The Thrifty Gamer

The entertainment division of Microsoft is riding high as their much anticipated and publicized video game Halo 3 set a record for first day sales with a take of 170 million dollars. The previous record was set by Halo 2 in 2004 at 125 million dollars in the first 24 hours. Microsoft was expecting Halo 3 to make 150 million dollars on September 25, 2007 the day it was released. But this ambitious figure was met and surpassed much to the delight of the people at Microsoft and Bungie Studios, their company owned animation studio.

When the first Halo video game Combat Evolved was released on November 9, 2001 it immediately captured the attention of the people who play video games. It then went on to much greater success. Several more video games like Halo 2 and a list of merchandising products like action figures and comic books were created. They were immediately embraced by a legion of loyal fans known as the Halo Nation. A cultural Icon and a very large following were created with this futuristic video game, much like the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. Xbox 360 was the king of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was number one for the longest time.

But things have changed for Microsoft since Playstation 3, PSP and Nintendo Wii came out on the market. They offer a variety of great games like Call of Duty, Madden NFL 07, Twilight Princess and Tony Hawks Project 8 to name only a few. The latest video game consoles by Sony and Nintendo also offer great technological advances, and this has caught the attention of the video game customers who love innovation with their video games and electronics. Especially the kind of innovations that make it seem like you are actually in the game.

When Nintendo Wii was released about a year ago it offered an exiting new technology with the Wii remote. It is called the motion sensitive feature and it allows one to be right there in the game interacting with 3D characters and special effects. It revolutionized the way people play video games.

The Wii console also sells for less than the Xbox 360 console at about 250 dollars compared to 500. This fact has made Nintendo Wii video game consoles more attractive than the Xbox 360 to the middle class parents whose Christmas funds for presents this year may be a little low.

Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 by Sony have both been on top of the video game market for the past year. Suddenly Xbox 360 was no longer number 1 in sales of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was no longer the best in the world of video games. Prior to September 25, 2007 things were not so merry at the entertainment division of Microsoft.

A few years back Microsoft and Bungie Studios hired a group of talented computer programmers and 3D animation artists that was large enough to fill a high school auditorium. These people were the cream of the crop in the business of making video games. They worked very hard for over 3 years on the production of Halo 3 at an overall cost of about 50 million dollars. The result is a first person shooter video game with sound and graphics that are a feast to the eyes and ears and a storyline that is quite engaging with several twists and turns.

The Halo Nation has shown up in full force at the retail stores to buy Halo 3. There is also a very large following for the online video game version of the Halo franchise. Microsoft has reported that over 1 million online players battled it out in the first 24 hours on Xbox Live playing Halo 3. This version of the game pits online members against each in a fight to the death.

Now they are dancing in their corporate offices back at Microsoft and Bungie studios. Their video game Halo 3 made 170 million dollars in the first day on the market and they are projecting that it will make over 560 million dollars overall. If this turns out to be true for Halo 3, which is well on its way to making it so, it will give Microsoft a 90 percent profit for this project. In an industry where most video games lose money this is quite an astounding statistic.

The recent release of Halo 3 has put Xbox 360 games and Xbox 360 video game consoles back in the spotlight and primed to be back on top of the video game industry. It is a testament to the creativity and marketing skills of Microsoft and its employees who have been known to do a few things right in their remarkable history.

Michael P. Connelly is an Author, Artist and award-winning Filmmaker who writes on a variety of topics that effect people in their every day lives.

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