
Halo first appeared on the gaming radar in 2001 with Halo: Combat Evolved. It was originally announced as a Windows and Mac title at the 1999 Macwrold Conference but became an Xbox exclusive when Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000.
The style of the game changed several times during development, going through a third-person shooter phase and even a real-time strategy focus at an early stage. Combat Evolved was the only title in the series to receive a PC port.
The popularity of the series meant that a film adaptation was on the cards for a while, with Peter Jackson attached as producer and Neil Blomkamp as director. When funding was pulled, the pair went on to create District 9 instead.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyNo it wasn't Halo 2 was ported to pc when vista launched
Iffy spelling and all...
This is correct actually, I can see the pc version box from where I'm sitting.
2 was ok
3 was awful
will 4 be any good i wonder?
I preferred 3 to 2, really enjoyed ODST once I gave it a fair chance (I was predisposed to not liking it due to the lack of Spartans) and also thought Reach was well worth a play.
Truthfully though after all that I'm just not sure I want to play another one. Maybe when it hits rock bottom prices but certainly not a day one purchase anymore.
A massively overrated FPS lacking everything that had been done in PC fps years before?
3 had like 8hrs of play time to it basically then you could do legendary after that i guess but 1 and 2 seemed to take ages in comparison to the 3rd one.
After playing Unreal, Far cry and Half Life etc, The first Halo felt quite dull at parts. Loads of the levels were just the same parts repeated. The only new things that the game actually brought to the table for me was flying vehicles and regenerating shield. The flood was fun though, especially with the shotgun.
I think the point was that it raised the bar for FPS on consoles tbh. Of course as a PC gamer it didn't offer a great deal of 'new'.
It brought more than that, like dedicated grenade and melee buttons and the two weapon restriction. You have to remember though, this was a console FPS. Of course us PC lot were not blown away by anything (although I was impressed with how well the whole game was put together on top of these new FPS conventions), but even then aspects of Halo have come to PC as well, for better or worse.
It was a revolutionary FPS, for the consoles.